Field Evaluation of Energy and Environmental Impacts of Driver Route Choice Decisions

The study estimates the energy and air quality impacts of route choice decisions using various fuel consumption and emission models with second-by-second floating-car GPS data. The study investigates two routes: a faster and longer highway route and a slower and shorter arterial route. The study demonstrates that the faster highway route choice is not always the best route from an environmental and energy consumption standpoint. Specifically, the study demonstrates that significant improvements (savings of up to 63, 71, 45, and 20 percent in HC, CO, NO_x, and CO₂ emissions, respectively) to air quality can be achieved when motorists utilize a slower arterial route although they incur an additional 17 percent in travel time. Moreover, the study demonstrates that energy savings in the range of 23 percent can be achieved by traveling on the slower arterial route. The study also demonstrates that a small portion of the entire trip that involves high engine-load conditions has significant impacts on the total emissions, demonstrating that by minimizing high-emitting driving behavior air quality can be significantly improved.