Evaluation of Benefits and Costs of Truck Connected Eco-Driving Program on Urban Freight Corridors

Research Team: Kanok Boriboonsomsin (lead), Matthew Barth, Peng Hao, and George Scora

UC Campus(es): 

Additional Research Partners: UC Riverside

Problem Statement: One operational strategy to improve the efficiency of freight movement while also reducing environmental and health impacts is to provide advanced traveler information to truck drivers. Research shows that using real-time traffic information to determine and provide driving speed recommendation to truck drivers can help reduce fuel consumption and truck emissions. On signalized corridors, traffic signal status is a critical piece of real-time traffic information that can enable innovative applications such as connected eco-driving where drivers are provided with driving speed recommendation that will allow them to pass through signalized intersections in an efficient manner. All traffic signals are owned and operated by public agencies. Therefore, public agencies who manage the state’s roadway infrastructure would benefit from a better understanding of the costs and benefits associated with providing traffic signal status information to the traveling public.

Project Description: This project estimates the costs and benefits of implementing connected eco-driving technology for freight trucks on signalized freight corridors as a strategy to mitigate the impacts of truck traffic. The costs associated with enabling the technology include capital investment for infrastructure upgrades such as upgrading traffic controllers and installing communication modems. The costs also include operating costs for wireless data plans and computing servers. Over a period of 20 years, the total cost for one intersection is estimated to be $18,200. The benefits of the technology include reductions in energy consumption and emissions from a connected truck traveling on connected corridors. Under cold start conditions, the technology could help reduce overall fuel consumption by 20%, and emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter by 22%, 20%, and 15%, respectively. Under hot running conditions, the technology could help reduce overall fuel consumption by 10% and emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter by 10%, 0%, and 41%, respectively. Based on these estimates, connected eco-driving technology can play an important role in addressing greenhouse gas emissions from freight trucks, as well as mitigating the air quality and health impacts associated with truck emissions in communities that are heavily impacted by truck traffic.

Status: Completed

Budget: $88,629