Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128

www.elsevier.com/locate/trd

Development of a practical driving cycle

construction methodology: A case study in Hong Kong
a,*
W.T. Hung , H.Y. Tong a, C.P. Lee a, K. Ha b, L.Y. Pao b

a
The Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
b
The Environmental Protection Department, Revenue Tower, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Abstract

A practical methodology for constructing a representative driving cycle reflecting the real-world driving conditions is
developed for vehicle emissions testing and estimation. The methodology tackles three major tasks, i.e., data collection,
route selection and cycle construction. Both car chasing and on-board measurement techniques were employed to collect
vehicle speed data. Route selection was based on the records of average annual daily traffic of the road network between
major residential areas and commercial/industrial areas. A variety of parameters were employed as the target statistics cha-
racterising the driving pattern in the construction of driving cycles. The performance value and speed-acceleration prob-
ability distribution were utilised to determine the best synthesised driving cycle. The method is easy to follow and the
driving cycles are comparative to other renounced cycles.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Driving cycle; Performance value; Speed and acceleration distribution; Driving route selection

1. Introduction

To quantify vehicular emissions, researchers developed driving cycles for dynamometer vehicle emission
testing. Driving cycle provides a representative speed-time profile of driving behaviour in a specific area/city.
Driving cycles have been known to provide a wide range of applications. Standard driving cycles, such as the
US Federal Test Procedure (FTP) and ECE Cycle, have been widely used to test vehicle compliance to stat-
utory emission limits as well as for the vehicle design, tooling and marketing (Watson et al., 1982). Driving
cycles can also be used by researchers to estimate pollutants generated from vehicles (Bullock, 1982) and vehi-
cle fuel consumption for a particular area (Lyons et al., 1986; Simanaitis, 1977).
Current driving cycles are developed with on-road driving data rather than by simulation and usually strat-
efied by route type, vehicle type, time period and speed level. The route type usually relates to the vehicle type.
For example, routine travelling routes for specific type of vehicles were selected for the development of driving

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2766 6044; fax: +852 2334 6389.
E-mail address: cewthung@inet.polyu.edu.hk (W.T. Hung).

1361-9209/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.trd.2007.01.002
116 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128

cycles of that particular type of vehicle in the United States. Whereas in some cases the routes were selected to
cover the type of land use, road type, driving condition and availability of public transport systems (e.g., Perth
Driving Cycle, Melbourne Peak Driving Cycle and Sydney Driving Cycle).
There is a strong agreement among researchers that driving characteristics of each city is unique because of
different vehicle fleet composition, driving behaviour and road network topography (Andre et al., 2006).
Ergeneman et al. (1997) reported that the use of the European Driving Cycle to predict total exhaust emissions
in Turkey did not produce accurate results. There are also some problems with existing driving cycles because
of underestimation of the acceleration and cruise activities, time spent in cold transient mode and thus the
emissions, and overestimation of the time at stop and at cruise (Lin and Niemeier, 2002). It is therefore better
for environmental protection administrations to congregate all the distinct information to develop their own
tailor-made driving cycles than using driving cycles developed elsewhere.
A practical driving cycle construction methodology is thus developed for Hong Kong based on the previous
works of the co-authors (Tong and Hung, 1999). The methods comprises three major components, namely
data collection methodology, test route selection methodology, and the cycle construction methodology. Sam-
ple driving cycles representing urban, sub-urban and highway driving characteristics, using driving data col-
lected in Hong Kong were developed. The developed cycles were then compared with existing international
driving cycles.

2. International practicing methods

Many driving cycles have been developed worldwide. Table 1 summarises some more widely adopted ones
in the US, Europe and Australia and lists out their methods for data collection, test route selection and cycle
construction.

2.1. United States driving cycles

Since the evolution of the FTP72 and FTP75 driving cycles in the 1970s in California, the US Environmen-
tal Protection Agency (USEPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) have been developing and
updating different driving cycles for different purposes (e.g., regulatory, vehicle certification programmes,
emission estimation for the MOBILE and EMFAC model series by USEPA and CARB, respectively). These
cycles were stratefied according to vehicle types (e.g., light duty vehicles, heavy duty vehicles, etc.) and geo-
graphical areas (e.g., greater metropolitan area, urban area, etc.).
Two primary methods have been commonly employed to collect driving data in US (Niemeier et al., 1999),
(a) chase car technique which employs an instrumented car to record the second-by-second speed data as it
follows the target vehicles; and (b) on-board measurement technique which installs instruments on target vehi-
cles to record the second-by-second speed data as they travel along the predetermined routes.
The FTP72 and FTP75 cycles were developed by choosing the whole test run data with the most represen-
tative speed-time profile based on the idle time, average speed, maximum speed and number of stops per trip
(Kruse and Huls, 1973). The Unified Cycle and LA92 cycles employed a ‘‘quasi-random’’ approach by select-
ing micro-trips to form a cycle that improve the sample Speed Acceleration Frequency Distribution (SAFD)
(Lin and Niemeier, 2002). The LA01 cycle applied a different approach, i.e., Monte Carlo simulation, by using
the Markov process theory to describe how actual driving occurs. Modal events are selected according to the
transition probability to form the cycle that matches the target SAFD (Lin and Niemeier, 2002; Lin and Nie-
meier, 2003).

2.2. European driving cycles

One of the earliest European driving cycles was the Improved Driving Cycle (IMC) developed by Kuhler
and Karsten (1978). Large-scale projects such as MODEM-DRIVE and ARTEMIS are conducted by a num-
ber of European institutions, such as INRETS in France, TRL in UK and TUV-RHEINLAND in Germany
with a view to generating a set of driving cycles that would be representative of the European traffic (Esteves-
Booth et al., 2002; Andre, 2004).
 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128 117

Table 1
Development methodologies of selected driving cycles
Driving cycle Route selection Data Assessment criteria Construction method
collection
FTP72, • Home-to-work trips On-board • Stop per distance Select the whole trip best fit the
FTP75 measurement • Average speed overall survey data
• Maximum speed; and
• Number of stops
LA92/ • Mixture of routes by Chase car • SAPD Quasi-random method:
Unified road types and areas method Selection of micro-trips that
cycle improve matching of SAPD
with the overall survey data
LA01 • Mixture of routes by Chase car • Average speed Markov process to select modal
road types and areas method • Maximum speed events according to transition
• Minimum speed probability to match the SAFD
• 95th percentile speed
• Road power; and
• 95th percentile power
Edinburgh • Home-to-work trips Chase car • Speed codes TRAFIX method: Compare
cycle method speed codes of micro-trips with
the overall survey data
Improved • Mixture of routes in On-board • Average speed Match mandatory cycles with
European European cities measurement • Average running speed the overall survey data
cycle • Average acceleration/deceleration according to the assessment
• Mean length of micro-trips parameters
• Average number of acceleration/
deceleration changes
• Average number of stops within a
micro-trip
• Proportions of idling, acceleration,
cruising and deceleration
Sydney cycle • Road classification Chase car • Speed/acceleration matrix Random selection of 2-min
• High emission method • Average speed driving segments
• Traffic density • Root mean square acceleration
• Percentage idle
Melbourne • Central business area Chase car • Average speed Random selection of 100 m
peak cycle • Aterials method • Root mean square speed driving segments
• Highway • Root mean square acceleration
• Positive kinetic energy
• Percentage idle
• Speed/acceleration probability den-
sity function
Perth cycle • Geographic area Chase car • Average speed Knight tour algorithm
method • Stops per distance
• Positive kinetic energy
• Acce. Standard deviation
• Percentage idle; and
• Speed distribution

The IMC was developed by using ten assessment parameters, including the average speed, average running
speed, average acceleration and deceleration, mean length of micro-trips, average number of acceleration–decel-
eration changes within one micro-trip, and proportions of idling, acceleration, cruising and deceleration (Kuhler
and Karsten, 1978). The UK fuel consumption cycle was developed by random simulation of the speed against
time as the function of the distributions of the operational modes. The Edinburgh cycle was developed by the
TRAFIX method, which generated specific codes for each driving segment (Esteves-Booth et al., 2001). The
German motorway driving cycle was derived using the Monte Carlo statistical method, simulating acceleration
from speed-time profile as a function of the cumulative speed acceleration distribution. The 13-mode European
cycle for light duty vehicles was generated by randomly selecting segments having agreement between the initial
and final engine speeds of consecutive segments (Lin and Niemeier, 2002; Lin and Niemeier, 2003).
118 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128

2.3. Australian driving cycles

The three major well-known Australian cycles were developed for the city of Sydney, Melbourne and
Perth. All the three cycles employed the chase car method to collect driving data for different purposes
The Sydney cycle was developed for emission estimation. The Melbourne cycle was targeted to understand
the peak period driving conditions. The Perth cycle’s objective was to address human factors that usually
have been ignored.
The Sydney driving cycle used the average speed, root mean square acceleration and percentage idle time to
be the cycle synthesis parameters. The cycle was produced by randomly selected micro-trips that best fit the
assessment parameters derived for the overall survey data (Kent et al., 1978). The Melbourne Peak cycle (Wat-
son et al., 1982) employed a two-tier random selection process based on the speed-time target parameters sim-
ilar to those used by Kuhler and Karsten (1978). Rather than synthesising the sample data, Kenworthy et al.
(1983) and Lyons et al. (1986) reproduced the speed-time history of the Perth Cycle based on ‘‘Knight’s Tour’’
concept which relied on an understanding of the dynamics of urban driving.

3. Methodology of Hong Kong driving cycle construction

Driving cycle for Hong Kong was first developed by Tong and Hung (1999) with a single instrumented
vehicle travelling through the urban areas of Hong Kong. Selection of the testing routes was mainly based
on experience and knowledge of the local traffic conditions. On-road driving data was then collected by
on-board measurement method. A random selection process was adopted for synthesising the collected driving
data into candidate driving cycles. The best cycle was then selected based on the sum of average absolute per-
centage error (AAPE) between the target statistics and the synthesised cycles. In this study, the above men-
tioned original methodology for Hong Kong was improved and refined in three aspects based on the
experience elsewhere, including, the data collection method, the design of representative testing routes, and
the cycle construction mechanisms.

3.1. Driving data collection techniques

On-board measurement method was adopted in developing the previous Hong Kong driving cycle. Lit-
erature review indicated that both the car chasing and on-board measurement methods have their merits.
Therefore, to further refine the local driving data collection method, both the car chasing and on-board
measurement techniques were employed in this study so as to combine the advantages of these two data
collection methods. However, due to resources constraints, most of the on-road driving tests utilised the
car chasing technique. A total of 29 h of data were collected with the car chasing technique along nine
selected representative routes during the morning peak hours. The car chasing protocol was similar to that
of Austin et al. (1993) except that it is not constrained to any preference of colour of target vehicles. The
on-board measurement method was applied to record only 5.6 h of data within the same time period. The
instrumented private car drivers were instructed to drive as their normal usage during the on-road driving
tests.
The driving tests were conducted from February to December in 2004 during the morning peak hours
(8:00–11:00). For the purpose of quality control and assurance, three different types of vehicle speed sensors
were employed to collect the vehicle speed.
A Nissan (1998 c.c.), Isuzu (3494 c.c.), and Volvo (2400 c.c.) were employed as the chase instrumented vehi-
cles in this study. They were installed with the following equipment:

1. Microwave speed sensor and data acquisition instrument (Corrsys-Datron: Microstar).

2. GPS receiver with data transmission cable (Lowrance I-finder Plus).
3. Infra-red tachometer and data logger (Monarch ACT 3 Panel tachometer and Pico ADC 16 data logger).
4. Lap-top (IBM 600X) for recording microwave, GPS and tachometer signal.
5. 12 V DC to 240 V AC inverter as the power supply for microwave speed sensor, infra-red tachometer and
lap-top.
 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128 119

The equipment provided a continuous second based vehicle speed data. The infra-red tachometer was only
installed on the chase vehicle, Nissan. The microwave speed sensor and GPS receivers were fitted into all the
chase instrumented vehicles. For on-board measurement, only the GPS receivers were equipped on the instru-
mented target vehicles.

3.2. Selection of representative route/region for driving test

A representative route is necessary to reflect normal traffic conditions. However, selection of representative
route is always subjectively determined by the researcher as it was adopted in the original method for devel-
oping the first driving cycle for Hong Kong. A relatively systematic and objective way is to use the Annual
Average Daily Traffic (AADT) as a reference in determining the traffic density, and thus locating the most
frequently used route.
The land uses for the interested area were first identified, such as residential, industrial and commercial.
This formed the origin and destination pair in defining the representative route. Details of land uses were
obtained from the Planning Department, HKSAR. The representative routes were defined by the combination
of road sections, forming a typical commuting route, with the highest overall AADT. The driving test trip
traveling direction was different according to the time period of the day. For example, the trip might start from
a residential area during the morning peak, but in the reverse direction from commercial or industrial areas
during the evening peak. In developing the morning peak commuter route, residential areas for urban and
rural areas were selected as driving test trip origin. Then, typical industrial and commercial areas were iden-
tified as trip destination. Road sections from the defined origin/destination pair with the highest overall
AADT were then combined. Driving tests were only conducted during normal working days, excluding the
public holidays.
According to the route coverage, the route could be further segregated into sub-urban, urban, and highway
commuter routes. As a result, four urban routes, one sub-urban route, and four highway routes were identified
as the most representative morning peak commuter routes for private cars in Hong Kong (Table 2).
The identified routes shown in Table 2 consist of all types of roadways in the roadway hierarchy in Hong
Kong, including Expressways and Urban/Rural Trunk Road (Exp, UT/RT), Primary Distributor (PD), Dis-
trict Distributor (DD), Local Distributor (LD) and Rural Road (RR). Details of the representative routes can
be found in Lee (2006).
A total of 74 trips of speed data were recorded along nine different routes, in which 44 were urban speed
profiles, four were sub-urban speed profiles, and 26 were highway speed profiles. These constituted the data-
base for the specification of spatial differences in driving characteristics and synthesis of driving cycles.

3.3. Hong Kong driving cycle construction mechanism

The most difficult task in the development of a driving cycle is to consolidate the huge amount of driving
data records into a representative driving cycle. In developing the previous driving cycle for Hong Kong, a
random selection process, which is one of the commonly adopted approach for cycle synthesis, was adopted.

Table 2
Identified driving test routes
Route type Details of the route
Urban • Tsuen Wan to Tsim Sha Tsui
• Round trip from PolyU via Boundary Street
• Round trip from PolyU via Lung Cheung Road, and
• Chai Wai to Kennedy Town
Sub-urban • Sai Kung to Choi Hung
Highway • Tuen Mun Road
• Tai Po to PolyU via Tolo Highway
• Ma On Shan to PolyU via Tate’s Cairn Highway, and
• Yuen Long to Causeway Bay/PolyU via the Route 3
120 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128

In the current study, to improve the representativeness of the resultant cycle this cycle construction method-
ology has been further refined in two major aspects, i.e., (a) a more reasonable cycle length calculation method
based on the collected driving data; and (b) a more stringent criteria for the selection of the best driving cycle
from the candidate cycle.
First of all, the collected trip data sets were classified according to the pre-defined route type (urban, sub-
urban and highway). Mean values of a set of assessment criteria were then derived and set to be the target
summary statistics of a particular route type. The same set of assessment criteria adopted in developing the
first Hong Kong driving cycle was employed in this study, including:

1. average speed of the entire driving cycle (v);

2. average running speed (vr);
3. average acceleration (a);
4. average deceleration (d);
5. average micro-trip duration (tm);
6. time proportions of driving modes for idling (Pi);
7. time proportions of driving modes for acceleration (Pa);
8. time proportions of driving modes for cruising (Pc);
9. time proportions of driving modes for creeping (Pcre);
10. time proportions of driving modes for deceleration (Pd);
11. average number of acceleration–deceleration changes (M);
12. root mean square acceleration (arms); and
13. positive kinetic energy (PKE).

Similar to the original cycle synthesis process, micro-trips bounded by idling times were identified for each
trip in the corresponding route type. They were then selected randomly to form a driving cycle and idling peri-
ods were also appended to the cycle at the same time until the designated cycle duration was achieved. The
cycle duration should not be too short to have sufficient micro-trips to reflect the real-world driving patterns.
However, it should not be too long since it is not practical for dynamometer experiment. Most of the legisla-
tive driving cycles are of cycle duration between 10 and 30 min. A 20 min cycle duration was preferred for
constructing the driving cycle in this study.
After the candidate cycle was established, the assessment parameters were calculated and compared with
the target statistics. If each of the assessment parameter was different from the target mean values by less than
5%, then that cycle was accepted. Otherwise, another pre-defined number of micro-trips were sampled and this
exercise repeated. Since the mean durations of the micro-trips for urban, sub-urban and highway trips are
about 140, 200 and 135 s respectively, a composition of 9, 7 and 9 micro-trips would result in a cycle of about
20 min long for the corresponding cycle groups. *
Given the set of all driving speed data ðD* Þ with the corresponding target statistics vector ðh Þ, a sequence
ht t
of micro-trips was selected to constitute the synthesized driving cycle. The synthesized driving cycle can there-
fore be expressed as
 
*
C * ¼ x1 ; x2 ; . . . ; xj ; . . . ; xn j h 8xj 2 D* ð1Þ
hi i ht

where C **is a sequence of micro-trips constituting the synthesized driving cycle i with the set of corresponding
hi
statistics h i , xj is a sequence of speed data constituting a micro-trip (including the idling period immediately
before the micro-trip) = {y1j, y2j, . . . , ytj, . . ., ylj}, ytj is a single speed data of the micro-trip j at time t, l is the
*
duration of micro-trip j, n is the number of micro-trip constituting the driving cycle, and h i is the correspond-
ing set of statistics for the driving cycle i.*
If each * criterion of the set of statistics (h i Þ for the corresponding candidate cycle i is within 5% of the target
statistics (h t Þ, the candidate cycle i is an acceptable driving cycle. The synthesized cycle obtained from the pro-
posed method is not unique. A number of acceptable candidate cycles can be generated. As a result, 10 can-
didate cycles were generated for the selection of the most representative driving cycle. Two methods for
selecting the most representative cycle from all the candidate cycles were employed, namely by using the per-
 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128 121

formance value (PV) and speed acceleration probability distribution (SAPD) as decision criterion. The intro-
duction of these two criteria further improves the representativeness of the selected resultant driving cycle.
To consider all the criteria for cycle synthesis, the PV described in Eq. (2) is introduced for selecting the best
cycle. It represents the sum of AAPEs of the 13 parameters between the candidate cycle and the target statis-
tics. The smaller is the PV value, the better the real-world driving pattern is represented. Therefore, the can-
didate cycle with smallest PV values will be selected as the most representative driving cycle for the
corresponding group
* *
PV ¼ jh i  h t j  W T ð2Þ
where WT is the transpose of the row weight vector corresponding to the set of statistics.

Determine the representative routes

throughout the interested area

Collect driving speed data using car

chasing technique

Calculate the target statistics from the

entire speed-time data set ( θ t ) (micro-tips)

Select desired number of driving

segments to form a cycle

Calculate the statistics of the

synthesized cycle ( θ i )

Is θ t − θ i < Desired % error Cycle Rejected

θt
No

Yes

Cycle Accepted

Iterate desired number of times

to synthesize candidate cycles

Synthesized Cycle with Smallest Error

(Smallest PV & SSD)

Fig. 1. Flow chart for driving cycle model.

122 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128

If the PV values of two candidate cycles are equal, the best cycle will be determined according to the SAPD of
the two candidate cycles. SAPD is another useful tool for representing driving behaviours. It is the probability of
the driving data taken place in each speed and acceleration class. SAPD is usually shown in terms of frequency or
probability plot, which provides visual information of driving patterns for each individual trip or group of trips.
To construct a SAPD, the speed and acceleration were divided into classes with equal intervals. Speed data
of a speed-time profile was then classified into the corresponding speed/acceleration class to form a frequency
distribution matrix. The matrix was then converted to percentage of the total number of speed data. Generally
speaking, the resolution of speed and acceleration classes depends on the collected driving patterns and the
purpose of the cycle. If there are a lot of minor fluctuations in the driving speed profile, the resolution should
have to be sufficiently fine to reflect those driving variations.
Here the resolution of SAPD was 5 km/h and 0.2 m/s2 with speed ranged from 0 km/h and 120 km/h and
acceleration ranged from 4 m/s2 to 4 m/s2. SAPD for each individual speed profile was first derived. An
overall SAPD for each group of trips was then obtained by calculating the mean across all individual SAPDs
in the corresponding group. The most representative driving cycle for the corresponding group was then deter-
mined by the smallest Sum Square Difference (SSD) between the SAPD of the candidate cycle and the overall
SAPD
X
Ns X
Na
2
SSD ¼ ðpij  qij Þ ð3Þ
i¼1 j¼1

where Ns is the number of speed classes, Na is the number of acceleration classes, pij is the ijth entry of the
SAPD of the candidate cycle, and qij is the ijth entry of the SAPD of the overall driving speed profiles.

120
100
Speed (km/h)

80
60
40
20
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Duration (sec)

Fig. 2. Hong Kong Urban Driving Cycle (HKUDC).

120
Speed (km/h)

100
80
60
40
20
0
0 500 1000 1500
Duration (sec)

Fig. 3. Hong Kong Sub-Urban Driving Cycle (HKSUDC).

120
Speed (km/h)

100
80
60
40
20
0
0 500 1000 1500
Duration (sec)

Fig. 4. Hong Kong Highway Driving Cycle (HKHDC).

 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128 123

Both the PV and SSD were employed in the cycle selection process so that they could supplement each
other. The best cycle among the generated synthetic cycles would be the one with the smallest PV and SSD
values. Fig. 1 provides an overview on the Hong Kong driving cycle construction methodology.

Fig. 5. Overall SAPDs. (a) SAPD of overall urban trips, (b) SAPD of overall sub-urban trips, (c) SAPD of overall highway trips.
124 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128

4. Results

4.1. Synthesized Hong Kong driving cycles

For demonstration purpose, the synthesized driving cycles were constructed by using the morning peak
data. The characterizing driving parameters were derived from each of the collected speed profile. The total

Fig. 6. SAPDs of synthetic cycles. (a) SAPD of HKUDC, (b) SAPD of HKSUDC, (c) SAPD of HKHDC.
 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128 125

trip duration and length were 36.3 h and 1234 km, respectively. The developed urban, sub-urban and highway
cycles are shown in Figs. 2–4.
As shown in Fig. 2, the Hong Kong Urban Driving Cycle (HKUDC) contains many low speed profiles with
significant fluctuations. It indicates frequent stop and start behaviour due to the interactions between the tar-
get vehicles and the external environment. However, the Hong Kong Sub-Urban Driving Cycle (HKSUDC)
consists of more high speed profiles which implies smoother traffic condition in the sub-urban areas. The Hong
Kong Highway Driving Cycle (HKHDC) only contains relatively fewer micro-trips. Those long and stable
high speed micro-trips represent highway driving conditions where there is no frontage and with wider traffic
lanes. Those relatively low speed profiles resemble congestion at the ramps of the highway.

4.2. Speed-acceleration probability distributions

The SAPDs of HKUDC, HKSUDC and HKHDC, and the overall SAPDs of urban, sub-urban and high-
way groups are shown in Figs. 5 and 6.
As can be seen, the SAPDs of the synthesized Hong Kong driving cycles are similar to their corresponding
group overall SAPDs. In the urban group, both the overall SAPD and HKUDC SAPD have a long idle period
and relatively gentle acceleration and deceleration. In the sub-urban group, it shows higher average speed. A
large proportion of acceleration and deceleration spread across the medium speed ranges, and with higher
acceleration and deceleration rates. In the highway group, both the overall SAPD and HKHDC SAPD show
large proportion of acceleration and deceleration at high speed ranges. It is because the selected representative
highway routes include urban road sections and thus some urban driving characteristics.
The SSDs and PV values were also derived for each group (Table 3). It should be noted that smaller SSD
indicates a higher degree of similarity between the SAPD of the synthesized cycle and the corresponding over-
all SAPD. Results show that the HKSUDC can better represent the speed/acceleration characteristics of the
corresponding group.
Table 4 shows the percentage differences of the assessment parameters between the target group and the
synthesized cycles. In some cases, the Hong Kong method cannot establish the driving cycle probably because
of too many assessment parameters to be satisfied within the designated cycle duration.

Table 3
Derived SSD and PV values for Hong Kong driving cycles
Urban Sub-urban Highway
SSD 1213.65 697.04 1144.08
PV 41.05 74.94 123.05

Table 4
Comparison of assessment parameters of synthesized cycles and the target values
Hong Kong method Urban Sub-urban Highway
Target Synthesized % Diff Target Synthesized % Diff Target Synthesized % Diff
Idle proportion (%) 17.5 17.8 1.7 4.5 4.5 0.9 8.2 8.4 1.7
Acceleration proportion (%) 35.3 34.5 2.4 41.2 40.2 2.5 37.6 37.5 0.1
Cruise proportion (%) 11.6 12.0 3.9 14.4 13.6 5.0 18.6 17.2 7.5
Deceleration proportion (%) 34.1 34.2 0.3 38.0 39.7 4.6 35.2 36.2 2.9
Creeping proportion (%) 1.6 1.5 2.5 2.0 2.0 1.0 0.5 0.7 57.8
RMS acceleration (m/s2) 0.7 0.7 2.7 0.7 0.7 3.1 0.5 0.5 2.0
PKE (m/s2) 0.4 0.4 2.2 0.4 0.4 4.3 0.2 0.3 8.4
Average acceleration (m/s2) 0.6 0.6 4.0 0.5 0.6 3.2 0.4 0.4 1.8
Average deceleration (m/s2) 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.6 0.6 4.0 0.4 0.4 0.5
Average speed (m/s2) 25.7 25.0 2.9 43.0 44.4 3.3 41.5 38.3 7.8
Average running speed (m/s2) 30.8 30.4 1.2 45.0 46.5 3.3 46.0 41.8 9.1
Maximum speed (m/s2) 77.7 77.7 0.0 88.5 106.5 20.3 102.1 91.4 10.4
Ave. micro-trip duration (s) 117.6 117.6 0.0 199.2 205.3 3.1 134.8 128.4 4.7
Ave. acce_dece changes 37.5 36.0 4.1 46.9 48.7 3.8 38.6 36.0 6.8
126 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128

4.3. Comparison between Hong Kong and international cycles

The statistics of several international driving cycles were calculated to conduct a comparison based on the
route types. Comparing Tables 5 and 6, several observations could be made. The total cycle duration varies
significantly across different cycles, ranging from 136 s (Japanese 10 Mode) to 1874 s (US FTP75). The trip
weighted average speeds of the highway cycles are remarkably higher than the other types of cycle (urban
and composite). The urban cycles (average speeds well below 50 km/h) are significantly slower than highway
cycles (average speeds well above 50 km/h).
For the urban driving cycles, most of the modal cycles are considerably differ from the HKUDC. The major
difference is found in the creeping mode as model cycles consist of simple driving phases only. There is no
minor speed fluctuation and thus creeping mode does not exist in modal cycles. However, values of some
assessment parameters of the 10–15 Mode and HKUDC cycles are similar, including PKE, average speed,
average running speed, maximum speed, average acceleration and deceleration rates. The differences of these
parameters between the two cycles are within 10%. For transient cycles, all the assessment parameters of the
international cycles exhibit various degrees of similarity, except average deceleration rate, average speed, aver-
age running speed, maximum speed, average micro-trip duration and the average number of acceleration–
deceleration changes. The PV values of the SFTP-SC03 and Japanese 10–15 mode cycles are closer to that
of the HKUDC for transient and modal cycles respectively. Comparison of PV values for various driving
cycles are shown in Table 7.
The statistics of international highway and composite cycles are illustrated in Table 6. They indicate that
creeping basically does not exist in all international highway and composite cycles, which is different from the
HKHDC developed in this study. Also, only a few parameters of the international highway and composite
cycles are within 10% difference of the corresponding parameters of HKHDC. For example, the average

Table 5
International urban driving cycles for light duty vehicles
Driving cycle Urban
HK FTP FTP NYCC LA SFTP- ECE 10 10–15 IM 240
72 75 92 SC03 15 Mode Mode
Total # of micro-trips 11 17 22 10 16 6 3 2 7 2
Cycle duration (s) 1548 1369 1874 599 1436 596 195 136 660 240
Vehicle kilometers traveled 10.33 11.99 17.77 1.9 15.8 5.76 0.99 0.66 4.17 3.15
(VKT) (km)
Average micro-trip length (km) 0.94 0.71 0.81 0.19 0.99 0.96 0.33 0.33 0.6 1.58
Average micro-trip duration (s) 115.36 66.35 69.95 38.2 76.13 81.67 45 49.5 64.71 115.5
Stops per kilometer 1.07 1.42 1.24 5.27 1.01 1.04 3.02 3.01 1.68 0.63
Average maximum acceleration 1.671 1.433 1.437 1.846 1.981 1.729 0.806 0.806 0.802 1.408
(m/s2)
Average maximum deceleration 1.725 1.438 1.447 1.735 2.28 1.922 0.833 0.806 0.81 1.565
(m/s2)
Proportion of idle (%) 17.8 17.6 17.9 36.2 15.2 17.8 30.8 27.2 31.4 3.8
Proportion of acceleration (%) 34.5 32.8 32.4 27.9 38.2 34.7 21.5 24.3 25.2 46.3
Proportion of cruise (%) 12.0 20.9 21.2 6.3 12.2 18.0 29.2 23.5 21.4 19.6
Proportion of deceleration (%) 34.2 28.3 28.2 28.2 34.1 29.4 18.5 25.0 22.1 30.4
Proportion of creeping (%) 1.5 0.4 0.3 1.3 0.3 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
RMS acceleration (m/s2) 0.734 0.744 0.76 0.909 0.846 0.795 0.661 0.692 0.612 0.664
Positive kinetic energy (PKE) 0.395 0.382 0.384 0.554 0.409 0.411 0.565 0.577 0.427 0.337
(m/s2)
Average acceleration (m/s2) 0.593 0.597 0.607 0.712 0.673 0.603 0.642 0.673 0.569 0.516
Average deceleration (m/s2) 0.595 0.695 0.7 0.704 0.754 0.717 0.748 0.654 0.647 0.795
Average speed (km/h) 25.0 31.5 34.1 11.4 39.6 34.8 18.4 17.6 22.7 47.3
Average running speed (km/h) 30.4 38.3 41.6 17.9 46.7 42.3 26.5 24.1 33.1 49.1
Maximum speed (km/h) 77.7 91.3 91.3 44.6 108.2 88.2 50.0 40.0 70.0 91.3
Average micro-trip duration (s) 117.6 66.35 69.95 38.2 76.13 81.67 45 49.5 64.71 115.5
Average # of acce_dece changes 36 6.29 7 7 9.63 10.33 1 2 2.43 16
 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128 127

Table 6
International light duty driving cycles for composite and highway traffic conditions
Driving cycle Sub-urban Composite Highway
HK NEDC MVEG-A HK EUDC SFTP-US06 HWFEC
Total # of micro-trips 7 13 13 10 1 5 1
Cycle duration (s) 1476 1170 1180 1401 400 596 766
Vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) (km) 18.28 10.93 10.93 14.9 6.95 12.89 16.51
Average micro-trip length (km) 2.61 0.84 0.84 1.49 6.95 2.58 16.51
Average micro-trip duration (s) 200.57 69.23 69.23 128.4 360 112.2 761
Stops per kilometer 0.38 1.19 1.19 0.67 0.14 0.39 0.06
Average maximum acceleration (m/s2) 2.132 0.808 0.808 1.092 0.833 3.21 1.431
Average maximum deceleration (m/s2) 2.141 0.876 0.876 1.285 1.389 2.763 1.475
Proportion of idle (%) 4.5 23.1 23.7 8.4 10.0 5.9 0.7
Proportion of acceleration (%) 40.2 23.2 23.0 37.5 25.8 38.1 26.1
Proportion of cruise (%) 13.6 37.9 37.5 17.2 53.8 20.3 53.8
Proportion of deceleration (%) 39.7 15.9 15.8 36.2 10.5 35.7 19.5
Proportion of creeping (%) 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.0
RMS acceleration (m/s2) 0.698 0.579 0.579 0.494 0.411 1.161 0.379
Positive kinetic energy (PKE) (m/s2) 0.391 0.387 0.387 0.259 0.302 0.375 0.198
Average acceleration (m/s2) 0.555 0.541 0.541 0.398 0.378 0.797 0.288
Average deceleration (m/s2) 0.56 0.789 0.789 0.414 0.926 0.853 0.383
Average speed (km/h) 44.4 33.6 33.4 38.3 62.6 77.8 77.6
Average running speed (km/h) 46.5 43.7 43.7 41.8 69.6 82.7 78.1
Maximum speed (km/h) 106.5 120.0 120.0 91.4 120.0 129.2 96.4
Average micro-trip duration (s) 205.33 69.23 69.23 128.4 360 112.2 761
Average # of acce_dece changes 48.67 1.15 1.15 36 3 28.6 61

Table 7
Performance value of international urban cycles with respect to HKUDC
Driving cycle Urban
FTP 72 FTP 75 NYCC LA 92 SFTP-SC03 ECE 15 10 Mode 10–15 Mode IM 240
Performance value PV 1.46 1.54 1.80 1.45 1.42 2.37 1.99 1.87 1.95

Table 8
Performance value of international composite and highway cycles with respect to HKHDC
Driving cycle Composite Highway
NEDC MVEG-A EUDC SFTP-US06 HWFET
Performance value PV 2.90 2.94 3.56 2.71 5.78

speeds of all the international highway cycles are much higher than that of the HKHDC, ranging from 64% to
103%. As such, most of the international highway and composite cycles exhibit huge differences with the
HKHDC. The SFTP-US06 is relatively closer to the HKHDC in terms of the calculated PV values presented
in Table 8.

5. Conclusions

A systematic and practical method for developing representative driving cycles has been developed with a
focus on the cost effectiveness for continuous refinement of driving cycle. For data collection, the car chasing
method is flexible to record vehicle driving behaviour. Annual average daily traffic has been employed to
reduce bias in the selection of representative routes. The selection of test route has taken into account of road
types, land use characteristics and travelling direction during different peak periods. The original cycle con-
struction method adopted for developing the first driving cycle in Hong Kong has been further refined in terms
128 W.T. Hung et al. / Transportation Research Part D 12 (2007) 115–128

of the calculation of the cycle length as well as the selection of best driving cycle from the synthesised cand-
idated cycles.
Three driving cycles for Hong Kong have been developed in accordance with Hong Kong traffic conditions
(i.e., urban, sub-urban and highway driving behaviours). The assessment parameters of these cycles show sig-
nificant differences when compared to international driving cycles, such as FTP and ECE, which implies the
uniqueness of Hong Kong driving conditions. The developed cycle construction methodology is relatively low
cost and easy to follow. It can be a good relevance to other environmental protection agencies which attempt
to develop their own cycles.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Environmental Protection Department, and the Research Grants Council
(Project No. RGC517205) of the HKSAR for supporting this work. We would also like to thank the valuable
comments of the reviewers.

References

Andre, M ., 2004. The ARTEMIS European driving cycles for measuring car pollutant emissions. Science of the Total Environment 334–
335, 73–84.
Andre, M., Joumard, R., Vidon, R., Tassel, P., Perret, P., 2006. Real-world European driving cycles, for measuring pollutant emissions
from high- and low-powered cars. Atmospheric Environment 40, 5944–5953.
Austin, T.C., DiGenova, F.J., Carlson, T.R., Joy, R.W., Gianolini, K.A., Lee, J.M., 1993. Characterization of driving patterns and
emissions from light-duty vehicles in California. The final report, Contract No. A932-185, California Air Resources Board,
Sacremento.
Bullock, K.J., 1982. Driving cycles. Presented to Joint SAE-A/ARRB Second Conference on Traffic, Energy and Emissions, Melbourne.
Ergeneman, M., Sorusbay, C., Göktan, A., 1997. Development of a driving cycle for the prediction of pollutant emissions and fuel
consumption. International Journal of Vehicle Design 18, 391–399.
Esteves-Booth, A., Muneer, T., Kirby, H., Kubie, J., Hunter, J., 2001. The measurement of vehicular driving cycle within the city of
Edinburgh. Transportation Research Part D, 209–220.
Esteves-Booth, A., Muneer, T., Kubie, J., Kirby, H., 2002. A review of vehicular emission models and driving cycles. Proceedings of the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science 216, 777–797.
Kent, J.H., Allen, G.H., Rule, G., 1978. A driving cycle for Sydney. Transportation Research 12, 147–152.
Kenworthy, J.R., Newman, P.W.G., Lyons, T.J., 1983. A Driving Cycle for Perth. Report to National Energy Research Development and
Demonstration Council, NeERDDP/EG/83/129.
Kruse, R.E., Huls, T.A., 1973. Development for the federal urban driving cycle. SAE Paper 730553, Warrendale.
Kuhler, M., Karsten, D., 1978. Improved driving cycle for testing automotive exhaust emissions. SAE Paper 780650, Warrendale.
Lee, C.P., 2006. Development of driving cycles for characterizing vehicular emission factors. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
MPhi Thesis.
Lin, J., Niemeier, D.A., 2002. An exploratory analysis comparing a stochastic driving cycle to California’s regulatory cycle. Atmospheric
Environment 36, 5759–5770.
Lin, J., Niemeier, D.A., 2003. Estimating regional air quality vehicle emission inventories: constructing robust driving cycles.
Transportation Science 37, 330–346.
Lyons, T.J., Kenworthy, J.R., Austin, P.I., Newman, P.W.G., 1986. The development of a driving cycle for fuel consumption and
emissions evaluation. Transportation Research A 20, 447–462.
Niemeier, D.A., Limanond, Thirayoot, Morey, Jennifer E., 1999. Data collection for driving cycle development: evaluation of data
collection protocols, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of
California, Davis.
Simanaitis, D.J., 1977. Emission test cycles around the world. Automotive Engineering 85, 34–43.
Tong, H.Y., Hung, W.T., 1999. Development of a driving cycle for Hong Kong. Atmospheric Environment 33 (14), 2323–2335.
Watson, H.C., Milkins, E.E., Braunsteins, J., 1982. The development of Melbourne peak cycle, SAE-A and ARRB Traffic Energy and
Emissions Conference Paper 82148, Melbourne.