THE CAR MODEL: CALCULATION OF AIR POLLUTION FROM ROAD TRAFFIC,

A CALCULATION METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF AIR QUALITY IN

CITY STREETS IN THE NETHERLANDS

Johan Sliggers
Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning
and Environment, Air Directorate
P.O. Box 450
2260 MB Leidschendam
The Netherlands

INTRODUCTION
Traffic is the predominant source of air pollution in cities
allover the world. The situation in the Netherlands is no dif-
ferent. Since half of the Dutch population lives in cities with
more than 50.000 inhabitants a policy to improve city air
quality has been developed. The policy to improve air quality
in Dutch cities is layed down in air quality decrees under the
Air Pollution Act. Limit values in these cities must be met by
the year 2000 at the latest (Sliggers, 1989). For various sub-
stances, such as carbon monoxide ( CO ) , lead ( Pb ) , ni trogen
dioxide (N0 2 ), suspended particles and benzene, the limit
values are being violated (RIVM, 1989).
Since municipalities are responsible for traffic within their
boundaries, supervision of air quality along roads in built-up
areas and the institution of measures to prevent violation of
the limit values have been put in the hands of the municipali-
ties.
To equip the local municipalities with an instrument with which
they can calculate the air quality along roads in a simple way
the CAR model has been developed.
This article shows how simple calculations with the model can
be done, gives an insight in the quality of the model and re-
ports about the use of the model by municipalities and the cen-
tral government.

CALCULATIONS WITH THE MODEL

The model can be used to calculate all traffic related sub-
stances. Those substances can be non-reactive like CO, benzene,
particulates etc. or reactive like N0 2 • The model captures the
influence of a host of factors, such as average of the radius
city, number of vehicles per 24 hour period, speed type, road
type, distance to road axis, tree density and wind. These fac-

Air Pollution Modeling and its Application lX. Edited by H. van Dop
and G. Kallos. Plenum Press. New York, 1992 39
tors are included in the three main features of the model which
are: background concentration, emission in the street and dis-
persion in the street.
The CAR-model is calibrated with information from the National
Air Quality Monitoring Network. This makes it possible to make
an accurate determination of concentrations in every street
with a limited number of measurements.
In the following example the concentration of carbon monoxide
(CO) is calculated using the 1988 figures for weather-con-
ditions and average emissions.

Background CO concentration

The first step in the calculation of the CO concentration in

a street is the determination of the 98-percentile background
concentration (CaCO). This background concentration in a street
is calculated as the sum of the regional background concentra-
tion outside the city (1300 pg/m3) and the city concentration
which is considered to be proportional (200 pg/m3 .km) to the
city's radius (in km).
This leads to the formula:

CaCO = 1300 + 200 F rad

Total emission in the street

The next step in the calculation is the determination of

total emissions in a street (Es) by using a number of traffic-
specific parameters obtained through the following procedure:

determine speed type (Vx) (table 1);

establish emission per vehicle for motorcars (Ep) and
lorries (Ev) (table 1);
determine average number of vehicles per 24 hour-
period (N);
determine the fraction of lorries (Fv) in the total
number of vehicles.

Wi th these data the total emission can be computed using the

formula:
Es = (1 - Fv) * N * Ep + Fv * N * Ev
Dispersion in the street

Background concentration and total emissions are the main

elements in the calculation of the air quality in a street. To
incorporate specific dispersion characteristics of a particular
street in a particular part of the country, site specific in-
formation is necessary. This additional information is obtained
through the site specific features such as dispersion, tree,
and wind factors.
Table 1. Emission parameters (in pg/m3 .s per vehicle)

Vx 100 km/h 44 km/h 22 km/h 13 km/h

E

Ep CO 0.060 0.085 0.153 0.222

Ev CO 0.037 0.118 0.233 0.327

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