Modeling ITS data sources for generating realistic traffic operating parameters for project-level conformity analysis

The challenge in characterizing on-road traffic source emissions affected by traffic management or control measures is often the lack of the realistic traffic flow data at the microscopic level for the project-level transportation conformity analysis. With the advancement of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies, more and more ITS devices are deployed for monitoring traffic. Those ITS devices provide promising data sources for inputs to the emission models for the project level analysis. Taking advantage of those data sources, this paper presents an integrated framework to facilitate the on-road transportation emission estimation under various traffic operations which are influenced by the traffic management and control measures. The implementation of the framework is demonstrated by applying the three components of the framework, i.e., traffic flow phase identification module, vehicle classification module and MOVES (Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator) analysis module, in a case study where inductive loop data are utilized. The information provided by the framework can help traffic operation agency improve or develop efficient traffic management or control measures for energy saving and environment protection.