Showing papers by "Margaret Bell published in 1999"

Managing traffic to improve air quality

Abstract: This paper describes the results of the comprehensive research and development programme, Environmental Forecasting For Effective Control of Traffic (EFFECT). Due to the coordinated efforts of a collaboration between University, Local Authority and Industry, the EFFECT system has been implemented and evaluated successfully in Leicester and Maidstone in the UK, in Gothenburg in Sweden, and Volos in Greece. The EFFECT system has enabled the Airviro air quality management system to be considerably enhanced so that it receives static information from a transportation model and dynamic traffic data (flow, delay, stops, and queue length) from a demand responsive signal control system. The hour by hour prediction has been modified further using the real-time input from an urban background precision pollution monitoring system. The EFFECT system is used off-line with historic data to develop traffic demand management strategies which are designed and implemented to improve air quality. Using the weather forecast available from the meteorological office, the EFFECT system is used to predict the air quality for the following 24 hours. The air quality forecasts are broadcast on local radio, variable message signs and on the Internet. The presentation concentrates on describing the enhancements, of existing traffic and air pollution models, that have been necessary to develop a real-time decision making tool, and presents the results of the evaluation exercises carried out to assess the resulting benefits. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD E101903.