Dynamic Route Planning for Urban Green Mobility: Development of a Web Application Offering Sustainable Route Options to Commuters

Abstract

Rising travel distances and worsening urban air quality underscore the need for improved route choices to reduce energy consumption and exposure. Whereas traditional route-planning systems focus mainly on distance and time, this study develops a methodology that provides users with wider choices in route selection. The paper presents a web-based tool designed to assist commuters in selecting eco-friendly routes. This tool combines a React.js frontend for intuitive user input with a Go back end that processes real-time data to rank and deliver route suggestions based on air pollution and energy consumption, in addition to distance and time. Real-time application programming interfaces from Mapbox are used for traffic conditions, and the World Air Quality Index is used for air-quality metrics, which are integrated into the GraphHopper multimodal routing engine. As a result, the tool offers five route choices: the shortest route, the fastest route, the route with the least exposure to air pollution (LEAP), the route with the least energy-consumption route (LECR), and a suggested route that considers all four parameters. Applied to Delhi, the tool demonstrates that the LEAP route can reduce exposure by up to 53%, although it may lead to a 42% increase in travel time in Central Delhi. This study is the first to showcase the LECR in India, demonstrating that selecting this route can save up to 28% of energy in South Delhi. Daily variability analysis conducted at different hours revealed that peak-hour times correlate with increased exposure and energy consumption. Although these results are initial and could be further enhanced with better data, the preliminary results are encouraging.