Evaluation of CO2 emission reduction from vehicles by information provision using driving simulator

Abstract

Reduction of CO2 emissions has become an important social issue all over the world. Especially, the transportation sector is expected to play a sufficient role for it. Therefore, the information provision system to a vehicle for passing through the upcoming signalized intersection is proposed in this paper to decrease unnecessary vehicle movements and also to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions from a vehicle approaching the signalized intersection. The system provides recommended speed information and accelerator-off indication, in which the vehicle could pass through the intersection or shorten the idling time if it would follow the provided information. Driving experiments were conducted with a driving simulator where the proposed information system was introduced. Multiple regression analysis showed that providing the recommended speed information and the accelerator-off indication reduced the amount of CO2 emissions significantly. However, as subjective evaluations of the system by participants were dispersed, the information provision system is expected to be tailored to each driving characteristics.