Abstract
The purpose of this work was to examine vehicle fuel consumption in urban areas and provide a means by which consumption in various situations could be expressed. A review of previous work has been made, including details of the models used for overall consumption in urban areas. The models used are examined and compared with a simple model based on journey distance, journey time, and number of stops. The value of kinetic energy change as a predictive variable is also examined. An explanation of commercial vehicle consumption is provided, but there are difficulties in generalising this to include the whole vehicle fleet. Minimum estimates of consumption related to gross vehicle weight and functions of journey speed are therefore given for overall consumption and for urban conditions. The effect on fuel consumption of changing the area traffic signal control regime from TRANSYT to SCOOT is examined. The method used is to compare complete journeys of several kilometres rather than short lengths of road near each signal. Significant improvements are found for those routes which are mainly inside the control areas. Consumption at roundabouts, in queues, at simple curves and at part stops are considered in detail. The roundabout data and queueing data were collected on street, and the test track results for part stops and simple curves are compared with limited on street data. Predictive equations are given for the consumption of a 2. 2 litre car.