Carbon Emissions and Expressway Traffic Flow Patterns in China

Yaping Dong, Jinliang Xu, Xingliang Liu, Chao Gao, Han Ru and Zhihao Duan
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Yaping Dong: School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Jinliang Xu: School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Xingliang Liu: School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Chao Gao: School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Han Ru: School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Zhihao Duan: School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: Traffic flow patterns severely impact vehicle carbon emissions. A field test was conducted in this study to obtain fuel consumption and traffic volume data under various traffic flow patterns and to explore the relationship between traffic flow patterns and vehicle carbon emissions. Carbon emission data were obtained via the indirect carbon emission accounting method proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Carbon emission prediction models for diesel trucks and gasoline passenger cars were established respectively with volume to capacity ratio as an explanatory variable. The results show that carbon emissions are highest under the congested flow conditions, followed by unstable flow, free flow, and steady flow. The relationship between the volume to capacity ratio and carbon emissions is a cubic curve function. The carbon emissions of trucks and passenger cars with a volume to capacity ratio of 0.4 to 0.5 are relatively small. The proposed carbon emissions models effectively quantify the carbon emissions of vehicles under different traffic flow patterns. The results of this study may provide data to support and a workable reference for expressway operation management and future low-carbon expressway expansion construction projects.

Keywords: carbon emissions; traffic flow patterns; volume to capacity ratio; prediction model; expressway (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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