Effectiveness of signal coordination as an emission reduction measure for vehicles

Air Pollution is a significant health and environmental concern. Vehicular emissions are major contributors to many air pollution problems. There is growing interest in reducing carbon dioxide emission because of the alarming increase in the pollution caused by petroleum resulting global warming issue. Various studies have found that U.S. vehicles emit half of the CO2 emitted from vehicle all over the world. Dallas Fort Worth is a non-attainment area for ozone and it is required to achieve NAAQS standards by 2010. NOx and VOCs from the automobile are a major precursor of ozone formation in the atmosphere. Traffic signal retiming has prove to be a beneficial measure for improving traffic flow conditions and reducing fuel consumption. This research focuses on measuring CO2 and NOx from light duty vehicles to verify the effectiveness of traffic signal synchronization as measure for reduction of emissions.; Data for this research were collected using the On-Board Emission Measurement System OBS-1300. The OBS-1300 facilitates real-time collection of field data for second-by-second measurement of tailpipe emissions.* (Abstract shortened by UMI.); *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Micrsoft Office.