Assessing vehicle emissions through an integrad activity-based modelling framework

Abstract

Policymakers are increasingly recognizing the importance of source-related measures, instead of technological actions, to tackle the problem of traffic air pollution. Unfortunately, traditional trip-based models fail to make accurate predictions for activityrelated policy questions. Due to the richer set of concepts which are involved in activitybased transportation models, the use of these models should be encouraged to contribute to this part. In this research the activity-based model ALBATROSS was used to assess trips and emissions produced by passenger cars in the Netherlands. The results were segregated according to trip motive to gain more insights into the contribution of different trips towards the total amount kilometres and air pollution. The predicted values correspond well with the reported values from the Dutch Scientific Statistical Agency. Predictions for total travelled distance, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and particulate matter (PM) differed not more than 8% from the officially reported values. Concerning the classification into trip motive, the commuter trips produced almost half of the PM emissions. Further, trips with a social purpose caused 17% of the PM emissions, and shopping and leisure trips each accounted for 10% of the total PM emissions. This paper is novel in the sense that it reports on the applied methodology and presents the practical results from a case study of the activity-based modelling approach as well.