Emission Estimation of On-Demand Meal Delivery Services - A Macroscopic Simulation

Sep 27, 2026

Macroscopic simulations of passenger traffic in cities are widely used, yet integrating last-mile delivery into such simulations to assess emissions remains uncommon. This study closes the gap by running two macroscopic traffic simulations of New York City in PTV VISUM. It evaluates on-demand meal delivery emissions by OD-pairs (trip level) and by network links (street level), showing delivery impacts on detours, congestion, and vehicle emissions per kilometer across the entire network.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Urban freight and air pollution context

Linking emissions to congestion and simulation assumptions

Article Emission Estimation of On-Demand Meal Delivery Services Using a Macroscopic Simulation Maren Schnieder *, Chris Hinde and Andrew West Citation: Schnieder, M.; Hinde, C.; West, A. Emission Estimation of On-Demand Meal Delivery Services Using a Macroscopic Simulation. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 11667. [https://doi.org/10.3390/](https://doi.org/10.3390/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.3390/)ijerph191811667 Academic Editor: Paul B. Tchounwou Received: 17 August 2022 Accepted: 14 September 2022 Published: 16 September 2022 Publisher's Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afﬁliations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ([https://](https://)[ ](https://)[creativecommons.org/licenses/by/](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[ ](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[4.0/](4.0/)) . The Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK * [Correspondence: m.schnieder@lboro.ac.uk](Correspondence: m.schnieder@lboro.ac.uk) Abstract: While macroscopic simulations of passenger vehicle trafﬁc within cities are now common practice, the integration of last mile delivery into a macroscopic simulation to evaluate the emissions has seldomly been achieved. In fact, studies focusing solely on last mile delivery generally focus on evaluating the delivery service itself. This ignores the effect the delivery service may have on the trafﬁc ﬂow in cities, and therefore, on the resulting emissions. This study ﬁlls this gap by presenting the results of two macroscopic trafﬁc simulations of New York City (NYC) in PTV VISUM: (i) ondemand meal delivery services, where the emissions are evaluated for each OD-Pairs (i.e., each trip) and (ii) on-demand meal delivery services, where the emissions are evaluated for each link of the network (i.e., street) . This study highlights the effect on-demand meal delivery has on the travelled distance (i.e., detours), congestion and emissions per km of every vehicle in the network, not just the delivery vehicles. Keywords: PTV VISUM; macroscopic trafﬁc simulation; on-demand meal delivery; collection and delivery points 1. Introduction Freight transport has often been ignored in urban policies [1] . One reason given is the lack of quantitative knowledge [1], especially a lack of information about the ﬂow of goods [2] . While macroscopic trafﬁc simulations of urban passenger transport are common practice, macroscopic simulations considering urban goods transport are still comparatively few [3] . Studies combining macroscopic trafﬁc and emission simulations are rare for freight transport. On the other hand, the literature on combined macroscopic trafﬁc and emission simulations for passenger transport is extensive [4] . However, urban goods transport isone of the causes of air pollution in residential areas [5–7] and the city centre [8–10] . The concerns about air pollution are becoming increasingly newsworthy, especially in urban environments due to the adverse effects on human health. The pollution levels in many cities around the world are considered dangerous [11] . The effect of pollution caused by trafﬁc is more severe compared with the pollution caused by industry due to the close proximity of people to the source of transport pollution [12] . Schnieder et al. [13] have illustrated that the results of emission simulations are extremely sensitive to changing the simulation assumptions (e.g., road gradient, temperature, parking duration) or pollutants (e.g., CO2, PM 10 exhaust, PM10 non-exhaust, and Well-to-Wheel emissions) . The study presented in this paper adds to this narrative by highlighting the fact that delivery activities may also affect the emissions of other trafﬁc within

FAQs

Why is integrating last-mile delivery into macroscopic traffic simulations important?

Because evaluating only the delivery service can ignore how delivery activities change city traffic flow, which directly affects emissions.

How does the study evaluate emissions for on-demand meal delivery?

It compares two approaches in PTV VISUM: emission evaluation per OD-pair (each trip) and emission evaluation per network link (each street).

What traffic effects does the study highlight as consequences of on-demand meal delivery?

It reports impacts on travelled distance (detours), congestion levels, and emissions per kilometer for every vehicle in the network, not only delivery vehicles.

Sep 27, 2026

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