Fuel economy of urban road networks based on traffic flow

Abstract

The fuel economy of road segments depends mainly on traffic flow saturation, and the economical saturation is about 0·4. The fuel economy of intersections is closely related to split and saturation, and the economical saturation is about 0·2–0·3. Fuel economy models were established with road segments and intersections as elementary units; fuel consumption and traffic flow data collected in the field were used to perform model calibration. A break with the traditional idea that route fuel economy modelling was set by general series systems was made by considering the route as a whole unit instead of using a paralleling system; another break was made to calculate the weighted average fuel economy of origin–destination pairs. On the basis of origin–destination fuel economy, the road network fuel economy model was set up. Ultimately, a partial road network was selected for analysis of the network fuel economy and to verify the correctness and reasonableness of the models.