Evaluating the Environmental Impact of Bus Signal Priority at Intersections under Hybrid Energy Consumption Conditions

Abstract

The acceleration of the motorization process creates severe environmental problems by affecting the energy consumption of urban traffic. As a major source of traffic pollution, vehicle exhaust deserves more attention when making traffic policy. Actually, the acceleration, deceleration, and idling conditions of vehicles cause more pollution than usual, which mainly happens at intersections of the road network. Besides, in the context of giving priority on public transport development, bus signal priority (BSP) at intersections becomes a quite prevalent measure to reduce average capita delay for travelers, while long-term practice also indicates that the unreasonable setting of bus lane further worsens the running conditions for other vehicles by occupying excessive traffic capacity, which highlights the indirect environmental effects of BSP. This paper provides a simulation-based method for evaluating the adaptability of BSP to find an optimum balance between efficient and environmental care. Specifically, the traffic volume, bus mixed rate of the intersection and energy types of vehicles consist of hybrid energy consumption conditions collectively. A VSP (vehicle specific power)-based exhaust emission models for both buses and other vehicles are employed to estimate the environmental cost of the entire intersection. Moreover, the overall efficiency of gasoline and electric vehicles is further evaluated to offer more implications for traffic control practice.

The Impact Of The Cost Of Paid Parking For Private Cars And Public Transport Fare On The Structure Of Urban Mobility

“…Another direction of improving the quality of public transport is to create a priority at intersections for it [5]. In some cases, the reduction in the delay time of public transport passengers can go up to 21% [6].…”

Choosing the Optimal Method to Provide Public Transportation Priority

“…In [6], when setting up an algorithm for controlling bus priority at an intersection, the authors consider not only the delay time but also the quantity of harmful substances emitted by categories of vehicles. Controlling priority at intersections reduces the delay time of public transport, ensures the movement of buses on schedule, and improves the awareness of passengers at stops about the time of arrival of the bus [7].…”

Optimal Location of Fast Charging Stations for Mixed Traffic of Electric Vehicles and Gasoline Vehicles Subject to Elastic Demands

“…According to previous studies, a variety of factors affect the location of charging stations, including, among others, preference and travel choice behavior of users [6,7], travel demand of users [8], information of the en-route energy consumption of EVs [9][10][11][12], information of the remained Energies 2020, 13,1964 2 of 16 range of EVs [13,14], charging speed and demand of battery [7,15], road environment [5,16], land supply [17], elastic charging demands [18]. However, it is not practical to build a complicated location model and to solve the location problem by incorporating so many macro and micro factors into the planning and decision making of EV charging stations.…”