MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet
EPA-420-B-09-043

December 2009

Assessment and Standards Division

Office of Transportation and Air Quality

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet
 MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet 

December 22, 2009 

This table lists substantive errors and concerns that have been identified for MOVES2010. 

Some of the items listed here are errors that we intend to fix at a later date. Others items are not 

errors, per se, but areas where the MOVES design may not match user expectations. 

If you find problems with MOVES that are not on this list, please let us know by emailing 

the MOVES team at mobile@epa.gov . We plan to update this list as needed. Thank you for 

helping us improve the MOVES model.

Problem Reported 

Error or 

information 

item? 

Suggested User Action 

1. Default vehicle miles traveled (VMT) 

projections may not match VMT projections 

used in other EPA models (such and the 

National Mobile Inventory Model, NMIM). 

Information NA 

2. There are check boxes on the “Pollutants 

and Processes” panel for methane for the 

Evaporative Vapor Venting, Evaporative 

Permeation and Evaporative Fuel Leak 

processes, even though the emissions are 

always negligible. 

Information None 

3. When making a retrofit parameter file for 

importing for the On Road Retrofit Strategies 

panel, you must not use the PollutantID, 

ProcessID, FuelTypeID or SourceTypeID 

numbers. You must use the text names for 

these parameters. 

Information See user guide for detailed 

instructions. 

4. In Project Level analysis, the user can 

enter a single average speed. Entering an 

average speed of “zero” assigns all activity to 

the “idle” operating mode bin. However, the 

MOVES “idle” operating mode bin includes 

some operation at speeds near, but not equal 

to, zero. As a consequence, MOVES will 

estimate non-zero brakewear and tirewear 

emissions for motionless idling vehicles. 

Information When estimating brakewear and 

tirewear for idling vehicles that 

are always completely 

motionless, either do not request 

tirewear and brakewear, or 

replace the MOVES output 

associated with this activity with 

values of zero. 

Note, this is not a problem for 

non-operating parked vehicles or 

“Extended Idling” vehicles. 
MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet EPA-420-B-0943 

Problem Reported 

Error or 

information 

item? 

Suggested User Action 

5. It has been reported that importing data 

from spreadsheets using the County Data 

Manager or the Project Level Data Manager 

sometimes does not result in a green check in 

the graphical user interface, even though there 

appear to be no problems with the imported 

data and MOVES runs successfully. We have 

not yet been able to identify the cause of this 

anomaly. 

Potential Error Users should remain cautious 

when using databases that 

indicate a red “X” for any of the 

input tabs, since other problems, 

such as incomplete data, will also 

prevent a green check from 

appearing. If necessary, users 

can export the imported data or 

examine the user database tables 

directly using the MySQL Query 

Browser to assure that the data in 

the database is appropriate and 

complete. 

6. This problem is associated with #5 above. 

When using the Project Level Data Manager 

misleading results may occur when entering 

an Operating Mode Distribution if the Links 

information is not correct. 

Potential Error Users should make sure the Links 

tab is green. When filling out a 

run specification make sure all of 

the chosen road types are present 

in the Project Level. 

7. When computing emission rates, the 

portion of evaporative emissions that occur 

while vehicles are running is reported only in 

the RatePerDistance table. However, this 

table is not populated unless a Running 

Exhaust process is also selected. 

Error When computing emission rates 

for evaporative processes, always 

select at least one Exhaust 

Running emission process. 

8. If Custom Domain is chosen, the Zone 

Road Activity tab in the County Data 

Manager may have an erroneous green check 

even though no data has been imported. 

Error Users should check this tab to 

make sure that it includes correct 

data: a file with SHOAllocFactor 

= 1 for each Road Type. 

9. The Extended Idle process does not 

produce records for Benzene, Ethanol, 

MTBE, Formaldehyde, 1,3-Butadiene, 

Acetaldehyde or Acrolein even though there 

are check boxes for these pollutants in the 

Pollutants and Processes Panel. 

Error If the user requires results for 

these pollutants for the extended 

idle emission process, the user 

will need to calculate these 

pollutants manually using the 

results for Total Gaseous 

Hydrocarbons and Methane. 

December 22, 2009 Page 2 
MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet EPA-420-B-0943 

December 22, 2009 Page 3 

Problem Reported 

Error or 

information 

item? 

Suggested User Action 

10. In the Summary Reporter, if the output 

data is disaggregated by day or hour, the 

output database will contain results for only 

two days in each month - a weekday (dayID 

5) and a weekend-day (dayID 2). In this case, 

Summary Reporter should not be used to 

display results for a month or year, since the 

current code erroneously simply sums these 

two days together. 

Error The user should distinguish by 

dayID in the report and then 

externally weight the result 

according to the type of day to 

see meaningful result for a month 

(e.g. 22 weekdays and 9 

weekend-days in a 31-day 

month) or year (e.g. 261 

weekdays and 104 weekend-days 

in a 365-day year).