environmental analysis | National Center for Sustainable Transportation

Accelerate Plug-in Electric Vehicles adoption via understanding household adoption decisions and designing sustainable transportation finance policies

Research Product Type

Dissertation / Thesis

This dissertation sets out to 1) explore the feasibility of implementing a per-mile road-usage charge (RUC) in replacement of the motor fuel taxes, 2) estimate the changes in vehicles-miles travelled (VMT) and the revenues generated from motor fuel taxes under the backdrop of vehicle electrification, and 3) quantify the effects of vehicle class and fuel type portfolios in ZEV-adopting households’ vehicle replacement decisions.

Accelerate Plug-in Electrical Vehicles Adoption via Understanding Household Adoption Decisions and Designing Equitable Transportation Finance Policies

Principal Investigator Jean Ji
University of California, Davis

This research will address policy-relevant questions by investigating cost-efficient ways to implement a RUC, evaluating the equity impacts of RUC, and quantifying factors that influence household’s PEV adoption decisions.

Project Status

Complete

Bridging Traditional Understandings of Aerosol Dynamics to Real-World Maritime Emissions and Respiratory Health Delivery Methods

Research Product Type

Dissertation / Thesis

This dissertation includes a retrospective of maritime emissions, and a deep analysis of the operational and emission parameters on newest container ships, all with the goal of improving regulations for ship air pollution and reducing personal exposure. The thesis then provides evaluation to establish a novel aerosol delivery method for health studies, aiming to enhance the management of air pollution and its health implications.

Caltrans Planning Horizons: Induced Vehicle Travel in the Environmental Review Process

Empirical research shows that expanded roadway capacity attracts more vehicles. However, environmental impact assesments of roadway expansion projects often ignore, underestimate, or mis-estimate this induced travel effect and overestimate potential congestion relief benefits.

Dataset: Travel Behavior in E-commerce

Research Product Type

Data

These datasets contain the raw data collected from the two separate but related surveys to explore the potential of automated parcel lockers as an alternative for residence deliveries.

Demonstrating the Life Cycle Assessment Framework for Complete Streets

Research Product Type

Policy Brief

The researchers assessed whether the LCA framework was useful in identifying whether a complete street delivered, or was likely to deliver, the intended performance and benefits, and the social and health conditions of the neighborhoods receiving the benefits.

Emissions Factors Derived from Engine Load and Operating Mode Analysis; Marine Source Apportionment of Gaseous and Particulate Emissions

Principal Investigator Ryan Drover
University of California, Riverside

The database of marine emissions data will be utilized to contribute to the development of marine emissions modelling.

Project Status

Complete

Energy and Environmental Impacts of Atlanta’s Reversible Express Toll Lanes: A Synthetic Control Analysis

Principal Investigator Tian Xia
Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Tech team will analyze the counterfactual scenario after the opening of reversible toll lanes on the I-75/I-575 Northwest Corridor of Atlanta, GA, in order to assess the energy and emis

Project Status

In Progress

Global Warming Potential from Build-Out and Maintenance of Global Roadway Networks

Principal Investigator John Harvey, Ph.D.
University of California, Davis

The goal of this project is to produce a first-order estimate of future global warming potential from road building, maintenance, and rehabilitation for the world’s road networks and put this into context with other expected transportation-related greenhouse gases.

Project Status

In Progress

Induced Vehicle Travel in the Environmental Review Process

Research Product Type

Associated Publication

Associated publication in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board utilizing the Induced Travel Calculator to estimate the induced vehicle travel impacts of roadway capacity expansion projects in California.