Reducing local traffic emissions at urban intersection using ITS countermeasures

Abstract

In many countries traffic emissions have significantly increased during the last two decades because of the increased number of vehicles. As such, traffic emissions have become the main source of air pollution in urban areas, where breaches of the EU limit values frequently occur. To reduce these emissions, local traffic measures can be implemented complementary to regional and national measures. In this study, the impact of various traffic measures at a single intersection is investigated using a traffic model and an emission model. The measures included are traffic demand control, banning heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) and speed restriction. It was found that reducing traffic demand by 20% led to about 23% reduction in terms of CO2, NO x and PM10 emissions. Banning HDVs led to a significant reduction of NO x and PM10 emissions. Although speed restriction reduced both CO2 and NO x emissions by 16.1 and 13.4%, PM10 emissions increased by 19%, mainly from HDVs.