IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i11p3963-d179380.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards Low-Carbon Interurban Road Strategies: Identifying Hot Spots Road Corridors in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Natalia Sobrino

    (Transport Research Centre, TRANSyT, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Andres Monzon

    (Transport Research Centre, TRANSyT, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

Reducing traffic emissions is key in transport planning and infrastructure management in order to achieve a sustainable transport system. This paper contributes to this topic in two ways. The first step describes a comprehensive methodology for identifying hot spots road segments and corridors with problems of GHG emissions to enable low-carbon actions. The Highway Energy Assessment (HERA) methodology is applied to the national road network of Spain in order to estimate interurban traffic emissions and calculate the emissions index to assess strategies. The results are shown graphically on a GIS, allowing to identify seven corridors with emissions problems comprising 25% of the network and being responsible for 51% of the total GHG emissions in 2012. Inefficient corridors were those with high rates of heavy vehicles, high speeds and steep gradients. The second step consists of the application of a set of strategies to reduce their emissions and their comparison to the reference scenario. The Mediterranean corridor—the most inefficient corridor—was selected to apply a set of abatement strategies. The most effective strategy was speed enforcement for light vehicles. A speed reduction of 10 km/h could produce a 3.5% savings in emissions compared to the reference scenarios, and decrease emissions intensity from 254 gCO 2 eq/veh-km to 246 gCO 2 eq/veh-km.

Suggested Citation

  • Natalia Sobrino & Andres Monzon, 2018. "Towards Low-Carbon Interurban Road Strategies: Identifying Hot Spots Road Corridors in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-11, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:3963-:d:179380
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/3963/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/3963/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lewis Fulton & Oliver Lah & François Cuenot, 2013. "Transport Pathways for Light Duty Vehicles: Towards a 2° Scenario," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(5), pages 1-12, April.
    2. Chou-Tsang Chang & Tzu-Ping Lin, 2018. "Estimation of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Generated by Building and Traffic in Taichung City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    3. Sobrino, Natalia & Monzon, Andres, 2014. "The impact of the economic crisis and policy actions on GHG emissions from road transport in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 486-498.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Juan Miguel Vega Naranjo & Montaña Jiménez-Espada & Francisco Manuel Martínez García & Rafael González-Escobar & Juan Pedro Cortés-Pérez, 2023. "Intercity Mobility Assessment Facing the Demographic Challenge: A Survey-Based Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-24, January.
    2. Yaping Dong & Jinliang Xu & Menghui Li & Xingli Jia & Chao Sun, 2019. "Association of Carbon Emissions and Circular Curve in Northwestern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Donia Besher & Anirban Sengupta & Tanujit Chakraborty, 2025. "Modeling US Climate Policy Uncertainty: From Causal Identification to Probabilistic Forecasting," Papers 2507.12276, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2025.
    2. Kaiyuan Zheng & Ying Zhang, 2023. "Prediction and Urban Adaptivity Evaluation Model Based on Carbon Emissions: A Case Study of Six Coastal City Clusters in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Muhammad Zubair & Shuyan Chen & Yongfeng Ma & Xiaojian Hu, 2023. "A Systematic Review on Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Emission Measurement Methods under PRISMA Guidelines: Transportation Sustainability and Development Programs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Isabel Azevedo & Vítor Leal, 2020. "Factors That Contribute to Changes in Local or Municipal GHG Emissions: A Framework Derived from a Systematic Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-47, June.
    5. Cheng, Shulei & Wu, Yinyin & Chen, Hua & Chen, Jiandong & Song, Malin & Hou, Wenxuan, 2019. "Determinants of changes in electricity generation intensity among different power sectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 389-408.
    6. Wann-Ming Wey, 2018. "A Commentary on Sustainably Built Environments and Urban Growth Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-5, October.
    7. Škare, Marinko & Porada-Rochoń, Małgorzata, 2023. "Are we making progress on decarbonization? A panel heterogeneous study of the long-run relationship in selected economies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    8. Changzheng Zhu & Wenbo Du, 2019. "A Research on Driving Factors of Carbon Emissions of Road Transportation Industry in Six Asia-Pacific Countries Based on the LMDI Decomposition Method," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    9. Reza Hadjiaghaie Vafaie & Ghader Hosseinzadeh, 2023. "Using a Photoacoustic Cell for Spectroscopy of Toxic Air Pollutants including CO 2 , SO 2 and NO Gases," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-11, June.
    10. Abdul-Manan, Amir F.N. & Won, Hyun-Woo & Li, Yang & Sarathy, S. Mani & Xie, Xiaomin & Amer, Amer A., 2020. "Bridging the gap in a resource and climate-constrained world with advanced gasoline compression-ignition hybrids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    11. Andrés, Lidia & Padilla, Emilio, 2018. "Driving factors of GHG emissions in the EU transport activity," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 60-74.
    12. Jose-Benito Perez-Lopez & Alfonso Orro & Margarita Novales, 2021. "Environmental Impact of Mobility in Higher-Education Institutions: The Case of the Ecological Footprint at the University of A Coruña (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.
    13. Lilis Yuaningsih & R. Adjeng Mariana Febrianti & Munawar Javed Ahmad, 2021. "Examining the Factors Affecting CO2 Emissions from Road Transportation in Malaysia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(6), pages 152-159.
    14. Ştefan Cristian Gherghina & Mihaela Onofrei & Georgeta Vintilă & Daniel Ştefan Armeanu, 2018. "Empirical Evidence from EU-28 Countries on Resilient Transport Infrastructure Systems and Sustainable Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-34, August.
    15. Baiardi, Donatella, 2019. "Do sustainable energy policies matter for reducing greenhouse gas emissions?," EconStor Preprints 202077, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    16. Alfonso, Maurys & Alleyne, Antonio & Nicholson, George & Phillips, Willard, 2023. "Policy considerations for sustainable transportation in three Caribbean small island developing States: options for improving land transportation efficiency. Barbados, the British Virgin Islands and J," Studies and Perspectives – ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for The Caribbean 48725, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    17. Lena Malešević Perović & Bruno Ćorić, 2025. "The Impact of Economic Disasters on Multidimensional Sustainability: Evidence From Cross‐Country Data," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 3615-3630, June.
    18. Nur Fatma Fadilah Yaacob & Muhamad Razuhanafi Mat Yazid & Khairul Nizam Abdul Maulud & Noor Ezlin Ahmad Basri, 2020. "A Review of the Measurement Method, Analysis and Implementation Policy of Carbon Dioxide Emission from Transportation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.
    19. Jianchang Lu & Weiguo Fan & Ming Meng, 2015. "Empirical Research on China’s Carbon Productivity Decomposition Model Based on Multi-Dimensional Factors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-25, April.
    20. Galvin, Ray, 2016. "Rebound effects from speed and acceleration in electric and internal combustion engine cars: An empirical and conceptual investigation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 207-216.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:3963-:d:179380. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.