Input data preparation for the SMOKE-MOVES Integration Tool

1. Source Type Population

1) Date sources

2002-2003 Polk’s data: Registration data from R. L. Polk & Co.'s National 

Vehicle Population Profile ® (current as of October 2002) and R. L. Polk & Co.'s 

TIPNet ® (current as of March 2003) are used. This database includes number of 

vehicles by age and 16 vehicle types in each Georgia county, and has been used to 

develop age distribution.

Georgia registration data (2003 and 2007): These registration data were 

obtained from www.georgiastats.uga.edu. This database includes number of 

vehicles by passenger vehicles, trucks, trailers, motorcycles, buses and others in 

each county as explained on the Georgia Department of Revenue website 

(http://motor.etax.dor.ga.gov/stats/renewalsstats.aspx). Passenger Vehicles 

include Ambulances, Convertibles, Coupes, Hearses, Jeeps, Limousines, Mixers, 

Motor Homes, Multi-Purpose Vehicles, Roadsters, Station Wagons, Touring Cars, 

Vans, 2 Doors, 3 Doors, and 4 Doors. Trucks include Truck Tractors, Trucks, and 

Wreckers.

2) Methodology

The Polk’s data were summarized by 16 vehicles types in each county and then 

grown to 2007 using different growth factors by vehicle types (Table 1). The 

number of HDBS, HDBT and MC in Polk’s data is comparable to Georgia 

registration data (Table 2 and Table 3). Therefore, the numbers of HDBS and 

HDBT were grown to 2007 by multiplying ratios of the number of buses in 

Georgia motor vehicle registration data in 2007 and 2003. The number of MC 

was grown to 2007 by multiplying ratios of the number of motor cycles in 

Georgia motor vehicle registration data in 2007 and 2003. The number of the rest 

of vehicle types was grown to 2007 by multiplying ratios of human population in 

2007 and 2002. The Georgia motor vehicle registration data were not used for 

these vehicle types due to the difficulty to match the vehicle type used in Georgia 

motor vehicle registration data to the 16 vehicle types as used in the Polk's data. 

Since the ratios of 2007 and 2003 passenger cars and trucks in motor vehicle 

registration data are comparable to the ratios of population data (Table 4), 

population data were used as the growth indicator.

Table 1. List of different growth factors used by vehicle types

Vehicle types Growth factor

HDBS Georgia registration data (2003 and 2007), Buses

HDBT Georgia registration data (2003 and 2007), Buses

HDV2B Population 2002 and 2007

HDV3 Population 2002 and 2007

HDV4 Population 2002 and 2007

HDV5 Population 2002 and 2007

HDV6 Population 2002 and 2007

HDV7 Population 2002 and 2007

HDV8A Population 2002 and 2007
HDV8B Population 2002 and 2007

LDT1 Population 2002 and 2007

LDT2 Population 2002 and 2007

LDT3 Population 2002 and 2007

LDT4 Population 2002 and 2007

LDV Population 2002 and 2007

MC Georgia registration data (2003 and 2007), Motor cycles

Table 2. Summary of 2002-2003 Polk’s data by 16 mobile vehicle types in four Georgia regions

Vehicle types ATL13 ATL7 GAGAS GAOTHER Total

HDBS 7,854 1,333 2,032 8,221 19,440

HDBT 1,362 102 139 540 2,143

HDV2B 56,809 11,761 15,405 49,039 133,014

HDV3 27,628 5,996 7,822 23,797 65,243

HDV4 13,623 2,262 2,850 10,351 29,086

HDV5 6,005 1,162 1,550 5,577 14,294

HDV6 19,294 4,088 5,932 21,688 51,002

HDV7 16,380 2,528 3,838 15,309 38,055

HDV8A 37,555 4,307 6,619 31,883 80,364

HDV8B 14,449 2,201 3,061 10,926 30,637

LDT1 722,044 131,873 181,393 607,189 1,642,499

LDT2 95,101 28,933 37,692 156,187 317,913

LDT3 302,139 62,530 75,409 284,851 724,929

LDT4 43,616 8,019 9,721 39,432 100,788

LDV 1,723,769 255,647 346,907 1,383,696 3,710,019

MC 50,081 10,657 13,767 41,123 115,628

Table 3. Summary of 2003 Georgia registration data by 4 mobile vehicle types

Vehicle types ATL13 ATL7 GAGAS GAOTHER Total

Buses 10,676 1,559 2,434 9,797 21,237

Trucks 558,496 168,930 237,022 823,867 1,788,315

Passenger Cars 2,259,027 339,456 449,177 1,744,474 4,792,134

Motorcycles 46,836 10,203 13,124 38,561 108,724

Table 4. Comparison between different growth factors

Ratios

2002 2003 2007 2007/2002 2007/2003

Motor vehicle registration

Passenger Car 4,792,134 5,330,256 1.112

Trucks 1,788,315 1,952,470 1.092

Motor Cycle 108,724 174,617 1.606

Bus 21,237 35,124 1.654

Population in Georgia, U.S. Census

Population 8,585,535 8,735,259 9,533,761 1.110 1.091

Total Average Annual Daily VMT in Georgia, Georgia DOT 445 report, miles

VMT 292,562,380 296,810,994 305,327,543 1.044 1.029

MOVES national SALESGROWTH factor defaults

Motorcycle 1.383 1.311

Passenger Car 0.940 1.001

Passenger Truck 0.972 0.948

Light Commercial Truck 0.972 0.948

Intercity Bus 1.353 1.268
Transit Bus 1.353 1.268

School Bus 1.353 1.268

Refuse Truck 1.353 1.268

Single Unit Short-haul 

Truck 1.353 1.268

Single Unit Long-haul 

Truck 1.353 1.268

Motor Home 1.353 1.268

Combination Short-haul 

Truck 1.464 1.405

Combination Long-haul 

Truck 1.464 1.405

The projected 2007 vehicle population by 16 vehicle types in each county were then 

converted to 32 vehicles types, which were matched with 28 vehicle types and 12 

vehicle types (corresponding to 12 SCC codes) as shown in the EPA MOVES 

converter tool. The EPA MOVES converter tool was also used to convert vehicle 

population in MOVES format by each of the four reference counties. These 

populations are the sum of populations of all counties sharing the same reference 

counties.

2. VMT

1) Date sources

GADOT445 report: 2007 VMT by 18 road types was obtained from: 

http://www.dot.state.ga.us/statistics/RoadData/Pages/400Series.aspx.

The VMT by 18 road types was converted to the 12 HPMS road types as follows:

Rural Interstate + Small Urban Interstate + Small Urban Freeway

Rural Principal Arterial + Small Urban Principal Arterial

Rural Minor Arterial + Small Urban Minor Arterial 

Rural Minor Collector + Small Urban Collector

Rural Local + Small Urban Local

VMT mix by 28 vehicle types: Three types of VMT mix were used for three 

groups of counties respectively, including ATL13, ATL7 and others. These VMT 

mix were outputs from Mobile6 runs, with different age distribution inputs for 

each group of counties.

2) Methodology

VMT by 12 road types was multiplied by the VMT mix to get VMT by 12 road 

types and 28 vehicle types, which were matched with SCCs to get VMT by SCC.

The VMT by 12 road types was also summed up for all counties sharing the same 

representative county. Such VMT by each representative county and 

corresponding VMT mix was input into the EPA converter tool to the MOVES 

format.