Linking automobile trajectories and fuel consumption

Petrol powered traffic has replaced domestic heating and industry as the main causes for urban air pollution (Colvile, Hutchinson, Mindell, & Warren, 2001). Automobile combustion engines are responsible for the better part of a city’s CO2 and NOX pollutants. The amount of pollutants emitted by a vehicle largely depends on fuel consumption: the more fuel the vehicle consumes, the higher its emissions. Consequently, reducing automobile fuel consumption has become an important interdisciplinary field of research. However, until recently, efforts in this field have focussed predominantly on the vehicle. In our research we want to address petrolfuelled road traffic and its energy consumption from a different perspective, the perspective of movement and the road infrastructure: