Multivariate Analysis of Traffic Factors Related to Fuel Consumption in Urban Driving

Abstract

The influence of various urban driving conditions on automobile fuel consumption was studied in an experiment involving 383 km of driving in the Detroit metropolitan area. The detailed speed, acceleration, and fuel consumption records were analyzed by multivariate statistical techniques. The objective of the study was to identify pertinent measures of traffic related speed-time characteristics that influence fuel consumption in urban driving. The results showed that average trip time per unit distance was the single most important factor in explaining the variability of fuel consumption. The results can be explained in terms of the physical properties of the engine-vehicle system and the interrelationships among the traffic related variables.