Impact of Change in Urban Road Geometry and Semaphoric Times in a Pollutant Emission Simulation

Abstract

The maintenance of urban mobility is an important way to ensure the development of urban centers, as they are constantly changing. The singularity of each case, makes planning complex, due to the impacts that the proposed changes can cause. This way, studies about this matter and the various parameters that involve it are fundamental, with the intention of quantifying these impacts and making the least invasive decisions for society. Between these parameters, density stands out, which is closely linked to pollutant emissions and traffic speed. In that sense, the Brasil Avenue in the city of Passo Fundo, Brazil, is defined as the main access to downtown-suburb as well as to the exit of the municipality, presenting exhaustion in its traffic capacity, that leads to traffic jams, blocked intersections, and a higher pollutant emission; all due to under dimensioned roadway system to the current traffic. In this context, the objective of this research is to analyse the impacts that changes in road geometry and semaphoric times of Brasil Avenue will cause in the indicatives of urban mobility, and consequently, in the traffic efficiency of the road, from the Aimsun® traffic microssimulator, observing the density and emission data of pollutants.