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This paper deals with two variables affecting the pollutant emission of automotive vehicles: the driver and the traffic control. These factors are shown to have a substantial influence on the pollutant emission of a given vehicle, whether or not that vehicle has an exhaust device. Based on actual data, a function which gives the emission of an average vehicle versus speed, acceleration, and time is defined. To study the influence of driver behavior, a simplified version of the problem which consists in controlling a vehicle through a sequence of lights is examined; it is found that pollutant emission may vary up to one order of magnitude, depending on the control policy, for given physical conditions. A driving policy which minimizes pollution can be found using dynamic programming. The second factor, traffic control, is represented by signal timing along an axis. It is shown that a stop-and-go flow of cars produces twice as much pollutant as an equivalent volume of smooth flow.