Simulation of the impact of traffic lights placement on vehicle´s energy consumption and CO2 emissions

This paper proposes a method to estimate the impact of traffic light placement policies in term of vehicles´ fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. The method comprises two steps. First, speed profiles are generated representing vehicle´s behavior. Then, the mechanical energy spent by the vehicle is computed. The estimation is then used to compare different policies of traffic light placement. Simulations have been carried out to analyze the impact of semaphores distributed into a real road. The relation between the number of traffic lamps and the energy spent is quantified. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is provided considering different classes of vehicles travelling on urban roads.