| Vehicle Carbon Dioxide Emissions and the Compactness of Residential Development
Paul Emrath
Fei Liu
This article reflects the views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Vehicle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have concerned many policymakers and researchers. Although the existing literature indicates that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) have been studied extensively, little research has examined household gasoline consumption
directly. This study analyzes the effects of geographic, household characteristics and compactness of subdivisions on gasoline consumption, which can be converted to CO2 emissions directly. The data used come from the 2001 National Household Travel Survey. The results show that VMT declines as the compactness of subdivisions increases, but vehicles tend to be driven at less efficient speeds in more compact subdivision.
The reduced efficiency in driving speed is not strong enough to totally offset the reduced VMT, however, so that gasoline consumption and the associated CO2 emissions still tend to be lower in more compact developments.
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