Evaluation of the Minimum Number of Local Driving Cycles Required to Represent the Traffic of Distinct Cities: A Case Study of Two Brazilian Metropolises

Abstract

This study aimed to determine whether a single local driving cycle (LDC) can effectively represent different cities in the same country, in both urban and highway routes, and for cars and motorcycles. To achieve this, experienced drivers drove different monitored vehicles (five cars and three motorcycles) on seven selected routes in two Brazilian states (Pernambuco and São Paulo State), collecting 170 h of speed data in urban and highway routes during peak and off-peak hours. Using the micro-trip and Markov chain methods, LDCs were then developed based on the collected real-world data. The kinematic and energy parameters of different route groupings were compared, revealing that two LDCs, one for cars and one for motorcycles, could be used to represent all urban routes. However, each highway route required a unique LDC. When compared with standard driving cycles adopted in Brazil, the created LDCs presented a coefficient of variation of 13%–46% in kinematic characteristic parameters, highlighting the need for developing LDCs to better represent Brazilian traffic.