Abstract
Urban traffic is an important source of global CO2 emissions. Uncovering the temporal and structural characteristics can provide scientific support to identify the variation regulation and main subjects of urban traffic CO2 emissions. The road class is one of the most important factors influencing the urban traffic CO2 emissions. Based on the annual traffic field monitoring work in 2014 and the localized MOVES model, this study unravels the temporal variation and structural characteristics of the urban traffic CO2 emissions and conducts a comparative analysis of expressway (5R) and arterial road (DB), two typical classes of urban roads in Beijing. Obvious differences exist in the temporal variation characteristics of the traffic CO2 emissions between the expressway and arterial road at the annual, week and daily scales. The annual traffic CO2 emissions at the expressway (5R, with 47271.15 t) are more than ten times than those of the arterial road (DB, with 4139.19 t). Stronger weekly “rest effect” is observed at the expressway than the arterial road. The daily peak time and duration of the traffic CO2 emissions between the two classes of urban roads show significant differences particular in the evening peak. The differences of the structural characteristics between the two classes of urban roads are mainly reflected on the contribution of the public and freight transportation. Passenger vehicles play a predominant role at both the two classes of urban roads. The public transportation contributed more at DB (24.76%) than 5R (5.47%), and the freight transportation contributed more at 5R (23.41%) than DB (3.49%). The results suggest that the influence of traffic CO2 emissions on the CO2 flux is significant at the residential and commercial mixed underlying urban areas with arterial roads (DB) but not significant at the underlying urban park area with expressway (5R) in this study. The vegetation cover in urban areas have effects on the CO2 reduction. Increasing the design and construction of the green space along the urban roads with busy traffic flow will be an effective way to mitigate the urban traffic CO2 emissions and build the low-carbon cities.
Highlights
IntroductionTo provide scientific references for urban planning decisions on CO2 reductions at a finer scale, direct CO2 flux measurements by the eddy covariance (EC) have been widely applied in urban areas [2,3,4]
Based on the 36-day classified traffic flow monitoring and interpretation work on the urban roads of two classes and one-year CO2 fluxes and micro-meteorological factors at two different types of underlying urban areas in Beijing, this study uncovers the differences of the traffic CO2 emissions between the urban roads of two classes from the perspective of temporal variation, structural characteristics and their influences on the CO2 flux
The following conclusions can be drawn: Obvious differences exists in the temporal variation characteristics of the traffic CO2 emissions between the expressway and arterial road at various temporal scales
Summary
To provide scientific references for urban planning decisions on CO2 reductions at a finer scale, direct CO2 flux measurements by the eddy covariance (EC) have been widely applied in urban areas [2,3,4]. Traffic, contributing 23% of total CO2 emissions [5], is one of the most important direct CO2 sources, in urban areas [6]. The CO2 emissions emitted from the urban area of Chennai, India were quantified by Kumar et al [7], and the results showed that traffic contributed 29.7%. To develop and implement more practical traffic CO2 reduction measures in urban areas, investigating the effects of traffic CO2 emissions on CO2 fluxes and uncovering the characteristics of traffic CO2 emissions are in urgent need
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
