ESTIMATION OF IDLING DELAY AND FUEL CONSUMPTION OF VEHICLES AT SIGNALIZED INTERSECTION

Abstract

Sustained economic development and expanding road network have led to rapid increase in the number of motorized vehicles in India. The total number of registered motor vehicles was 230 million in 2016 with a growth rate of about 10.7% annually. Presently the transport sector accounts for nearly 18% of the total energy consumed in India. Diesel and Petrol are strategic commodities and they play a vital role in the socio-economic development and nearly 98% of the transportation energy needs are met through petroleum products. Rising crude oil prices and uncertainty about their supply can have negative implications for the Indian economy. In order to reduce this uncertainty it is important to plan and use the resources judiciously. Thus energy conservation has become a vital national concern. One of the ways to conserve fuel is minimize its wastage. The simplest way might just be to switch off engines while the vehicles are in idling condition waiting for their turn to cross the intersection at signals. Therefore it is important to quantify the fuel loss due to idling delay. In this study two methods were considered in estimating delay namely Arrival-Departure method and Probe Vehicle method. Video-graphy survey was carried out at the identified intersection in Noida, Uttar Pradesh state and instead of directly measuring delay and queue lengths, a cumulative graph was plotted with number of vehicles arriving and departing the intersection on Y-axis and time on X-axis. For accuracy the time interval for plotting the graph was taken as 5 seconds. Speed profiles obtained from probe vehicle were analysed. Non lane based heterogeneous traffic was simulated using traffic simulation software VISSIM on the intersection and validated using the delay data extracted by arrival departure curve from video. Comparative analysis was carried out between Delay obtained from VISSIM and A-D analysis. On the basis of the idle time and idle fuel consumption rate the loss of fuel is estimated and converted in monetary terms. The micro simulation software was also helpful in determining the effectiveness of the mitigation measures proposed to reduce fuel consumption due to idling of vehicles