Reduction of vehicle fuel consumption from adjustment of cycle length at a signalized intersection and promotional use of environmentally friendly vehicles

• Main Authors: Napon Srisakda, Palinee Sumitsawan, Atsushi Fukuda, Tetsuhiro Ishizaka, Chaiwat Sangsrichan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Khon Kaen University 2022-01-01
• Series: Engineering and Applied Science Research
• Subjects: traffic signal management; cycle length; signalized intersections; fuel consumption; environmentally friendly vehicles; hybrid car
• Online Access: https://ph01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/easr/article/download/243471/166716/

Road transportation is the main factor affecting high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and poor air quality in the atmosphere. One cause is traffic congestion on urban streets due to plenty of travel demand over road network capacity and inefficient traffic management at signalized intersections. Moreover, typical vehicles consume much fuel affecting the problems mentioned above, and there is still little use of environmentally friendly vehicles, such as the hybrid car (HV). This research investigated how efficient traffic signal management could reduce vehicle fuel consumption approaching a signalized intersection in traffic congestion. In addition, the fuel consumption of HV was compared with that of conventional gasoline cars regarding how it could reduce fuel consumption in a condition of the adjustment of traffic signal management. Then, estimating fuel consumption at the intersection was assembled by traffic simulation to identify driving patterns/modes of each vehicle. The results indicated that an adjustment of traffic signal management at the intersection by optimizing cycle length calculation based on Webster’s method could reduce vehicle fuel consumption by decreasing vehicle delay and stop time. If HVs replaced conventional gasoline cars by at least 5%, fuel consumption would be significantly reduced when HVs stop and run at a fluctuated speed between 1-20 km/hr (crawling) near the intersection. Therefore, this research could well detect a reduction in fuel consumption of environmentally friendly vehicles, even for vehicles traveling at a crawl.