The University of Idaho will lead one of 10 nationwide university research networks on sustainable transportation.
“We are national leaders in traffic control technologies,” said Ahmed Abdel-Rahim, a professor in civil engineering and lead researcher. “Our partners, for example Virginia Tech, are leaders in eco-driving. It’s how a vehicle can be routed and driven with less emissions. (Other) partners are leaders in traffic modeling and land-use impact.”
Karen DenBraven, director of the UI National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology, said UI’s other strength is in alternative and bio-fuels and how they perform in engines.
As a leader of this network, UI was awarded a $3.5 million grant by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which it will share with the universities under its leadership — Old Dominion University, Syracuse University, Texas Southern University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
UI’s proposal was chosen from a pool of 46 submitted by institutes across the country, DenBraven said. UI was also awarded a $600,000 grant for its part in a regional sustainable transportation research network led by the University of Washington, which will assess transportation issues specific to the Northwest.
Cooperation with different but related partners will allow UI’s network to examine all the parts that go into reducing vehicle emissions and dependency on foreign oil, DenBraven said.
“So we’ve got everything from how your fuel performs in engines to the connection to how you operate your traffic signals, and how that effects your emissions,” DenBraven said. “And how that affects how you’re going to plan your roads in rapidly growing areas, and how you talk to public officials so they understand this.”
DenBraven said every time a driver has to accelerate then stop or slow down, the car’s fuel efficiency drops.
“Obviously, if you have to stop at a bunch of stoplights, you’re using up more fuel,” DenBraven said. “If you have stop-and-go traffic, you’re using more fuel. If it’s too congested, you’re using more fuel. And the emissions go along with that. You get much worse air. So if vehicles could move smoothly … at a steady speed people are happier. On top of that you’re using less fuel.”
Abdel-Rahim said the way to improve traffic flow is through control, and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-traffic signal communication technology.
“For example, the signal can tell you ‘hey, if you increase your speed in the next three seconds, you’ll be able to make it through the light,’ so you don’t have to stop and go,” Abdel-Rahim said. “Or the other way says ‘hey, don’t speed up, there is no way you’ll make the signal.'”
DenBraven said the infrastructure would also tell the driver which route will use less fuel.
“Maybe there’s a crash, maybe there’s just (congestion),” DenBraven said. “Really, it may be a little longer, but you’ll get there faster and use less fuel. So we’re not having the signals take over the car, that’s not what we are doing.”
Abdel-Rahim said research is also exploring ways to track the emissions from each vehicle, which will allow for policies that would penalize those with excess emissions and reward those who limit their emissions.
Amanda Battles, a UI graduate student in mechanical engineering, started working on fuel emissions as an undergraduate researcher.
“I took data basically,” Battles said. “When you start looking into improving traffic, you have to know how much emissions are being produced. And so I found different devices that would record emissions and devices that would record what the car was actually doing — how fast it was going, RPMs, how much fuel it was using — and did a couple test runs.”
As a graduate student, Battles spent time researching which computer modeling software would be the best for the research, she said.
“I also looked at a bunch of the hardware for researching or for looking into emissions recording,” Battles said. “Because I’m a mechanical engineer, they brought me in to look at what car engines were actually doing.”
Battles said she hopes to expand her skills and abilities through this project, while working on something that is part of a bigger picture.
“As far as improving the overall emissions of the nation, that’s a long way off,” Battles said. “But every little step helps.”