An improved method for evaluating eco-driving behavior based-on speed-specific vehicle-specific power distributions

Eco-driving is the driving behavior that improves fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. It is important to develop a method to accurately evaluate driving behaviors to support eco-driving training. However, the lack of evaluation baseline in the previous studies leads to uncertainty in the eco-driving evaluation under different traffic conditions. This study develops a method for evaluating driving behaviors in relation to the vehicle trajectory data of 19,779 drivers based on speed-specific distributions of vehicle-specific power (VSP), and develops the speed-specific baseline of VSP distributions and the baseline of fuel rates from the drivers' driving behaviors. The results show the following: (1) the speed-specific VSP distributions can evidently characterize the differences among individuals' eco-driving behavior; (2) the proposed evaluation method based on the baseline is able to overcome the uncertainty of eco-driving evaluation under different traffic conditions. The findings are helpful in supporting eco-driving training.