TwitterTRUE presented at POLIS Annual Conference
The Real Urban Emissions (TRUE) Initiative was presented at the 2019 annual Polis Conference “Innovation in Transport for Sustainable Cities and Regions” in Brussels.
Over two days, 27 sessions ranging from urban freight management, parking, and cycling to smart procurement, road safety, and transport digitalization took place with 650 representatives from cities, regions, and transport organizations. Host POLIS is the European network of cities and regions working together to promote sustainable mobility.
Dr Sandra Wappelhorst, International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) researcher, presented TRUE’s work at the session entitled ‘Measuring Emissions in Cities’. She highlighted that real-world vehicle emission data is crucial for policy-making in cities and also for informing consumers about the environmental impact of the cars they drive. The TRUE remote sensing in London, for example, found that NOx emissions of Euro 6 diesel cars were 5 times above its type-approval value; for London’s Euro 5 black cabs the value was even higher at 10 times its type-approval value. TRUE’s work in Paris also showed the importance of temperature effects: in-use NOx emissions increased dramatically at high outside temperatures. NOx emissions of Euro 6 diesel cars measured at ambient temperatures above 30°C were 30% greater than at temperatures between 20 and 30°C.
She also made the link to regulated urban access areas such as the ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) in London and Paris’ low emission zones (LEZ) and concluded how real-world emissions data could be utilized to compare the potential impact of different ULEZ/LEZ design options to increase their impact in terms of accelerating air quality improvements.
