Sustainability

Over the last decades the vehicle industry has shown interest in integrating new technologies on vehicles’ design. Such technologies are used in autonomous, connected and electrical vehicles with the primary hope of improving road safety and the environmental impact of road traffic. Regarding the environmental impact, the transport sector has been considered responsible for Greenhouse Gas emissions for the past thirty years or more, and efforts have been made to reduce impacts of such emissions on the environment. The environmental noise is also associated with road traffic and its effects...

Over the past several years, biodiesel use has dramatically increased due to its potential emissions benefits, classification as a low-carbon/renewable fuel and ability to be integrated into diesel fleet applications without significant infrastructure or other substitution issues. Caltrans has largest fleet in California, so biodiesel would provide many benefits in terms of meeting environmental and energy security objectives. However, all aspects of biodiesel use needed to be thoroughly investigated, including potential benefits and liabilities, prior to widespread introduction into the...

In this report, the authors describe preliminary research dealing with vehicle emissions associated directly with 1) Automated Highway Systems ( AHS) and 2) ramp metering. In performing this analysis, a power-demand modal emissions model has been integrated with several transportation simulation models in order to quantitatively determine the effects of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technology on vehicle emissions. For AHS, a steady-state speed/emissions comparison has been conducted between vehicles that are platooned and non-platooned. A comparison has been made between a...

In today’s society minimizing the use of the roadways is becoming an issue of increasing concern.Many major cities in the US are plagued with such problems as traftic congestion, poor air quality, andsafety problems. To solve these problems research throughout the world is being conducted on the use ofautomated roadways.Currently in the state of California research is being conducted involving several major institutionsas to the feasibility of the automated roadway. The Program on Advanced Technology for the Highway,PATH, aims to increase the capacity of the most used highways, to decrease...