Reduction in Idling Fuel Losses and Corresponding Emissions Due to Awareness Campaign at the Signalized Intersections in Delhi

With increasing traffic at intersections, it becomes essential to install traffic control devices to regulate the movements. These controlled intersections are known as “Signalized Intersections”. When the vehicles are waiting for their turn to clear the signalized intersection, the drivers normally do not keep the engines off and this results in extra fuel consumption due to idling and increased vehicular emissions. This fuel consumption can be saved along with reduction in corresponding emissions by switching off vehicle engine during idling at signals. In the present study, a 40 day-long awareness campaign has been carried out at 100 signalized intersections in Delhi to create awareness among drivers regarding switching off their engines during idling. Impact of awareness campaign has been estimated based on number of vehicles switching-off their engines during idling which is further used to estimate idling fuel losses and corresponding emissions. The observed proportion of switched-off Two-wheelers before, during, and after phase of awareness campaign was ~ 18%, ~ 51%, and ~ 44%, respectively. Similar trend has also been observed for Three-Wheeler users. There was ~ 22% reduction in idling fuel losses for petrol fuel between “before” and “after” campaign phase. Similarly, ~ 14%, 12%, and 19% reduction in Diesel, CNG, and LPG idling fuel losses was observed due to awareness campaign. Furthermore, it was estimated that 9357 CO2eq (CO2 equivalent) t/d of GHG emission was generated at selected 100 signalized traffic intersections “before” the start of the awareness campaign. This was reduced to 7976 t/day (~ 1381 CO2eq t/day or ~ 14% reduction) in “after” phase of the awareness campaign. The CO2eq is used to compare the emission from various GHGs (both direct and indirect) on the basis of their global-warming potential (GWP).