Automobile Fuel Economy on Fixed Urban Driving Schedules

Various fixed urban driving schedules have been defined to represent the speed-time characteristics of urban traffic. When the fuel economy of a particular vehicle is measured using a fixed urban driving schedule, the result depends on the particular schedule chosen. In the present paper it is shown that the differences in fuel economy measured using different schedules can be satisfactorily explained in terms of a simple model, relating fuel consumption to the average speed of urban traffic, previously derived by driving instrumented vehicles in actual street traffic.