Variability in Real-World Activity Patterns of Heavy-Duty Vehicles by Vocation

Abstract

Vehicle activity is an integral component in the estimation of mobile source emissions and the study of emission inventories. In the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) model and the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB’s) Emission Factor (EMFAC) model, vehicle activity is defined for source types, in which vehicles within a source type are assumed to have the same activity. In both of these models, source types for heavy-duty vehicles are limited in number and the assumption that the activity within these source types is similar may be inaccurate. The focus of this paper is to improve vehicle emission estimates by improving characterization of heavy-duty vehicle activity using vehicle vocation. This paper presents results and analysis from the collection of real-world activity data of 90 vehicles from 19 vehicle categories made up from a combination of vehicle vocation, gross vehicle weight, and geographical area— namely, line haul—out of state; line haul—in state; drayage—Northern California; drayage—Southern California; agricultural—Southern Central Valley; heavy construction; concrete mixers; food distribution; beverage distribution; local moving; airport shuttle; refuse; urban buses; express buses; freeway work; sweeping; municipal work; towing; and utility repair. Results show that real-world activity patterns of heavy-duty vehicles vary greatly by vocation and in some cases by geographic region. Vocation-specific activity information can be used to update assumptions in EPA’s MOVES model or CARB’s EMFAC model to address this variability in emission inventory development.