National Center for Sustainable Transportation

In the last few decades, efforts to reduce emissions from heavy-duty diesel trucks (HDDTs) and their health impacts have been focused on imposing increasingly stringent emissions standards. This has led to significant advancements in emission control technologies and alternative fuel vehicle technologies. While these technologies are effective at reducing emissions from HDDTs, the turnover of the existing HDDT population to these advanced technologies would require a large amount of investment and along time. In the near term, other efforts to reduce emissions of the existing HDDTs and mitigate their impacts on communities are needed. Many studies have shown the promise of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies in reducing the energy consumption and environmental footprint of people and goods movement through various means. This research is aimed at developing and evaluating eco-friendly ITS strategies for freight vehicles and traffic, with a focus on strategies that are applicable to the transportation systems in the South Coast Air Basin. Four specific strategies are examined in this research, including: 1) connected eco-driving, 2) truck eco-routing, 3) integrated traffic control, and 4) intelligent parking assist. This report describes the evaluation of each strategy, discusses results, and provide recommendations for future implementation.

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