Reducing local traffic emissions at urban intersection using ITS countermeasures

In many countries traffic emissions have significantly increased during the last two decades because of the increased number of vehicles. As such, traffic emissions have become the main source of air pollution in urban areas, where breaches of the EU limit values frequently occur. To reduce these emissions, local traffic measures can be implemented complementary to regional and national measures. In this study, the impact of various traffic measures at a single intersection is investigated using a traffic model and an emission model. The measures included are traffic demand control, banning heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) and speed restriction. It was found that reducing traffic demand by 20% led to about 23% reduction in terms of CO₂, NO_x and PM₁₀ emissions. Banning HDVs led to a significant reduction of NO_x and PM₁₀ emissions. Although speed restriction reduced both CO₂ and NO_x emissions by 16.1 and 13.4%, PM₁₀ emissions increased by 19%, mainly from HDVs.