Developing and Field Implementing a Dynamic Eco-Routing System
Project Title
Developing and Field Implementing a Dynamic Eco-Routing System
University
Virginia Tech
Principal Investigator
Hesham Rakha, Ph.D.
Director of the Center for Sustainable Mobility at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, Virginia Tech
Mecit Cetin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Old Dominion University
U of I Civil & Environmental Engineering
PI Contact Information
U of I Civil & Environmental Engineering
Funding Sources and Amounts Provided
US Department of Transportation (TranLIVE) — $400,000
Virginia Tech —$300,000
ODU — $50,000
U of I —$50,000
Total Project Cost
$800,000
Agency ID or Contract Number
DTRT12GUTC17; KLK900-SB-002; KLK900-SB-001;
Start Date
6/1/14June 1, 2014
End Date
1/31/16
Description of Research Project
The objective of this research effort is to apply earlier promising research results that were demonstrated in a simulation environment to develop an in-vehicle dynamic eco-routing system to showcase how such a system can be implemented, identify the data needs for a successful system (accuracy and coverage), and communication messages needed to exchange information. Specifically, the proposed study will develop an eco-routing system that comprises of an in-vehicle eco-routing processor, a vehicle communication system, an in-vehicle eco-navigation system, and a TMC eco-routing server system. A key functional requirement of the proposed eco-routing system is the ability to display the eco-routing information that is computed by the TMC eco-routing server. The developed eco-routing system will be implemented in test vehicles for field tests in the Northern Virginia Area. In addition, the simulation analysis will be extended to study the network-wide effect of network configuration and structure, land-use, data quality, data latency, level of congestion on the system performance and the study will quantify the system-wide impacts of implementing a dynamic eco-routing system. It is anticipated that the research will be instrumental in the successful implementation of an eco-routing system.
Implementation of Research Outcomes
Impacts and Benefits of the Project
A current study sponsored by TranLIVE quantified the system-wide impacts of implementing a dynamic eco-routing system, considering various levels of market penetration and levels of congestion in downtown Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, USA using microscopic traffic simulation. The study concluded that eco-routing systems can reduce network-wide fuel consumption and emission levels in most cases; the fuel savings over the networks range between 3.3% and 9.3% when compared to typical travel time minimization routing strategies. The study demonstrated that the fuel savings achieved through eco-routing systems are sensitive to the network configuration and level of market penetration of the eco-routing system. The study also demonstrated that the configuration of the transportation network is a significant factor in defining the benefits of eco-routing systems. Specifically, eco-routing systems appear to produce larger fuel savings on grid networks compared to freeway corridor networks. The study also demonstrated that different vehicle types produced similar trends with regard to eco-routing strategies. Finally, the system-wide benefits of eco-routing generally increased with an increase in the level of the market penetration of the system.
The goal of this task is to extend the current TranLIVE research effort by conducting further simulation testing to study the impact of the transportation network configuration on the potential benefits of an eco-routing system. Specifically, the research will quantify the energy and environmental impacts of various urban shapes (or land uses) configurations such as urban star, ring, and linear patterns on the network-wide performance of such systems. Further, the simulation analysis will be extended to study traffic data quality, data latency, and level of congestion on the system performance.
Paper
- Wang J. and Rakha H. (2015), "Impact of Dynamic Route Information on Day-to-Day Driver Route Choice Behavior,"Presented at the 94th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington DC, January 11-15, CD-ROM [Paper # 15-4918].
- Tawfik A. and Rakha H. (2015), "Modeling Heterogeneity of Driver Route Choice Behavior using Hierarchical Learning-Based Models: A Longitudinal, In-Situ Experiment in Real World Conditions,"Presented at the 94th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington DC, January 11-15, CD-ROM [Paper # 15-3135].
- Elbery A., Rakha H.A., ElNainay M., and Hoque M.A., (2015)"VNetIntSim: An Integrated Simulation Platform to Model Transportation and Communication Networks," International Conference on Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems, Lisbon, Portugal, May 20-22.
Web Links
Final Report:VT_TranLIVE_Final_Developing and Field Implementing a Dynamic Eco-Routing System
Project Status
Complete