Impact of intermittent vehicle release on freeway energy dissipation and emissions

The road transportation sector consumes large amounts of energy and is an important source of exhaust pollutants which accelerate the formation of fog and haze. Heavy fog affects normal traffic operations, and countermeasures such as intermittent vehicle release onto the freeway also affect the energy usage and pollutant emissions. A method was developed to determine the optimal countermeasures to minimize energy usage and vehicle emissions based on a CA model of the impact of various intermittent release patterns on the energy usage and vehicle emissions. The results show that the limits on the intermittent vehicle release rate are related to the traffic volume and safety requirements. The lower boundary of the interval minimizes the energy usage and the CO and NOx emissions.