Assessing Activity-Related Vehicle Emissions through an Integrated Activity-Based Modelling Framework

Policymakers are increasingly recognizing the importance of source-relatedmeasures, instead of technological actions, to tackle the problem of traffic air pollution.Unfortunately, traditional trip-based models fail to make accurate predictions for activityrelatedpolicy questions. Due to the richer set of concepts which are involved in activitybasedtransportation models, the use of these models should be encouraged to contribute tothis part. In this research the activity-based model ALBATROSS was used to assess tripsand emissions produced by passenger cars in the Netherlands. The results were segregatedaccording to trip motive to gain more insights into the contribution of different trips towardsthe total amount kilometres and air pollution. The predicted values correspond well with thereported values from the Dutch Scientific Statistical Agency. Predictions for total travelleddistance, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and particulatematter (PM) differed not more than 8% from the officially reported values. Concerning theclassification into trip motive, the commuter trips produced almost half of the PMemissions. Further, trips with a social purpose caused 17% of the PM emissions, andshopping and leisure trips each accounted for 10% of the total PM emissions. This paper isnovel in the sense that it reports on the applied methodology and presents the practicalresults from a case study of the activity-based modelling approach as well.