Contract number: 69A3551747109

Funding amount: $99,496
Performance period: January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020

 

Project description

This project explores how connected vehicle technology can be used to reduce the impacts of air pollutant emissions from freight vehicles. Specifically, the objective of this project is to develop new vehicle routing algorithms for determining travel routes for heavy-duty diesel trucks that would reduce the exposure of local residents to air pollutant emissions from these trucks. The core of the methodology is to first estimate the total amount of human exposure to pollutant emissions generated by a truck when that truck travels on a particular road segment. Once this is performed for all road segments, the estimated exposure value can be used in a least cost path algorithm to find a travel route that would minimize the total exposure value for the trip. To evaluate the potential benefits of this air pollution mitigation strategy, simulation-based experiments were carried out using the Reseda-Northridge area of Southern California as a case study. Overall, it was found that as compared to the fastest route, the low exposure route could result in more than 30% reduction in total air pollutant exposure for about 40% of the 400 simulated trips while keeping the increase in trip travel time to no more than 10%.