Sustainability

Integration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) with distributed renewable resources will decrease PEVs' well-to-wheels greenhouse gas emissions, promote renewable power adoption and defer power system investments. This paper proposes a multidisciplinary approach to jointly planning PEV fast-charging stations and distributed photovoltaic (PV) power plants on coupled transportation and power networks. First, we develop models of 1) PEV fast-charging stations; 2) highway transportation networks under PEV driving range constraints; 3) PV power plants with reactive power control. Then, we...

The traditional methodology for estimating vehicle emissions based on vehicle miles traveled and average speed is not reliable because it does not consider the effects of congestion, control devices, and driving mode (cruise, acceleration, deceleration, and idle). The authors developed an analytical model to predict vehicle activity on signalized arterials with emphasis on oversaturated traffic conditions. The model depends only on loop detector data and signal settings as inputs and provides estimates of the time spent in each driving mode, which consequently leads to more accurate...

The sustainability policy agenda includes various land use, road pricing, and parking pricing policies that are intended to reduce the use and ownership of autos in order to lower carbon emissions, pollution and road congestion. Such well-established policy interventions are largely rooted in the microeconomic concepts of market failure and externalities. But recent research in psychological economics has identified a new kind of problem: people may make decisions that are not in their own self-interest, contrary to the underlying microeconomic assumption that people are “rational actors...

Increasing the provision of public transport is not only desirable in a time of concern over climate change and high fuel prices, it may also have important effects on employment and wages. Using current and historic data from over 360 U.S. metropolitan areas, Daniel G. Chatman and Robert B. Noland argue that public transport increases employment in central city areas, whilst also leading to higher wages in these areas totaling from between $1.5 million and $1.8 billion yearly depending on the city.