Effects of Driving Behaviors on Vehicle hicle Emissions: A Case Study in Houston, Texas

摘要

The Defensive Driving Course (DDC) strives to improve drivers' driving behaviors sothat they drive in a way to save lives, time, and money, regardless of conditionsaround them and actions of others. Since different driving behaviors may lead todifferent operating modes that affect vehicle emissions, the implementation of DDCmay change the real-world vehicle emissions. This paper is intended to analyze theeffects of defensive vs. non-defensive driving behaviors on vehicle emissions basedon the field tests at different locations and time periods. It is shown from the analysisthat (1) the defensive driver's primary consideration is safety, thus may increaseemissions of some pollutant types in the real world; (2) emissions from thenon-defensive driving increase more significantly than those from the defensivedriving during peak hours in the downtown area, while in the highway area, emissionsfrom the defensive driving increase more significantly than those from thenon-defensive driving; and (3) while the defensive driving can decrease emissionrates in the unit of emission mass per unit time, since the increase in travel time by thedefensive driving may outweigh its decrease in emission rates for some pollutiontypes, the defensive driving may end up increasing total vehicle emissions for certainpollution types.