Comparative analysis of the CO(2) emissions of expressway and arterial road traffic: A case in Beijing

Urban traffic is an important source of global CO(2) emissions. Uncovering the temporal and structural characteristics can provide scientific support to identify the variation regulation and main subjects of urban traffic CO(2) emissions. The road class is one of the most important factors influencing the urban traffic CO(2) emissions. Based on the annual traffic field monitoring work in 2014 and the localized MOVES model, this study unravels the temporal variation and structural characteristics of the urban traffic CO(2) emissions and conducts a comparative analysis of expressway (5R) and arterial road (DB), two typical classes of urban roads in Beijing. Obvious differences exist in the temporal variation characteristics of the traffic CO(2) emissions between the expressway and arterial road at the annual, week and daily scales. The annual traffic CO(2) emissions at the expressway (5R, with 47271.15 t) are more than ten times than those of the arterial road (DB, with 4139.19 t). Stronger weekly “rest effect” is observed at the expressway than the arterial road. The daily peak time and duration of the traffic CO(2) emissions between the two classes of urban roads show significant differences particular in the evening peak. The differences of the structural characteristics between the two classes of urban roads are mainly reflected on the contribution of the public and freight transportation. Passenger vehicles play a predominant role at both the two classes of urban roads. The public transportation contributed more at DB (24.76%) than 5R (5.47%), and the freight transportation contributed more at 5R (23.41%) than DB (3.49%). The results suggest that the influence of traffic CO(2) emissions on the CO(2) flux is significant at the residential and commercial mixed underlying urban areas with arterial roads (DB) but not significant at the underlying urban park area with expressway (5R) in this study. The vegetation cover in urban areas have effects on the CO(2) reduction. Increasing the design and construction of the green space along the urban roads with busy traffic flow will be an effective way to mitigate the urban traffic CO(2) emissions and build the low-carbon cities.