Evaluation of external costs in road transport under the openness of a gated community

Residential quarters in Chinese cities are usually walled off from their surrounding roads for security purposes.Recently,the Chinese government has decided to thoroughly open gated residential communities in order to improve traffic capacity and coordinate major roads in the road network,which will inevitably pose challenges,such as environmental pollution,for community members.Unfortunately,before this decision,there were no comprehensive investigations into whether this measure works for road traffic or how much the adverse impact exerts upon residents.Here,we propose a comprehensive method combining microscopic traffic simulation with a vehicle exhaust emission and dispersion model and a noise emission and attenuation model,in addition to a consideration of social cost,to evaluate the possible influence of opening an enclosed residential community to surrounding roads.The validity of the hybrid model was assessed by an assumptive case of two rectangular gated communities under varying traffic flow and five community opening modes.Preliminary results indicate that the opened community outperforms the gated in the most of 49 percent reduction in comprehensive cost.A more detailed analysis reveals that the appropriate extent of openness should rely on the actual situation,and potentially serves as a foundation for the healthy development of communities and cities.Based on the case study results,this paper outlines some strategical suggestions for improving enclosed residential areas by striking a better balance between traffic capacity and environmental risks.

Temporal-spatial dynamic characteristics of vehicle emissions on intercity roads in Guangdong Province based on vehicle identity detection data

Estimating intercity vehicle emissions precisely would benefit collaborative control in multiple cities.Considering the variability of emissions caused by vehicles,roads,and traffic,the 24-hour change characteristics of air pollutants(CO,HC,NO_(X),PM_(2.5))on the intercity road network of Guangdong Province by vehicle categories and road links were revealed based on vehicle identity detection data in real-life traffic for each hour in July 2018.The results showed that the spatial diversity of emissions caused by the unbalanced economywas obvious.The vehicle emissions in the Pearl River Delta region(PRD)with a higher economic level were approximately 1–2 times those in the non-Pearl RiverDelta region(non-PRD).Provincial roads with high loads became potential sources of high emissions.Therefore,emission control policies must emphasize the PRD and key roads by travel guidance to achieve greater reduction.Gasoline passenger cars with a large proportion of traffic dominated morning and evening peaks in the 24-hour period and were the dominant contributors to CO and HC emissions,contributing more than 50%in the daytime(7:00–23:00)and higher than 26%at night(0:00–6:00).Diesel trucks made up 10%of traffic,but were the dominant player at night,contributed 50%–90%to NO_(X) and PM_(2.5) emissions,with amarked 24-hour change rule of more than 80%at night(23:00–5:00)and less than 60%during daytime.Therefore,targeted control measures by time-section should be set up on collaborative control.These findings provide time-varying decision support for variable vehicle emission control on a large scale.

Variation of spatio-temporal distribution of on-road vehicle emissions based on real-time RFID data

High-resolution vehicular emissions inventories are important for managing vehicular pollution and improving urban air quality. This study developed a vehicular emission inventory with high spatio-temporal resolution in the main urban area of Chongqing, based on realtime traffic data from 820 RFID detectors covering 454 roads, and the differences in spatiotemporal emission characteristics between inner and outer districts were analysed. The result showed that the daily vehicular emission intensities of CO, hydrocarbons, PM2.5, PM10,and NO_(x) were 30.24, 3.83, 0.18, 0.20, and 8.65 kg/km per day, respectively, in the study area during 2018. The pollutants emission intensities in inner district were higher than those in outer district. Light passenger cars(LPCs) were the main contributors of all-day CO emissions in the inner and outer districts, from which the contributors of NO_(x) emissions were different. Diesel and natural gas buses were major contributors of daytime NO_(x) emissions in inner districts, accounting for 40.40%, but buses and heavy duty trucks(HDTs) were major contributors in outer districts. At nighttime, due to the lifting of truck restrictions and suspension of buses, HDTs become the main NO_(x) contributor in both inner and outer districts,and its three NO_(x) emission peak hours were found, which are different to the peak hours of total NO_(x) emission by all vehicles. Unlike most other cities, bridges and connecting channels are always emission hotspots due to long-time traffic congestion. This knowledge will help fully understand vehicular emissions characteristics and is useful for policymakers to design precise prevention and control measures.