Variability in urban driving patterns

Although it is known that driving patterns strongly affect the emission of pollutants from vehicles, existing empirical knowledge about driving patter ns is limited. The first-step in this project was to find relevant paramete rs for describing driving patterns. These served as a basis for investigati ng variations in such patterns. An experimental study was carried out to co mpare driving patterns between and within different street-types, drivers a nd traffic conditions. Data were analysed using general factorial analysis of variance. Driving patterns showed very significant differences between s treet type and driver, and these factors had significant impact on all the parameters employed. The effect of street type was generally higher than th e driver effect. Average speed and deceleration levels were lower at peak h ours compared to off-peak hours. Men had higher acceleration levels than wo men generally and specially on one street type. The study showed no major d ifferences in average speed for gender except for one street type where men drove faster than women. The knowledge attained in this study may be a ste p towards a better knowledge of driving patterns and their variation, and m ay provide possibilities of changing driving patterns and thus exhaust emis sions from vehicles. Knowledge about driving patterns is also an essential part in efforts to improve models to calculate emission from traffic in urb an environment. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.