Evaluation of policies to reduce transportation pollution using system dynamics

Pollution caused by road transportation is the major factor affecting human health and adversely affecting the global warming. In the study, a system dynamics model has been applied to forecast vehicle emissions from road transport to evaluate policies in the transportation management. The proposed model was applied to evaluate and compare three transportation policy scenarios including road expansion, public transit incentive and enforcement of quality norms for vehicles. The pollution emission data is taken in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The pollution in the study area will increase substantially if no management plans are implemented. The impact of population increase on transportation pollution has also been considered. It was found that among the proposed policies, implementation of the transit incentive policy to adopt public transports and the implementation of Bharat Stage IV norms for vehicles proved to be efficient in reducing the transport pollution to a great extent.