João P. Silva, Álvaro Seco, Ana Bastos Silva, and Luís Vasconcelos
Speed Humps, C02 Emissions, Traffic Calming
Usually the use of speed humps is done with the aim of reducing vehicles speed and therefore increasing safety levels. If speed humps generally prove effective in matching the speeds of the various modes of transport the implications in terms of pollution levels generated by vehicles are still poorly known. However, given the growing importance of the environmental issues this must be addressed. In this context the present article presents a research work carried out using an instrumented vehicle in which a group of 18 drivers traveled repeatedly along 17 speed humps. The data collected allowed, with the use of an instantaneous emission model, the calculation of the pollution levels generated in different scenarios. A model was developed using hierarchical multiple linear regression techniques to calculate the CO2 emission values in the vicinity of speed humps. The main results show how speed humps can affect CO2 emissions according to several driving styles and road environments. This provides a better understanding of the interrelations that these aspects have on the level of pollutant emissions generated by motorized vehicles enabling a broader evaluation of the overall performance of this traffic calming measure.
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