2017 - China - Effect of Roughness on Vehicle Emissions

Understanding the environmental impacts of roadway management strategies is essential not only to the estimation of construction cost, but also the protection of the environment and the conservation of the global ecological system. Vehicle speed and fuel consumptions may vary with driving conditions. Vehicle emissions can be estimated based on the speed, acceleration rate, and Vehicle Specific Power (VSP), which could normally be listed in an Operating Mode Identification (OMID) table. The relationships between pavement roughness (indicated by International Roughness Index or IRI) and speed/fuel consumption could be reflected by linear models, while the IRI is nonlinearly correlated to the emissions. It is recommended further identifying the relationships between IRI and emissions with more on-road tests for all types of vehicles on different types of roadway systems, so as to minimize the environmental, ecological, and even public health impacts through proper roadway management strategies.