Benefits
Environment
IntelliDriveSM - Supporting Green Transportation Choices
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The IntelliDriveSM environmental vision is to generate, capture, and analyze data to create actionable information that allows surface transportation systems users and operators to make “green” transportation choices.
Providing consumers with real-time information about traffic congestion and other travel conditions assists them in making more informed decisions that can reduce the environmental impact of their trip. For instance, informed travelers may decide to avoid congested routes, take alternate routes, use public transit, or reschedule their trip — all of which can make their trip more fuel-efficient and eco-friendly.
Data generated from IntelliDriveSM systems can also provide system operators with detailed , real-time information on the location, speed, and operating conditions of vehicles using their system. This data can enable transportation agencies to manage system operations more efficiently, which can save fuel and reduce environmental impact.
Tailpipe emissions resulting from vehicle fuel utilization are the single largest human-made source of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. These fumes cause pulmonary diseases and premature deaths. Children are particularly vulnerable. Poor air quality triggers asthma, which is the number one cause of hospitalization among children and has a major impact on our schools, emergency rooms, and healthcare system. Vehicles that are stationary, idling, or traveling at reduced speeds due to congestion emit more tailpipe emissions than those that are in free flow conditions. Therefore, IntelliDriveSM technologies that reduce fuel consumption, idling, and vehicle miles traveled, while reducing acute congestion, could also play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving public health, particularly in major metropolitan areas, around ports and freight hubs, and on major highways and corridors.
For example:
- Data generated from IntelliDriveSM systems can provide traffic management centers with detailed, real-time data on traffic flow, speeds, and other vehicle conditions. This information can be used to optimize the operation of ramp meters, saving an estimated 1.2 million gallons of fuel a year at full deployment, valued at $2.8 million. The fuel savings represent just over 11,000 tons of CO2 emissions avoided per year.1
- IntelliDriveSM data can enable agencies to improve signal timing, resulting in approximately 1.7 million hours of delay reduction, 1.1 million gallons of gasoline saved, and 9,600 tons of CO2 emissions avoided per year once full deployment is reached.2
- Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration Benefit Cost Analysis, Version 2.3 | HTML, prepared for U.S. Department of Transportation by the Volpe National Transportation Center, 2008.
- Ibid.
For more information about IntelliDriveSM and the environment, see Applications for the Environment: Real-Time Information Synthesis (AERIS).
In the United States alone, traffic congestion leads to 4.2 billion hours in extra travel time and an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel burned, for a total congestion cost of $78 billion a year, according to the Texas Transportation Institute's (TTI's) Urban Mobility Report. Fuel saved due to improvements in traffic flow avoids the emission of carbons, as well as several other categories of pollutants. According to TTI, 0.65 gallons of gasoline are consumed per hour of travel delay (a weighted average across large metro areas).
The bottom line benefits of technologies that help us reduce fuel consumption are cleaner air and water, and a more balanced planetary ecosystem.