Policy Implications of Vehicle Emissions

Policy Implications of Vehicle Emissions

This body of work directly applied empirical and modeling research to evaluate the policy implications of vehicle emissions. It focuses on quantifying emission “hot spots” at the microscale, such as those caused by arterial signalization and traffic congestion. The research is among the first to link real-world measurements with traffic management strategies, demonstrating how changes in infrastructure and traffic flow could be used to reduce localized air pollution concentrations and how measured vehicle emissions data can be used to identify localized emission hotspots to prioritize interventions to reduce exposure to traffic-related air pollution. This work provides a data-driven foundation for transportation and air quality policies aimed at mitigating the health impacts of traffic-related pollution.

Illustrative papers (selected examples): 

Unal, A., N.M. Rouphail, and H.C. Frey, “Effect of Arterial Signalization and Level of Service on Measured Vehicle Emissions,” Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1842, pp. 47-56 (2003).  DOI: 10.3141/1842-06.

Unal, A., H.C. Frey, and N.M. Rouphail, “Quantification of Highway Vehicle Emissions Hot Spots Based Upon On-Board Measurements,” Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 54(2):130-140 (February 2004).

Khan, T., H.C. Frey, N. Rastogi, T. Wei, “Geospatial Variation of Real-World Tailpipe Emission Rates for Light Duty Gasoline Vehicles,” Environmental Science & Technology, 54(14):8968–8979 (2020).  https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.0c00489