Evaluation of Driving Behavior and Attitude towards Eco-Driving: A Southern California Limited Case Study

摘要

Among several strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, "eco-driving"is one that had not received much attention in the United States until recently. The basic idea ofany eco-driving program is to provide drivers with a variety of advice and feedback to minimizefuel consumption (and emissions) while driving. We have recently carried out an eco-drivingstudy in Southern California. This study evaluated how an on-board eco-driving device thatprovides instantaneous fuel economy feedback affects driving behavior, and the resulting fueleconomy, of a limited number of gasoline-engine vehicle drivers in Southern California underreal-world driving conditions.The results from 20 driver samples show that, on average, the fuel economy on city streetsimproves by 6% while the fuel economy on highways improves by only 1%. The lowimprovement on highways may partly be due to the mostly congested freeways in the study area,which already constrained the driving. According to responses to the questionnaire at the end ofthe study period, the group of participating drivers were willing to adopt eco-driving practices inthe near future (mean score of 7.4 out of 10). In fact, 40% of them have already practiced eco-driving, which may also be another reason for relatively low fuel economy improvements foundin this study. For this group of drivers, the eco-driving adoption rate could go up to 95% if thegasoline price increased above $4 per gallon. Additional research is needed at a larger scale andfor a longer time period.