Abstract
Growing concern over air quality has prompted the development of strategies to reduce vehicle emissions in these areas. Concern has also been expressed regarding the current dependency of the U,S, on foreign oil. An option for addressing these concerns is to reduce vehicle-miles travelled (VMT), High- occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes have been cited as one alternative for achieving this goal. However, latent travel demand frequently negates some or all of the VMT savings brought about by HOV lanes, The net effects of modal shifts to HOV lanes and the subsequent latent travel demand were studied in the thesis, A methodology was developed for estimating vehicle emissions and energy consumption impacts of modal shifts from private vehicles in the freeway mainlanes to buses in an HOV lane when latent travel demand is considered. The methodology was evaluated and determined to yield reasonable results, Finally, the methodology was applied to a freeway corridor in Houston, Texas. The results of the application indicate that reductions in VMT do not necessarily cause reductions in vehicle emissions of interest even when considered, all three of the pollutants of latent travel demand is not consumption was decreased at considered. Energy consumption was decreased a virtually all levels of latent travel demand except where latent travel demand was equivalent to the mode shift.
Mallett, Vickie Lynn (1993). Vehicle emissions and energy consumption impacts of modal shifts. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1993 -THESIS -M253.