A quasi-experimental evaluation of high-emitter non-compliance and its impact on vehicular tailpipe emissions in Atlanta, 1997–2001

A quasi-experimental evaluation is employed to assess the compliance behavior of high emitters in response to Atlanta’s Inspection and Maintenance program between 1997 and 2001 and to predict the impact of compliance behavior on vehicular tailpipe emissions of ozone precursors, such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide. Remote sensing data of a sample of approximately 0.8 million observations of on-road vehicles are matched with IM program data and vehicle registration data to identify the compliant and non-compliant high emitters. A mixed-pool time-series regression analysis is carried out to predict changes in the vehicular tailpipe emissions due to the compliance and non-compliance of the high emitters in the Atlanta airshed.