Assessment of vehicular fuel consumption and interaction with pavement characteristics using HDM-4 on Indian urban road network: A case of Pune city

Rapid urbanization and exponential increase in the number of vehicles on city roads have triggered issues like air pollution and accidents, endangering the health of millions of people in Indian cities. Vehicular emission is a major contributor to air pollution in Indian cities. This study primarily analyzes the relative effects of riding quality and pavement surface type on vehicular fuel consumption (FC) in an urban environment. This study utilizes the Road Asset Management System (RAMS) applications to predict FC in different scenarios of pavement maintenance. Highway Development and Management (HDM-4) software was integrated into RAMS for network & economic analysis and FC prediction of the road network. The study was conducted on the Pune city road network in India, and the results revealed a 2.32 % reduction in fuel use if timely maintenance is provided. Over 0.128 million liters of fuel per 1000 vehicle-km can be saved over the study network of only 36.5 km over the next 15 years, equivalent to US$ 155,206.18 in 2021. The analysis of covariance test results showed the significant effect of pavement surface type on fuel consumption, with 4.86 % less fuel consumed on cement concrete surfaces than bituminous surfaces. About 99.431 liters per 1000 vehicle-km of fuel were utilized by the vehicle fleet on concrete pavements, while 104.513 liters per 1000 vehicle-km of fuel were consumed on bituminous pavements after adjusting for roughness characteristics of both the surface types.