Tag: Air Quality

Recommendations Concerning Regional Idling Strategy in the OTR

/ OTC/MANE-VU • Reports / by josephjakuta / Leave a comment

Title: Recommendations Concerning Regional Idling Strategy in the OTR
Organization: OTC Mobile Source Committee, Idling Workgroup
Publication Date: October 30, 2017
Roles: Primary Author and Analyst
Executive Summary:

The OTC charged the Mobile Source Committee at the 2016 Fall Meeting to “develop a recommendation [for a regional idling strategy] which should be based on the principles of the Best Practices document adopted by OTC in 2015.” This paper is intended to weigh several options for such a program and put forth a recommendation of what should be pursued.
The options to be considered:
1. Truck Stop Electrification (TSE) expansion
2. Electric Transport Refrigeration Units (eTRU)
3. Port strategies
4. Locomotive idling
5. Nonroad Idling model rule adoption
6. Idling reduction commitments
7. Enforcement/regional governmental body education efforts
8. Regional owner/operator education efforts

None of these options alone will solve the problem of unnecessary idling. A successful set of policies will require engineering solutions, education of owners/operators, and enforcement of regulations in tandem. There are additional technological solutions that were discussed in OTC’s Overview of Efforts to Reduce Idling in the Ozone Transport Region, but a nationwide approach to adoption of a one-size fits all technology for individual tractor trailers, trains, etc. would be beyond the scope of these recommendations which are focused regionally.

After discussions with stakeholders, review of documents, and other research the following recommendations were developed for each option. Since states each have their own vehicle fleet mixes, priorities, and limitations they are listed in no set order of priority.

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MEM Master’s Project – Reducing Personal Vehicle Kilometers Traveled to Decrease Air Pollution in Durham, NC

/ Graduate School • Reports / by josephjakuta / Leave a comment

Abstract

Durham, North Carolina is at the center of the metropolitan region known as the Research Triangle. This area is experiencing rapid and sprawling growth. In addition, there is a lack of substantial public transportation, which results in a high level of reliance on personal automobiles. This research aims to examine how reliance on personal automobiles in one aspect of the lives of residents, the daily work commute, can be reduced in order to reduce aggregate vehicle kilometers travelled (VKTs). The transportation mode choices of walking, bicycling, busing, carpooling and vanpooling were examined as potential mode choices that commuters could switch to if given an economic incentive to do so.

A set of equations were developed based on EPA mobile source emissions modelsand regional data to determine how reductions in VKTs could affect air pollution emissions. A contingent choice survey was developed and sent, via email, to a sample of employees of Duke University and Hospital, in order to determine the marginal willingness to accept payment for an alternative commute. A mode choice model was developed using logit regression techniques based on the survey results to extrapolate the behaviors to employees of Duke at large and commuters to the City of Durham. A log‐transformed bid variable was determined to be the most appropriate functional form to predict the likelihood of switching modes. Finally, marginal economic damages of air pollutants were obtained from peer‐reviewed research and the economically efficient level of potential benefits were estimated.

The air quality models showed that the criteria air pollutants examined were dealt with well under existing policy. Concerning Carbon Dioxide, the resulting calculations showed that only when the marginal damages of pollution are quite high do the equated marginal benefits provided to a person to reduce their commuting footprint begin to have substantial impacts on VKTs.

Read the Master’s Project