Pollutant emissions from passenger cars in traffic congestion situation in the State of Kuwait: options and challenges

Rapid population growth in Kuwait, accompanied with rising standard of living, has resulted in a sweeping increase in the use of passenger vehicles for transportation. Consequently, deterioration of ambient air quality near major roadways has become an issue of public concern. The knowledge of real world road vehicle emission factors is an essential element to the development of any strategy aimed at the reduction of air pollution in urban areas. This work focuses on investigating exhaust emission pollutants from passenger cars for idle and slow acceleration (stop-and-go) traffic conditions. We found that vehicle emissions are minimal during idle mode for all vehicle categories. However, it was interesting to observe that during the slow acceleration mode HC and CO emissions increased for light vehicles with relatively high mileage (higher than 40,000 km). We can conclude from this study that with the growing vehicle ownership, and congestion it causes, the vehicular exhaust emissions is a major sources of air pollution in densely populated centers in the state of Kuwait, where idle and stop-and-go driving cycle is a common occurrence.