On the Feasibility of Social Network-based Pollution Sensing in ITSs

Intense vehicular traffic is recognized as a global societal problem, with a multifaceted influence on the quality of life of a person. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) can play an important role in combating such problem, decreasing pollution levels and, consequently, their negative effects. One of the goals of ITSs, in fact, is that of controlling traffic flows, measuring traffic states, providing vehicles with routes that globally pursue low pollution conditions. How such systems measure and enforce given traffic states has been at the center of multiple research efforts in the past few years. Although many different solutions have been proposed, very limited effort has been devoted to exploring the potential of social network analysis in such context. Social networks, in general, provide direct feedback from people and, as such, potentially very valuable information. A post that tells, for example, how a person feels about pollution at a given time in a given location, could be put to good use by an environment aware ITS aiming at minimizing contaminant emissions in residential areas. This work verifies the feasibility of using pollution related social network feeds into ITS operations. In particular, it concentrates on understanding how reliable such information is, producing an analysis that confronts over 1,500,000 posts and pollution data obtained from on-the- field sensors over a one-year span.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figures, Transaction Forma

Urban Goods Movement and Local Climate Action Plans: Assessing Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Urban Freight Transportation

This report examines how freight transport/goods movement has been addressed in U.S. city climate action planning. Transportation generally is a major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and freight transport represents a growing component of transportation’s share. Almost all climate action plans (CAPs) address transportation generally, but we wished to focus on efforts to reduce GHG emissions from freight transport specifically. We analyzed 27 advanced local CAPs to determine the degree to which freight transport was targeted in goals and strategies to reduce GHG emissions. We found only six CAPs that included direct measures or programs to reduce freight emissions. Many of the CAPs mentioned general transportation objectives such as lowering vehicle miles traveled or reducing emissions from city-owned vehicle fleets, but most did not include strategies or actions that explicitly targeted freight transport. We identified the specific strategies and actions that cities are taking to address GHG emissions from freight transport, such as working with the freight community to promote anti-idling and encourage transitions to electric and alternative fuel delivery vehicles. We also analyzed freight transport plans relevant for the same cities, and found that most do not explicitly mention reducing GHG emissions. Most of the freight plans are focused on improving reliability and efficiency of freight movement, which would likely have the ancillary benefit of reducing GHG emissions, but that goal was not explicitly targeted in most of these plans. Based on our findings, we recommend that cities specifically target freight transport goals and strategies in their CAPs and better coordinate with planners developing freight transport plans to identify GHG emission reduction approaches

Future “greener” urban transport: accessible, mobile and resilient cities?

Geographers, amongst others, have been considering urban futures for some time now. They all try to conceptually understand what a “sustainable city” in Europe / the UK / globally might look like. oncepts such as liveable, “green”, sustainable and resilient are being discussed, with carbon emissions and transitions, including from transport. Mobility (or what some authors call motility) is one strand, with lifecycle assessment of vehicles and fuels being applied . This article reviews visions and policies for more resilient urban transport

Utilizing a transport management system to reduce the carbon footprint of transportation in a global marine and energy technology organization

The importance of sustainable development is constantly growing, and sustainability has be- come a desired characteristic among companies. Today, this is highlighted by various sustaina- bility goals that companies commit to meet the requirements of climate laws and consumers' more ecological choices along with the volume of research conducted on the matter. Companies must consider the carbon footprint of their operations to achieve their aim of lowering emis- sions. Because the transportation industry is one of the largest producers of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, focusing on it enables huge emission reductions across supply chains. This master's thesis is conducted as a case study for a company. The objective of the thesis is to find out the most effective ways to utilize a transport management system used by the case company to reduce the carbon footprint caused by the transportation of the incoming material flow. The thesis aims to investigate what factors contribute to the carbon footprint of transpor- tation in the case company, how emissions can be measured using a transport management system, and how its utilization affects time, cost, and reliability when choosing more environ- mentally friendly modes of transportation. To achieve these objectives, internal interviews were performed at the case company, and the features of the transport management system were familiarized. The research is a qualitative case study. The theoretical part of the research focuses on the var- ious modes of freight transportation and the related emissions, as well as the functions and role of transport management systems in measuring and controlling emissions from transportation. The objective of the empirical part of the research is to describe the current transportation pro- cesses of the case company and the generation of the carbon footprint of transportation and to examine how the transport management system is currently utilized in the case company. The research methods include a literature review, interviews, and presentations related to the transport management system. The research provided insight into the elements of the carbon footprint of transportation in the case company and the potential for more effective utilization of the transport management sys- tem in measuring and reducing emissions. The main sources of emissions in the case company were discovered to be air freight and road freight transportation. The transport management system has been used to support the transportation process in the background, and the system offers several features that have not yet been fully used, that allow emissions to be measured and decreased when effectively utilized. Data collection and integration with the transport man- agement system make it possible to obtain comparable reports that can be used to guide future strategic choices regarding transportation and transportation providers.Kestävän kehityksen merkitys on jatkuvassa kasvussa ja kestävyydestä on tullut tavoiteltava omi- naisuus yritysten keskuudessa. Tämä korostuu nykypäivänä erilaisilla kestävillä tavoitteilla, joi- hin yritykset sitoutuvat vastatakseen ilmastolakien vaatimuksiin ja kuluttajien ekologisempiin valintoihin, ja aiheesta on tehty myös useita tutkimuksia. Saavuttaakseen päämääränsä päästö- jen vähentämiseksi, yritysten on kiinnitettävä huomiota toimintansa hiilijalanjälkeen. Kuljetus- sektori on yksi suurimmista hiilidioksidipäästöjen aiheuttajista maailmassa ja siksi siihen keskit- tymällä on mahdollista saavuttaa merkittäviäkin päästövähennyksiä toimitusketjuissa. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma on toteutettu tapaustutkimuksena yritykselle. Tutkielman tavoit- teena on selvittää tehokkaimmat tavat hyödyntää tapausyrityksen käyttämää kuljetustenhallin- tajärjestelmää niin, että on mahdollista pienentää saapuvan materiaalin kuljetuksista syntyvää hiilijalanjälkeä. Lisäksi tavoitteena on tutkia, mistä kuljetusten hiilijalanjälki tapausyrityksessä muodostuu, miten päästöjä on mahdollista mitata kuljetustenhallintajärjestelmän avulla ja mil- laisia vaikutuksia sen hyödyntämisellä on aikaan, kustannuksiin ja luotettavuuteen, kun valitaan ympäristöystävällisempiä kuljetusmuotoja. Näiden tavoitteiden saavuttamiseksi on suoritettu tapausyrityksen sisäisiä haastatteluja sekä perehdytty käytössä olevan kuljetustenhallintajärjes- telmän tarjoamiin ominaisuuksiin. Tutkimus on kvalitatiivinen tapaustutkimus. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen osuus käsittelee rahtikul- jetusten eri muotoja ja niihin liittyviä päästöjä sekä kuljetustenhallintajärjestelmien toimintaa ja roolia kuljetuksista syntyvien päästöjen mittaamisessa ja hallitsemisessa. Tutkielman empiiri- sessä osuudessa on tarkoitus kuvata tapausyrityksen nykyisiä kuljetusprosesseja ja kuljetusten hiilijalanjäljen muodostumista sekä tarkastella, miten kuljetustenhallintajärjestelmää tutkimus- hetkellä hyödynnetään tapausyrityksessä. Tutkielman tiedonkeruumenetelmiä ovat kirjallisuus- katsaus, haastattelut ja kuljetustenhallintajärjestelmään liittyvät esitelmät ja esitysmateriaalit. Tuloksena saatiin näkemys siitä, mistä kuljetusten hiilijalanjälki tapausyrityksessä muodostuu ja tunnistettiin mahdollisuuksia kuljetustenhallintajärjestelmän tehokkaammalle hyödyntämiselle päästöjen mittaamisessa ja vähentämisessä. Tapausyrityksen suurimmiksi päästöjen aiheutta- jiksi kuljetusmuodoista todettiin lentorahti ja maantiekuljetukset. Kuljetustenhallintajärjestel- mää on hyödynnetty tapausyrityksessä kuljetusprosessin taustalla ja järjestelmässä on useita ominaisuuksia, joita ei vielä ole hyödynnetty ja jotka mahdollistavat päästöjen mittaamisen ja vähentämisen, kun niitä hyödynnetään tehokkaasti. Dataa keräämällä ja yhdistämällä sen kulje- tustenhallintajärjestelmään on mahdollista saada vertailukelpoisia raportteja, joiden perusteella tapausyritys voi jatkossa tehdä strategisia päätöksiä kuljetuksiin ja kuljetusyrityksiin liittyen

micro and macro modelling approaches for the evaluation of the carbon impacts of transportation

Abstract To quantify CO2 emissions from road transport, literature suggests the adoption of several alternative methods, based on transport modelling and carbon modules. Some of these methods are labelled as a micro approach and others as a macro approach. Their distinction is made according to the temporal and spatial horizons, the aim of the study and the degree of accuracy required. This paper presents these methods and discusses their appropriateness, whereby special focus is laid on the potential of the micro approach on ICT, based on a literature review of several European projects. We conclude that the adoption of the micro approach, is quite promising – mostly at the urban level, despite the computational efforts required and the technical difficulties to model driver behaviors. Thus, further research is required to overcome the numerous sources of scientific uncertainties

Real-Time Vehicle Emission Estimation Using Traffic Data

The current state of climate change should be addressed by all sectors that contribute to it. One of the major contributors is the transportation sector, which generates a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions in North America. Most of these transportation related emissions are from road vehicles; as result, how to manage and control traffic or vehicular emissions is therefore becoming a major concern for the governments, the public and the transportation authorities. One of the key requirements to emission management and control is the ability to quantify the magnitude of emissions by traffic of an existing or future network under specific road plans, designs and traffic management schemes. Unfortunately, vehicular traffic emissions are difficult to quantify or predict, which has led a significant number of efforts over the past decades to address this challenge. Three general methods have been proposed in literature. The first method is for determining the traffic emissions of an existing road network with the idea of measuring the tail-pipe emissions of individual vehicles directly. This approach, while most accurate, is costly and difficult to scale as it would require all vehicles being equipped with tail-pipe emission sensors. The second approach is applying ambient pollutant sensors to measure the emissions generated by the traffic near the sensors. This method is only approximate as the vehicle-generated emissions can easily be confounded by other nearby emitters and weather and environmental conditions. Note that both of these methods are measurement-based and can only be used to evaluate the existing conditions (e.g., after a traffic project is implemented), which means that it cannot be used for evaluating alternative transportation projects at the planning stage. The last method is model-based with the idea of developing models that can be used to estimate traffic emissions. The emission models in this method link the amount of emissions being generated by a group of vehicles to their operations details as well as other influencing factors such as weather, fuel and road geometry. This last method is the most scalable, both spatially and temporally, and also most flexible as it can meet the needs of both monitoring (using field data) and prediction. Typically, traffic emissions are modelled on a macroscopic scale based on the distance travelled by vehicles and their average speeds. However, for traffic management applications, a model of higher granularity would be preferred so that impacts of different traffic control schemes can be captured. Furthermore, recent advances in vehicle detection technology has significantly increased the spatiotemporal resolutions of traffic data. For example, video-based vehicle detection can provide more details about vehicle movements and vehicle types than previous methods like inductive loop detection. Using such detection data, the vehicle movements, referred to as trajectories, can be determined on a second-by-second basis. These vehicle trajectories can then be used to estimate the emissions produced by the vehicles. In this research, we have proposed a new approach that can be used to estimate traffic generated emissions in real time using high resolution traffic data. The essential component of the proposed emission estimation method is the process to reconstruct vehicle trajectories based on available data and some assumptions on the expected vehicle motions including cruising, acceleration and deceleration, and car-following. The reconstructed trajectories containing instantaneous speed and acceleration data are then used to estimate emissions using the MOVES emission simulator. Furthermore, a simplified rate-based module was developed to replace the MOVES software for direct emission calculation, leading to significant improvement in the computational efficiency of the proposed method. The proposed method was tested in a simulated environment using the well-known traffic simulator - Vissim. In the Vissim model, the traffic activities, signal timing, and vehicle detection were simulated and both the original vehicle trajectories and detection data recorded. To evaluate the proposed method, two sets of emission estimates are compared: the “ground truth” set of estimates comes from the originally simulated vehicle trajectories, and the set from trajectories reconstructed using the detection data. Results show that the performance of the proposed method depends on many factors, such as traffic volumes, the placement of detectors, and which greenhouse gas is being estimated. Sensitivity analyses were performed to see whether the proposed method is sufficiently sensitive to the impacts of traffic control schemes. The results from the sensitivity analyses indicate that the proposed method can capture impacts of signal timing changes and signal coordination but is insufficiently sensitive to speed limit changes. Further research is recommended to validate the proposed method using field studies. Another recommendation, which falls outside of this area of research, would be to investigate the feasibility of equipping vehicles with devices that can record their instantaneous fuel consumption and location data. With this information, traffic controllers would be better informed for emission estimation than they would be with only detection data

Towards a real-time microscopic emissions model

This article presents a new approach to microscopic road traffic exhaust emission modelling. The model described uses data from the SCOOT demand-responsive traffic control system implemented in over 170 cities across the world. Estimates of vehicle speed and classification are made using data from inductive detector loops located on every SCOOT link. This data feeds into a microscopic traffic model to enable enhanced modelling of the driving modes of vehicles (acceleration, deceleration, idling and cruising). Estimates of carbon monoxide emissions are made by applying emission factors from an extensive literature review. A critical appraisal of the development and validation of the model is given before the model is applied to a study of the impact of high emitting vehicles. The article concludes with a discussion of the requirements for the future development and benefits of the application of such a model