Emission Inventory Documentation - MOVES Inputs

Tacoma-Pierce County PM2.5 Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan Page 1

Appendix B - MOVES Inputs

Table of Contents

1 Average Speed Distribution (avgSpeedDistribution)............................................................... 2

2 Vehicle Miles Traveled Statistics............................................................................................. 2

2.1 County VMT (HPMSVtypeYear) ..................................................................................... 2

2.2 Road and Vehicle Type Travel Distribution (roadTypeDistribution) ............................... 3

2.3 Restricted Road Ramp Fraction (roadType)...................................................................... 4

2.4 WSDOT VMT Information and MOVES-HPMS Classifications .................................... 4

3 VMT Temporal Adjustments (monthVMTFraction, dayVMTFraction, hourVMTFraction).. 5

4 Fleet Characteristics................................................................................................................. 7

4.1 Age Distribution (sourceTypeAgeDistribution)................................................................ 8

4.2 Vehicle Counts (sourceTypeYear) .................................................................................... 9

4.3 Alternative Vehicle Fuels and Technology (AVFT)....................................................... 10

5 Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program (IMCoverage)............................................... 10

6 California Low-Emission Vehicle II Program (mylevs.emissionRateByAge)...................... 12

7 Meteorological Parameters (zoneMonthHour)....................................................................... 13

8 Fuel Parameters (fuelFormulation and fuelSupply)............................................................... 13

References..................................................................................................................................... 15
Emission Inventory Documentation - MOVES Inputs

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Emission Inventory Documentation

Tacoma-Pierce County PM2.5 Maintenance Plan

MOVES Inputs

MOVES input parameters were similar, though not identical, for both the annual Inventory mode 

runs and the winter day Rates mode runs. All of the parameters are used directly in Inventory 

mode; however, in Rates mode, several are treated as placeholders and essentially ignored. The 

actual values of these parameters are input during post-processing of the MOVES output. Using 

the model in rates mode allowed for easier combination with PSRC's travel demand model VMT 

data when calculating the daily inventory.

Parameters for modeling the inventories are presented below. The attainment year 2011 inputs 

are described, and changes to the inputs for the projection years are noted. The MOVES input 

tables are in parentheses after the parameter name. Parameters that were treated as placeholders 

in the daily inventory are noted in the appropriate sections. 

1 Average Speed Distribution (avgSpeedDistribution)

The MOVES speed distribution default was used. The defaults were used in the annual 

inventory. For the daily rates, the default speeds were used as a placeholder. The rates were 

matched to the PSRC VMT by road type and speed to calculate the daily inventory.

Projection Years: Same as attainment year.

2 Vehicle Miles Traveled Statistics

2.1 County VMT (HPMSVtypeYear)

The VMT file must contain VMT by vehicle type. Because the PSRC VMT was not available by 

vehicle type, Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) data was used to develop the 

model input data. The WSDOT data was used in the annual inventory. For the daily rates, it was 

placeholder with respect to the actual number of VMT by road type. PSRC's VMT data was 

used for the actual VMT amount by road type during post-processing.

While not identical to the PSRC VMT amounts, the WSDOT data met the criteria of reflecting 

realistic values in the area. Realistic values are necessary because MOVES uses the relationship 

between the vehicle counts and VMT to determine the relative amount of time vehicles spend 

parked vs. running. The WSDOT data is described below.
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To allocate the VMT by HPMS vehicle type, WSDOT’s travel activity by vehicle type and road 

class was used (Table 2).1 There is some uncertainty when assigning similar vehicle types (e.g., 

cars vs. light trucks, light trucks vs. smaller single-unit trucks). The uncertainty appeared high 

for the split between cars and light trucks. The state car population was 45% of the sum of cars 

and light duty trucks in 2010, but the reported 2011 travel activity percentage was 70%. As this 

did not seem reasonable, an adjustment was made. First, the car and light truck activity was 

summed. Then the VMT was calculated for the sum. Finally, the VMT was split between cars 

and light trucks using the vehicle population split. This was done on a county basis. County car 

percentages ranged from 32% to 51%.

For the 2011 inventory, the WSDOT data were used to construct the HPMSVtypeYear table of 

Pierce County VMT estimates by HPMS vehicle class (b).

(1) a = VMT x TF, for each combination of county, HPMS road type (Table 3) and 

HPMS vehicle class (Table 5). VMT is from Table 3. TF is the travel 

fraction from Table 2.

(2) b = ∑(a), by county and HPMS vehicle class.

Table 1: MOVES Pierce County 2011 Estimated Annual VMT

MOVES Vehicle Class Annual VMT

Motorcycle 22,207,996

Passenger Car 2,600,693,113

Light Duty Trucks 3,219,329,321

Buses 15,639,428

Single Unit Trucks 311,193,128

Combination Trucks 209,233,174

 TOTAL 6,378,296,160

Projection Years: VMT was projected using PSRC's Pierce County VMT growth rates.

2.2 Road and Vehicle Type Travel Distribution (roadTypeDistribution)

The MOVES roadTypeDistribution file contains VMT fractions by MOVES vehicle and road 

type. WSDOT data was used to develop the distribution. The distribution was used in the 

annual inventory. For the daily rates, the distribution was used both as actual input data and as a 

placeholder. As actual data, it allots vehicle types to road types by hour. The road type 

distribution is a placeholder with respect to the fraction of VMT assigned to each road type. The 

PSRC VMT was used as the actual amount of VMT by road type during post-processing for the 

daily inventory. The WSDOT distribution is described below.
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Though the vehicle breakout uses the MOVES vehicle classes, it is achieved by assuming all 

MOVES vehicle types included in a single HPMS class have the same road distribution (inherent 

assumption in the national travel fractions). The distribution fractions (d) were calculated for 

each MOVES vehicle type and MOVES road type as follows:

(1) a = VMT x TF, for each combination of HPMS road type (Table 3), MOVES road type 

(Table 4), and MOVES vehicle class (Table 5). VMT is from Table 3. 

TF is the travel fraction from Table 2.

(2) b = ∑(a), by MOVES road type and vehicle class.

(3) c = ∑(a), by vehicle class.

(4) d = b/c

Projection Years: Same as attainment year.

2.3 Restricted Road Ramp Fraction (roadType)

To model restricted-access roads (e.g. freeways), vehicle hours traveled are split between the 

ramps and the roadway. The MOVES ramp fraction default is 8%. The default was used for the

annual and daily calculations.

Projection Years: Same as attainment year.

2.4 WSDOT VMT Information and MOVES-HPMS Classifications

Table 2: Washington State Travel Activity Percentages, 2011

HPMS Class Rural UrbanAll

Interstate Arterial Other Interstate Arterial Other

Motorcycles 0.221 0.505 1.28 0.264 0.323 0.398 0.35

Passenger Cars 58.097 58.532 53.748 66.63 66.535 62.446 63.756

Other 2 Axle-4 Tire Vehicles 23.44 28.103 31.454 23.982 25.474 29.765 25.577

Buses 0.319 0.282 0.259 0.248 0.248 0.214 0.262

Single Unit Trucks 5.412 6.84 7.951 4.066 4.925 4.761 4.729

Combination Trucks 12.511 5.738 5.308 4.81 2.495 2.416 5.326

Table 3: Average Daily Vehicle Miles Traveled in Thousands by HPMS Road Type, 2011

Area Interstate Princ Art Minor Art Collector Local

Urban

Pierce 3232 6668 3332 1134 1776

State Total 29788 38539 20738 8378 12049

Rural

Pierce 339 0 649 251 93

State Total 12530 11043 5867 13874 3257
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Table 4: WSDOT and EPA (MOVES) Road Classifications

WSDOT EPA

VMT Travel Fractions Temporal MOVES Road SCC Road

Rural

Interstate Interstate Interstate Restricted Interstate

Principle Arterial Arterial Arterial Unrestricted Principal Arterial

Minor Arterial Arterial Arterial Unrestricted Minor Arterial

Collector Other Other Unrestricted Major Collector

Local Other Other Unrestricted Local

Urban

Interstate Interstate Interstate Restricted Interstate

Principle Arterial Arterial Arterial Unrestricted Principal Arterial

Minor Arterial Arterial Arterial Unrestricted Minor Arterial

Collector Other Arterial Unrestricted Collector

Local Other Arterial Unrestricted Local

Table 5: HPMS and MOVES Vehicle Classifications

MOVES Vehicle Type HPMS & MOVES Vehicle Class

Motorcycle Motorcycles

Passenger Car Passenger Cars

Passenger Truck Other 2 axle-4 tire vehicles

Light Commercial Truck Other 2 axle-4 tire vehicles

Intercity Bus Buses

Transit Bus Buses

School Bus Buses

Refuse Truck Single Unit Trucks

Single Unit Short-haul Truck Single Unit Trucks

Single Unit Long-haul Truck Single Unit Trucks

Motor Home Single Unit Trucks

Combination Short-haul Truck Combination Trucks

Combination Long-haul Truck Combination Trucks

3 VMT Temporal Adjustments (monthVMTFraction, dayVMTFraction, 

hourVMTFraction)

Month and day-of-week adjustments were actual data for the annual inventory and placeholders

for the daily rates. Hourly adjustments were actual data for the annual inventory and served as 

both placeholders and actual data for the daily rates. They were used as placeholders with 

respect to the amount of VMT allocated to each hour. The actual amount of VMT allocated to 

each of PSRC's 5 time periods was used to calculate daily emissions.
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WSDOT adjustment factors for month, day of week, and hour (weekday and weekend) were 

used in the MOVES runs.2 The adjustment factors were based on traffic counter data, and were 

calculated for 5 road classes (Table 4). MOVES temporal files were developed using the 

WSDOT temporal adjustments with WSDOT VMT and road/vehicle travel estimates described 

above.

In the MOVES default database, all vehicle types are assumed to have the same temporal 

distributions. The same assumption was made for Pierce County.

The Other Rural Arterial category was used to represent MOVES class Rural Unrestricted. Offnetwork fractions were calculated as the average of the fractions for Urban Restricted and Urban 

Unrestricted.

The monthly adjustments (d) were calculated for each county and month:

(1) a = ∑VMT, by county and MOVES road type (Table 4). VMT is from Table 3.

(2) b = ∑(a), by county

(3) c = a/b, which are VMT fractions by county and MOVES vehicle class.

(4) m = WSDOT VMT fractions by month and MOVES road type. The fractions were 

calculated from the data in Table 6 such that the fractions sum to 1 for the year.

(5) d = ∑(c x m), by county and month

Table 6: WSDOT VMT Monthly Adjustment Factors

WSDOT Road Type Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Rural Interstate 0.77 0.85 0.93 1 1.03 1.12 1.22 1.24 1.1 1.03 0.89 0.83

Other Rural Arterial 0.77 0.86 0.9 0.95 1.04 1.12 1.25 1.26 1.11 1.03 0.84 0.79

Other Rural 0.72 0.77 0.82 0.87 1.05 1.23 1.42 1.36 1.2 1.01 0.84 0.71

Urban Interstate 0.92 0.97 0.99 1.01 1.06 0.99 0.98 0.98 0.99 0.95 0.91 0.91

Other Urban Arterial 0.92 0.95 0.98 1.01 1.06 1.07 1.06 1.07 1.03 1 0.93 0.93

The day-of-week adjustments (d) were calculated for each day type (weekday, weekend) and 

MOVES road type:

(1) a = ∑ Mon to Fri adjust. factors (Table 7) for each MOVES road type (Table 4).

(2) b = ∑ Sat and Sun adjust. factors (Table 7) for each MOVES road type (Table 4).

(3) c = a+b, by MOVES road type.

(4) dweekday = a/c, dweekend = b/c

Table 7: WSDOT VMT Day of Week Adjustment Factors (x 100)

Road Type Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Rural Interstate 107.38 93.76 88.1 89.95 98.22 122.86 99.66

Other Rural Arterial 96.32 95.22 94.32 95.17 100.48 117.73 100.13

Other Rural 100.33 93.64 92.97 94.06 98.66 110.45 110.8

Urban Interstate 79.69 101.01 103.03 104.91 106.65 112.69 92.02

Other Urban Interstate 75.33 102.5 104.86 106.51 107.92 113.47 89.25
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The hourly adjustments (b) were calculated for each day type (weekday, weekend), hour, and 

MOVES road type:

(1) a = ∑ Hourly factors (Table 8) for each MOVES road type (Table 4) and day type 

(weekday/weekend)

(2) bweekday = Hour j/a, where j = 1 through 24, and daytype = weekday

(3) bweekend = Hour j/a, where j = 1 through 24, and daytype = weekend

Table 8: WSDOT VMT Hourly Fractions (x 100)

Hour

Rural Urban

Interstate Arterial Other Interstate Other

Wkday Wkend Wkday Wkend Wkday Wkend Wkday Wkend Wkday Wkend

1 1 1.2 0.6 1 0.6 1 0.8 1.6 0.6 1.6

2 0.8 0.8 0.4 0.6 0.4 0.8 0.6 1 0.4 1

3 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.4 0.8 0.4 0.8

4 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.6 0.4 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.6

5 1.2 0.6 1 0.6 1.4 0.6 1.2 0.6 1.2 0.6

6 2.4 1 2.2 1 2.6 1 3.2 1 2.8 1.2

7 3.6 1.6 3.8 1.6 4.2 1.4 5.2 1.8 5.2 1.8

8 4.6 2.6 5.2 2.6 5.6 2.4 6.6 2.6 6.6 2.6

9 4.8 3.8 5.2 4 5.2 3.8 6 3.8 5.8 3.8

10 5.4 5.2 5.8 5.6 5 5.2 5.2 5 5.4 5

11 6 6.4 6.2 7 5.4 6.6 5.2 6 5.2 6.2

12 6.4 7.2 6.6 7.8 5.8 7.6 5.2 6.8 5.4 7

13 6.6 7.6 7 8.4 6.2 8.4 5.6 7.2 5.8 7.6

14 6.8 7.8 7 8.4 6.6 8.6 5.8 7.4 6 7.6

15 7.2 8 7.6 8.4 7 8.6 6.4 7.4 6.6 7.6

16 7.6 8 8.2 8.4 8 8.6 7 7.4 7.4 7.4

17 7.6 7.8 8.2 8 8.4 8.2 7.4 7.4 7.8 7.4

18 7.2 7.2 7.4 7 8.2 7.2 7.4 7 7.4 7

19 5.6 6.2 5.4 5.8 6.2 5.8 5.8 6.2 5.8 6.2

20 4.4 5 3.8 4.6 4.4 4.6 4.2 5.2 4.2 5

21 3.6 4 3 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 4.4 3.4 4.2

22 2.8 3 2.2 2.6 2.6 2.6 3 3.8 2.8 3.6

23 2 2.2 1.6 1.8 1.6 1.8 2.2 3 2 2.8

24 1.4 1.4 1 1.2 1 1.2 1.4 2 1.4 1.8

Projection Years: Same as attainment year.

4 Fleet Characteristics

Fleet characteristics are important inputs to MOVES. Washington has a substantially older fleet 

than the national average, and this has a significant effect on emissions. Another difference 

occurs in Pierce County where nearly the entire fleet of transit buses is powered by CNG.

Local data sources were supplemented with some national default information to calculate the 

number of vehicles by type and age, and the age distributions. The data sources and calculations 

are described below.
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The Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) registers non-governmental vehicles 

annually. Registrations for calendar year 2010 and 2012 were obtained from DOL.3

Because DOL does not register public transit and school buses each year, alternate sources of 

information were obtained. Transit and Intercity bus data came from Federal Transit 

Administration (FTA) Annual Report data for 2010 (most recent available).4 EPA classified all 

FTA buses as Transit when they developed the default database. They used FHWA bus 

information to develop the Intercity estimates. EPA believed this estimate should be improved. 

The overall split was 62%/38% Intercity/Transit. For WA, the FTA data appears to include both 

Intercity and Transit (though couldn't find definition of these terms). For the WA fleet, the FTA 

counts were supplemented with private bus counts from DOL (identified as Stages). Though the 

end use (school or other transit) of the DOL buses cannot be determined by any easy means, they 

are only a small portion of the buses. The default 62%/38% Intercity/Transit split was applied to 

the total.

Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) tracks public school 

buses. Data current to March 2012 was used for the 2011 distribution.5 There are duplicate 

VINs in the OSPI database. They were removed prior to tallying counts. OSPI does not identify 

fuel type for the buses. All buses were assumed to be diesel-powered. Private school buses were 

counted in the DOL data. Total school buses were the sum of the DOL and OSPI data.

4.1 Age Distribution (sourceTypeAgeDistribution)

The DOL, FTA, and OSPI registration data was used with VMT data to calculate the number of 

vehicles in each county by model year for several vehicle classes. The statewide distribution was 

also calculated. The model year fractions were calculated from the vehicle counts. The resulting 

distribution was used for both the annual and daily calculations. The registration classes 

matched to the MOVES vehicle types as shown in Table 9.

Distributions were a combination of the county-specific and state distributions. Distributions for 

light duty vehicles, motor homes, and school buses were calculated using the vehicles' registered 

county. Distributions for single and combination trucks were assigned to the statewide 

distribution for all counties since registered county may not be a good indicator of where the 

vehicles travel. The distribution for refuse trucks was also assigned to the statewide distribution 

for all counties since methods for extracting refuse trucks from the DOL data may not capture all 

refuse trucks. Distributions for transit and intercity buses were conditionally assigned. If a 

given county had bus registrations, they were used to calculate the distribution. If not, the 

statewide distribution was used.

Four of the registration classes had to be split in order to match the MOVES vehicle types: light 

duty trucks, non-refuse single unit trucks, combination trucks, and transit/intercity buses. To 

make the splits, the fractions in Table A.1 of the MOVES Technical Guidance were used.

6

The 

fractions were multiplied by the number of WA registrations in the registration class to estimate 

the number of WA registrations in the MOVES vehicle type.
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Because the datasets were predominantly 2010 registrations, the age distributions were 

calculated for 2010. They were projected to 2011 by vehicle type and county with the following 

equations/assumptions where age variables are fractions:

Ages 0 -1: It was assumed fractions were the same as in 2010.

 30 30

Ages 2 - 29: ageN2011 = age(N-1)2010 x ∑ageN / ∑ageN

 2 1

 30 30

Age 30: age302011 = (age292010 + age 302010) x ∑ageN / ∑ageN

 2 1

Projection Years: Same as attainment year.

Table 9: DOL and MOVES Vehicle Classifications

MOVES Vehicle Type WA Registration Vehicle Class

Motorcycle Motorcycle

Passenger Car Passenger Car

Passenger Truck Trucks up to 19,500 lbs gvwt

Light Commercial Truck Trucks up to 19,500 lbs gvwt

Intercity Bus Transit/Intercity Bus

Transit Bus Transit/Intercity Bus

School Bus School Bus

Refuse Truck Refuse Truck

Single Unit Short-haul Truck Single Unit Trucks > 19,500 lbs gvwt

Single Unit Long-haul Truck Single Unit Trucks > 19,500 lbs gvwt

Motor Home Motor Home

Combination Short-haul Truck Combination Trucks

Combination Long-haul Truck Combination Trucks

4.2 Vehicle Counts (sourceTypeYear)

Vehicle counts were used as actual data for the annual and daily calculations. Vehicle counts by 

county and MOVES vehicle type for 2010 were calculated according to the MOVES Technical 

Guidance. County vehicle counts were calculated as described above. The counts are used to 

calculate off-network emissions: starts, evaporative permeation and fuel vapor venting, extended 

idling, and refueling.

An adjustment was made for refuse trucks, and short and long haul single and combination

trucks. County registrations may not be a good indicator of trucking activity in an individual 

county. State registrations were apportioned to counties using a spatial surrogate. Two different 

surrogates were tested: human population and truck VMT. Either surrogate is reasonable for 

counties where the population and VMT are comparable, such as Pierce County. To be 

consistent with the statewide 2011 inventories, population was used as the surrogate.
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The 2010 vehicle counts were projected to 2011 by vehicle type and county based on human 

population:7 VehicleTypeCount x (2011 population / 2010 population).

Table 10: Pierce County Population

Year Population

2010 795,225

2011 802,150

Table 11: Estimated 2011 Vehicle Counts

MOVES Vehicle Type Vehicles

Motorcycle 24,434

Passenger Car 269,735

Passenger Truck 251,671

Light Commercial Truck 81,988

Intercity Bus 264

Transit Bus 162

School Bus 1,234

Refuse Truck 155

Single Unit Short-haul Truck 4,293

Single Unit Long-haul Truck 306

Motor Home 7,219

Combination Short-haul Truck 2,247

Combination Long-haul Truck 1,931

Projection Years: Vehicle counts were projected using PSRC's Pierce County vehicle population

growth factors. The growth factors incorporated projections in households, vehicle trips per 

household, and vehicle miles traveled.

4.3 Alternative Vehicle Fuels and Technology (AVFT)

In Pierce County, nearly the entire fleet of transit buses is powered by CNG. The MOVES 

default AVFT file was exported from the County Data Manager. Transit bus (veh 42) fuels were 

updated to 100% CNG.

Projection Years: Same as attainment year.

5 Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program (IMCoverage)

There is a Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) programs in the Puget Sound area covering 

most of King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties.8 Both gasoline and diesel vehicles are tested, 

but MOVES only models I/M benefits for gasoline vehicles. The remainder of this section 

addresses the I/M program for gasoline vehicles.
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In MOVES, the I/M program is defined for each county and evaluation year. The required 

parameters are test frequency, pollutant, test type, first and last model year tested, fuel type, 

vehicle type, emissions process, and compliance factor. They are described in more detail 

below.

The test frequency is biennial. The pollutant and emissions processes tested are exhaust 

hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, and evaporative hydrocarbons.

The program includes multiple test types. From 2008 to June 30, 2012, vehicles required to test 

are given a gas cap check, and either a 2500/idle test, acceleration simulation mode (ASM) test, 

or on-board diagnostic (OBD) test. The vehicle type and model year determine the test type 

given. Beginning July 1, 2012, the Dept. of Ecology is proposing to simplify the I/M tests by 

eliminating the gas cap check and ASM tests. The I/M program will be ended no later than Dec. 

31, 2019, and may be ended in 2017.

A summary of the test types, model years tested, and vehicle (duty) types are shown in the table 

below. To simplify data requirements, the current I/M program is defined from calendar year 

2008 to 2012. The future program is defined as covering calendar year 2013 to 2019.

Table 12: I/M Program Test Types and Applicable Model Years and Vehicle Duty Class

ID Test Type Veh Duty

2008-2012 2013-2019

First MY Last MY First MY Last MY

1 ASM 2525 Phase-in Cutpoints Light First MY 1995

2 Two-mode, 2500 RPM/Idle Test Light First MY 1995

3 Exhaust OBD Check Light 1996 Last MY 1996 2008

4 Two-mode, 2500 RPM/Idle Test Heavy First MY Last MY First MY 2008

5 Evaporative Gas Cap Check Heavy First MY 1999

6 Evaporative System OBD Check Light 1996 Last MY 1996 2008

7 Evaporative Gas Cap Check Light First MY 1995

First and last model year (MY) for each year of evaluation are defined in WACs 173-422 and 173-422A

The final parameter is the compliance factor. The compliance factor is the product of the 

compliance rate and (100 - waiver rate)/100. The compliance rate is the percentage of vehicles 

required to test that either pass the test or receive a waiver. A compliance factor was calculated 

based on 2007 testing and licensing data.9 The waiver rate is the percentage of vehicles that fail 

an initial test and do not pass a retest, but do receive waiver. Waiver rates were calculated for 

each test type based on 2007-2008 testing data.10 The compliance rates, waiver rates, and 

compliance factors are shown in Table 13.
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Table 13: Compliance Rate, Waiver Rate, and Compliance Factor

ID Test Type Veh Duty Waiver 

Rate

Compliance 

Rate

Compliance 

Factor

1 ASM 2525 Phase-in Cutpoints Light 20.5 94.5 75.1

2 Two-mode, 2500 RPM/Idle Test Light 19.7 94.5 75.9

3 Exhaust OBD Check Light 27.9 94.5 68.1

4 Two-mode, 2500 RPM/Idle Test Heavy 13.6 94.5 81.6

5 Evaporative Gas Cap Check Heavy 0 94.5 94.5

6 Evaporative System OBD Check Light 27.9 94.5 68.1

7 Evaporative Gas Cap Check Light 0 94.5 94.5

Projection Years: The 2017 program was defined using the tests shown in Table 12. The waiver 

and compliance rates, and compliance factor were the same as the attainment year. For 2026, 

I/M was discontinued.

6 California Low-Emission Vehicle II Program (mylevs.emissionRateByAge)

The MOVES model uses federal emissions standards by default. Because several states adopted 

California Low-Emission Vehicle (LEV) standards in place of the federal standards, EPA 

provided files and instructions for modeling LEV standards.11

LEV standards affect cars and light duty trucks, SUVs and vans. The California LEV input 

database provides a set of alternate HC, CO, and NOx start and running emission rates based on 

EPA and CA Air Resources Board (CARB) analysis of the LEV programs. The input database 

provides rates from model year 1994 until model year 2050, including both the LEV I and LEV 

II California standards. These rates replace the rates in the default database for these particular 

pollutants and model years. EPA provided tools to modify the files to reflect the model years 

affected by the LEV standards in the area of interest.

WA adopted California LEV II standards beginning with 2009 model year vehicles. The EPA 

tools were used to create a supplementary emissionRateByAge table where the first model year 

subject to LEV II standards is 2009. The LEV standards are given by fuel type, engine type, 

vehicle type, model year, pollutant, emission mode, age group, and vehicle operating mode. 

The vehicle operating mode describes what the vehicle is doing (accelerating, braking, cruising, 

idling), vehicle specific power (VSP – an energy measure in kw/tonne), and speed. There are 

individual 31 operating modes in the LEV table.

There are over 65,000 standards records in the supplementary file, but the LEV standards as 

fractions of the federal standards are fairly constant for the three major classes of operating 

modes shown in Table 14.
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Table 14: LEV Standards as Fractions of Federal Standards, Approximate

Pollutant

Running Emissions

speed < 25 or

speed ≥ 25 and VSP < 18

Running Emissions

speed ≥ 25 and VSP ≥ 18 Start Emissions

Car Light Truck Car Light Truck Car Light Truck

HC 0.78 0.76 1.01 0.99 0.75 0.77

CO 0.67 0.64 1.00 0.99 0.76 0.76

NOx 1.02 0.79 1.01 0.99 1.01 0.92

EPA also included files and a procedure to model the effects of California’s Zero-Emission 

Vehicle requirements on evaporative emissions. WA did not adopt the ZEV standards, so these 

should not be used.

Projection Years: Same as attainment year.

7 Meteorological Parameters (zoneMonthHour)

Emissions are affected by temperature and humidity. These parameters are required by month 

and hour to estimate emission rates. Temperatures and humidity used in the base year 2008 

inventory were used for the budget. The temperature profile is representative of days on which 

exceedances of the 24-hour PM2.5 standard primarily occur. Using meteorological data from the 

Tacoma L Street monitoring site, seventy-four (74) days were identified between Jan. 1, 2006, 

and December 31, 2010, on which the daily PM2.5 concentration exceeded 25 μg/m3. Each 

hour’s temperatures for the 74 days were pooled. The 50th (median) percentile for each hour 

was calculated to produce the design day temperature profile.

Table 15: Tacoma PM2.5 NAA Winter Temperature Profile

Hour Temperature Hour Temperature Hour Temperature Hour Temperature

0 28 6 29 12 43 18 34

1 27 7 29 13 45 19 34

2 27 8 30 14 46 20 34

3 28 9 33 15 45 21 32

4 28 10 36 16 41 22 32

5 28 11 41 17 37 23 32

Projection Years: Same as attainment year.

8 Fuel Parameters (fuelFormulation and fuelSupply)

The gasoline fuel parameters are Reid vapor pressure (RVP); sulfur content; oxygenate types, 

volume, and market share; aromatic, olefin, and benzene content; the volume percentage of 

gasoline evaporated at 200 and 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and the temperatures where 50% and 

90% of gasoline is vaporized.
Emission Inventory Documentation - MOVES Inputs

Tacoma-Pierce County PM2.5 Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan Page 14

The MOVES Technical Guidance recommended using model defaults for all fuel properties 

except legal RVP limits and oxygenated fuel market share, unless survey data was available and 

included volumetric data to weigh the sample results. Survey data was available from NorthropGrumman,12 but it did not include volumetric data, so defaults were used for most of the 

parameters. The survey was useful for comparison to the default.

The MOVES defaults allocated counties to one of four groups: (1) King, Pierce, and Snohomish, 

(2) Spokane, (3) Other Western WA, (4) Other Eastern WA. The default data county groupings 

separating King/Pierce/Snohomish from the rest of western WA were likely based on an old 

voluntary low RVP agreement that no longer exists. A comparison of the MOVES defaults with 

the Northrup-Grumman data showed the Seattle survey data (representing 

King/Pierce/Snohomish) matched with either the King/Pierce/Snohomish or the WWA group. 

For consistency with statewide 2011 inventories, the WWA group default was used.

RVP and the ethanol market share were the only fuel parameters changed from the default. The 

default MOVES winter RVPs were simplified by using a single representative value for WWA. 

The representative values were chosen by using the most predominant MOVES assignment for 

counties in WWA. Since 2009, nearly all gasoline in Washington contains 10% ethanol, so the 

budget was modeled assuming 100% market share for 10% ethanol fuel.13

Projection Years: The MOVES defaults were used.

Table 16: Winter Western Washington Gasoline Parameters

Year Mkt Share Ethanol RVP Sulfur Aromatic Olefin Benzene E200 E300 T50 T90

% % Psi ppm % % % % % °F °F

2011 100 10 14.7 30.0 26.0 8.2 0.64 52 90 196 296

2017

2026 100 10 14.8 28.0 25.0 8.2 0.64 53 91 194 291
Emission Inventory Documentation - MOVES Inputs

Tacoma-Pierce County PM2.5 Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan Page 15

References

 

1

 Travel Activity by Vehicle Type (2011). Washington State Department of Transportation. Spreadsheet

Travel Activity 2011-rpt.xlsx. July 9, 2012.

2

 Email from Guorong Liu, Washington State Department of Transportation to Sally Otterson, 

Washington State Department of Ecology. Transmitting spreadsheets with monthly, day-of-week, and 

hourly adjustment factors. Seasonal Factor_08.xls, Day of Week Factor_08.xls, Hourly Factor_08.xls. 

Nov. 24, 2009.

3

 Department of Licensing electronic data. Active registrations as of Dec. 2010 and Dec 2012.

4

 National Transit Database for 2010. Revenue Vehicle Inventory table. Federal Transit Administration. 

Downloaded from Website: 

http://204.68.195.57/ntdprogram/datbase/2010_database/NTDdatabase.htm

5

 School bus database from the Office of Superintendent of Public InstructionWebsite: 

https://eds.ospi.k12.wa.us/BusDepreciation/default.aspx?pageName=busSearch

6 Using MOVES to Prepare Emission Inventories in State Implementation Plans and 

Transportation Conformity: Technical Guidance for MOVES2010, 2010a and 2010b. 

Transportation and Climate Division, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency. EPA-420-B-12-028. April 2012.

7

 April 1, 2012 Population of Cities, Towns and Counties Used for Allocation of Selected State 

Revenues. Washington State Office of Financial Management, Forecasting Division. 

Population for 2010, 2011, and 2012. 2011.

8

 WAC 173-422 and WAC 173-422A.

9

 2007 I/M Compliance Rate. Calculated from May 2007 pre-bill. Tests counted from May 1, 2006 to 

Nov. 1, 2008, Dept. of Ecology I/M Database. Registered vehicles from July 2007 and July 2008 

Dept. of Licensing Vehicle Registration Database. Dec. 8, 2008.

10

 The total waived of all tests, total tested first test and total failed first test by model year, test type and 

test station (Gasoline Only) Years 2007 & 2008. Washington State Department of Ecology. Feb. 

2010.

11

 Instructions for Using LEV and NLEV Inputs for MOVES. Assessment and Standards Division, Office 

of Transportation and Air Quality, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA-420-B-10-003. 

January 2010.

12 Motor Gasolines, Winter 2006-07 and Motor Gasolines, Summer 2007. Northrop Grumman Mission 

Systems. April 2008.

13

 Alternative Motor Fuel Reports. Washington State Department of Agriculture.