Computationally Efficient Approach for Evaluating Eco-Approach and Departure for Heavy-Duty Trucks

Connected vehicle-based eco-driving applications have emerged as effective tools for improving energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in the transportation system. Previous research mainly focused on vehicle-level or link-level technology development and assessment using real-world field tests or traffic microsimulation models. There is still high uncertainty in understanding and predicting the impact of these connected eco-driving applications when they are implemented on a large scale. In this paper, a computationally efficient and practically feasible methodology is proposed to estimate the potential energy savings from one eco-driving application for heavy-duty trucks named Eco-Approach and Departure (EAD). The proposed methodology enables corridor-level or road network-level energy saving estimates using only road length, speed limit, and travel time at each intersection as inputs. This technique was validated using EAD performance data from traffic microsimulation models of four trucking corridors in Carson, California; the estimates of energy savings using the proposed methodology were around 1% average error. The validated models were subsequently applied to estimate potential energy savings from EAD along truck routes in Carson. The results show that the potential energy savings vary by corridor, ranging from 1% to 25% with an average of 14%.