INCORPORATING VEHICLE EMISSION MODELS INTO THE HIGHWAY DESIGN PROCESS
Focus Area
Environmental Considerations in Planning
Subcommittee
All
Status
Archived
Cost
$100k-$249k
Timeframe
1-2 years
Research Idea Scope
The research regarding the reduction of the adverse
environmental impact through highway design is still in its infancy.
Furthermore, highway design manuals/guidebooks do not provide any information
on environmentally-friendly designs. The primary objective of this research is
to provide the tools and guidelines for a quantitative environmental evaluation
in highway design. This research will provide the results regarding the
quantitative environmental impacts, by means of fuel consumption and emissions,
of various highway geometric design conditions such as the vertical grades,
horizontal and vertical crest curves, that can be included in the highway
design process.
Urgency and Payoff
The intent of guidebooks or manuals used as part of the
highway development process is to permit sufficient flexibility for designers
and engineers by providing a range or minimum values for critical dimensions
and permitting engineering judgment. They do not provide specific information
about how the selected design features impact important external factors, such
as those related to crash risk and environmental emissions. AASHTO has recently
published the Highway Safety Manual providing tools and methods that allow
practitioners to make planning, design, and operations decisions based on
safety. Unfortunately, no such tools exist that explicitly consider
environmental issues for making highway design decisions. this research
provides the guidelines and tools for environmental evaluations related to
selected design features as a part of the highway development process.
Submitted
10/08/2013