Integrated analysis of GHGs and public health damage mitigation for developing urban road transportation strategies

This study attempts to present an urban road transportation strategy focusing on the mitigation of both GHGs emission and public health damage, taking Xiamen City as a case study. We developed a Public Health and GHGs Emission model to estimate the impacts of direct energy-consumption-related GHGs emissions and public health damage in Xiamen’s road transportation strategies from 2008 to 2025, considering the environmental benefits and economic costs. Two scenarios were designed to describe future transportation strategies for Xiamen City, and mitigation potentials for both GHGs emission and public health costs were estimated from 2008 to 2025 under a series of options. The results show that enacting controls on private vehicles would be most effective to GHGs mitigation, while enacting controls on government and rental vehicles would contribute the most to NO₂ and PM2.5 reductions. Compared with the Business as Usual scenario, the Integrated scenario would achieve about a 68% energy consumption reduction and save 0.23 billion yuan (95% CI: 0.16, 0.32) in health costs in 2025. It is clear that integrated and advisable strategies need to mitigate the adverse impacts of urban road vehicles on GHGs emissions and public health and economic costs, particularly in regions of rapid urbanization.     

Resolving the property right of transportation emissions through public–private partnerships

The application of public–private partnerships (P3’s) in the transportation sector has grown in popularity worldwide. Despite this important shift in the provision of transportation service, there are clear gaps in knowledge about the impacts of P3 projects, especially on emissions from transportation systems as a whole. Not only should policy makers evaluate the emissions impacts from P3 projects, but they should also think about innovative models that address or charge for emissions into P3 contracts. This addition to P3 contracts could provide a new solution to the long-existing property right paradox: who owns (is responsible for) emissions from transportation systems? This study attempts to fill the research gap by analyzing these innovative models. Using the road network of Fresno, California, as our case study, we offer a number of interesting insights for policy makers. First, average peak emissions costs range from 1.37 cents per mile (the do-nothing case) to 1.20 cents per mile (profit-maximizing cases) per vehicle. Although emissions costs from the P3 projects are lowest for the profit-maximizing cases, the system-wide emissions costs of these cases are highest because of spillover effects. Second, charging project owners for the emissions costs of P3 projects is not an effective way to reduce emissions or the total costs of travel, especially on a VMT basis. Instead, the public sector should implement emissions-included social cost-based price ceilings. When employing these limits, project owners could still be charged for the emissions costs. Finally, using total travel time as the only objective function for evaluating P3 projects can be misleading. Several P3 projects have shown better outcomes using total travel cost with the inclusion of emissions and fuel consumption costs, instead of using total travel time as the only objective function.     

Cost analysis for high-volume and long-haul transportation of densified biomass feedstock

Using densified biomass to produce biofuels has the potential to reduce the cost of delivering biomass to biorefineries. Densified biomass has physical properties similar to grain, and therefore, the transportation system in support of delivering densified biomass to a biorenery is expected to emulate the current grain transportation system. By analyzing transportation costs for products like grain and woodchips, this paper identifies the main factors that impact the delivery cost of densified biomass and quantifies those factors’ impact on transportation costs. This paper provides a transportation-cost analysis which will aid the design and management of biofuel supply chains. This evaluation is very important because the expensive logistics and transportation costs are one of the major barriers slowing development in this industry.Regression analysis indicates that transportation costs for densified biomass will be impacted by transportation distance, volume shipped, transportation mode used, and shipment destination, just to name a few. Since biomass production is concentrated in the Midwestern United States, a biorefinery’s shipments will probably come from that region. For shipments from the Midwest to the Southeast US, barge transportation, if available, is the least expensive transportation mode. If barge is not available, then unit trains are the least expensive mode for distances longer than 161 km (100 miles). For shipments from the Midwest to the West US, unit trains are the least expensive transportation mode for distances over 338 km (210 miles). For shorter distances, truck is the least expensive transportation mode for densified biomass.     

Environmental benefits from improving transportation efficiency in wood procurement systems

Forest operations use fossil fuels, which should be considered when environmental impact in the wood procurement is of concern. Road freight transportation is the most common operation in timber transportation, and thus is an important source of greenhouse gas emissions. This study assesses the impact of the new larger and heavier vehicles (LHV) on environmental emissions using the synchronized calculation method. The maximum (theoretical) and operational effects of 76 t LHV with calculations made for three weight limits (60, 64 and 68 t) are compared in Finland. Based on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data, environmental energy efficiency (measured in relation to the trip) increased 9.2%. The reduction in fuel consumption was 12.5%, though this is likely to under-estimate the long-term effects that will be achieved when forest operations are fully adjusted to the maximum weight limit. A comparison with the European countries and a preliminary sensitivity analysis of the system demonstrate that the technological development to improve the transporting efficiency is essential for realizing 76 t LHV utilization in Finland.     

On the electrification of road transportation – A review of the environmental,economic, and social performance of electric two-wheelers

Electrification is widely considered as a viable strategy for reducing the oil dependency and environmental impacts of road transportation. In pursuit of this strategy, most attention has been paid to electric cars. However, substantial, yet untapped, potentials could be realized in urban areas through the large-scale introduction of electric two-wheelers. Here, we review the environmental, economic, and social performance of electric two-wheelers, demonstrating that these are generally more energy efficient and less polluting than conventionally-powered motor vehicles. Electric two-wheelers tend to decrease exposure to pollution as their environmental impacts largely result from vehicle production and electricity generation outside of urban areas. Our analysis suggests that the price of e-bikes has been decreasing at a learning rate of 8%. Despite price differentials of 5000 ± 1800 EUR₂₀₁₂ kW h⁻¹ in Europe, e-bikes are penetrating the market because they appear to offer an apparent additional use value relative to bicycles. Mid-size and large electric two-wheelers do not offer such an additional use value compared to their conventional counterparts and constitute niche products at price differentials of 700 ± 360 EUR₂₀₁₂ kW⁻¹ and 160 ± 90 EUR₂₀₁₂ kW⁻¹, respectively. The large-scale adoption of electric two-wheelers can reduce traffic noise and road congestion but may necessitate adaptations of urban infrastructure and safety regulations. A case-specific assessment as part of an integrated urban mobility planning that accounts, e.g., for the local electricity mix, infrastructure characteristics, and mode-shift behavior, should be conducted before drawing conclusions about the sustainability impacts of electric two-wheelers.     

A study of feasibility and potential benefits of organised car sharing in Ireland

In this study, the market potential of car sharing has been evaluated using multiple alternative scenarios which examine the geographic, financial and environmental factors influencing car sharing adoption. The scenarios are applied to the available and collected travel information of the Irish population to estimate the potential impact of introducing car sharing in Ireland. The analysis identified that car owners who travel predominantly on alternative modes, could make significant cost and CO₂ savings through car sharing. A reduction of yearly CO₂ emissions of 86 kt is readily achievable through car sharing, with reductions up to 895 kt possible with appropriate policy and financial support. These figures are comparable to other measures proposed under the Irish National Climate Change Strategy.     

Estimating the CO2 intensity of intermodal freight transportation

This paper looks at the environmental effects of shifting from road to rail freight transportation. Little data is available to shippers to calculate the potential CO₂ savings of an intermodal shift. In this paper we analyze a data set of more than 400,000 intermodal shipments to calculate the CO₂ intensity of intermodal transportation as a distinct mode. Our results indicate an average intensity of 67 g of CO₂ per ton-mile, but can vary between 29 and 220 g of CO₂ per ton-mile depending on the specific origin–destination lane. We apply the market area concept to explain the variance between individual lane intensities and demonstrate the complexity in predicting the potential carbon savings in a switch from truckload to intermodal.     

Electric vehicle parking in European and American context: Economic,energy and environmental analysis

The transportation sector faces increasing challenges related to energy consumption and local and global emissions profiles. Thus, alternative vehicle technologies and energy pathways are being considered in order to overturn this trend and electric mobility is considered one adequate possibility towards a more sustainable transportation sector.In this sense, this research work consisted on the development of a methodology to assess the economic feasibility of deploying EV charging stations (Park-EV) by quantifying the tradeoff between economic and energy/environmental impacts for EV parking spaces deployment. This methodology was applied to 4 different cities (Lisbon, Madrid, Minneapolis and Manhattan), by evaluating the influence of parking premium, infrastructure cost and occupancy rates on the investment Net Present Value (NPV). The main findings are that the maximization of the premium and the minimization of the equipment cost lead to higher NPV results. The NPV break-even for the cities considered is more “easily” reached for higher parking prices, namely in the case of Manhattan with the higher parking price profile. In terms of evaluating occupancy rates of the EV parking spaces, shifting from a low usage (LU) to a high usage (HU) scenario represented a reduction in the premium to obtain a NPV = 0 of approximately 14% for a 2500 € equipment cost, and, in the case of a zero equipment cost (e.g. financed by the city), a NPV = 0 was obtained with approximately a 2% reduction in the parking premium. Moreover, due to the use of electric mobility instead of the average conventional technologies, Well-to-Wheel (WTW) gains for Lisbon, Madrid, Minneapolis and Manhattan were estimated in 58%, 53%, 52% and 75% for energy consumption and 66%, 75%, 62% and 86% for CO₂ emissions, respectively.This research confirms that the success of deploying an EV charging stations infrastructure will be highly dependent on the price the user will have to pay, on the cost of the infrastructure deployed and on the adhesion of the EV users to this kind of infrastructure. These variables are not independent and, consequently, the coordination of public policies and private interest must be promoted in order to reach an optimal solution that does not result in prohibitive costs for the users.     

Developments of CO2-emissions and costs for small electric and combustion engine vehicles in Germany

Electric vehicles have the potential to lower emissions in the mobility sector, but especially high costs might hinder their market development. This paper aims to access environmental and economic impacts and potentials by comparing CO₂-emissions and costs of small vehicles. Considering actual data it is analysed, if and under which conditions electric vehicles are financially competitive for private consumers and under which conditions emissions can be saved. For this, a multiple-stage approach is focusing on (1) emissions during production and operation, (2) private costs and (3) external costs of emissions. A model of total cost of ownership is applied for the analysis of private and external costs.Results show that emissions of electric vehicles exceed emissions of combustion engine vehicles in the production phase, but electric vehicles cause fewer emissions during operation. Total emissions can be saved by electric vehicles even with low annual driving distances (2500–5500 km/a today). Results highly depend on the form of electricity production.Today, private costs of electric vehicles exceed the costs of combustion engine vehicles. Due to cost decreases electric vehicles can gain financial advantages in the future. External costs are high, especially for combustion engine vehicles (up to 15% of private costs), but in none of the considered cases high enough to give electric vehicles a financial advantage today. This picture will change in the future.     

Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge

Domestic and industrial sludge generated at wastewater treatment facilities is considered a potential biomass source for producing biodiesel. However, transportation of large amounts of sludge from wastewater treatment facilities to a biorefinery is expensive. The objective of this paper is to identify the proper transportation mode to use as a function of the volume shipped and transportation distances. Currently, sludge is mainly shipped by truck and pipeline. We estimated that the fixed and variable cost components of pipeline transportation for a volume such as 480 m³/day and a distance of 100 miles are $0.116/m³ and $0.089/m³/mile, respectively. We estimated the biomass (sludge) transportation cost per gallon of biodiesel, and observed the changes in these costs as a function of distance traveled and volume shipped. The outcomes of this study have the potential to help biofuel plants make better biomass transportation decisions, and consequently reduce the price of biodiesel significantly.     

The environmental impact of distribution to retail channels: A case study on packaged beverages

This study aims to quantify the environmental impact of two retail distribution networks and offer consumers a channel that is more beneficial to the environment. The environmental impact of replenishing the packaged beverages sold in convenience stores (CVSs) and hypermarkets is assessed using the streamlined life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach. In this study, the life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) for packaged beverages up to the point of sale illustrates the distribution-level environmental impacts of truck transportation. The matched-pair t-test shows that the environmental impacts of transporting 1800 cartons of 24-pack/10 oz. beverages to be sold in Carrefour and 7-11 stores is different at a significance level of 0.1. The transport-focused LCA is used to improve the understanding and compare the environmental characteristics of the two distribution and retail systems. This study constitutes a vehicle for communicating to both internal and external stakeholders the environmental profiles of distributing the same product sold through two retail channels.     

An optimization model of energy and transportation systems: Assessing the high-speed rail impacts in the United States

This paper presents a long-term investment planning model that co-optimizes infrastructure investments and operations across transportation and electric infrastructure systems for meeting the energy and transportation needs in the United States. The developed passenger transportation model is integrated within the modeling framework of a National Long-term Energy and Transportation Planning (NETPLAN) software, and the model is applied to investigate the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) investments on interstate passenger transportation portfolio, fuel and electricity consumption, and 40-year cost and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The results show that there are feasible scenarios under which significant HSR penetration can be achieved, leading to reasonable decrease in national long-term CO₂ emissions and costs. At higher HSR penetration of approximately 30% relative to no HSR in the portfolio promises a 40-year cost savings of up to $0.63 T, gasoline and jet fuel consumption reduction of up to 34% for interstate passenger trips, CO₂ emissions reduction by about 0.8 billion short tons, and increased resilience against petroleum price shocks. Additionally, sensitivity studies with respect to light-duty vehicle mode share reveal that in order to realize such long-term cost and emission benefits, a change in the passenger mode choice is essential to ensure higher ridership for HSR.     

The cost of convenience; Air pollution and noise on freeway and arterial light rail station platforms in Los Angeles

Light rail transit (LRT) systems constitute one of the most sustainable public transportation modes and transit agencies have increasingly constructed LRT lines along the median of roadways to reduce land acquisition costs and traffic conflicts. Despite these conveniences, few studies have examined the air pollution and noise exposures for passengers on LRT station platforms within freeway or arterial medians. In response, we monitored particle number count (PNC) concentrations and noise levels on 17 station platforms in the Los Angeles metro system in summer 2012 and assessed differences between freeway and arterial platforms. We visited each station on average 7 times for approximately 19 min with two teams carrying a full set of instruments. As expected, impacts were higher on green line platforms in the center of a grade-separated freeway compared to blue line platforms in the center of an arterial due to being in close proximity to greater traffic volumes. Overall, freeway-arterial platform differences were 35,100 versus 20,000 particles/cm³ for PNC and 83 versus 62 dBA for noise. This average noise intensity on green line platforms was four times that on blue line stations. We also found that PNC concentrations were significantly higher at open air monitoring platform positions compared to standing under a shade canopy (about 2000 particles/cm³ higher), but that noise levels were significantly lower at open air positions compared to under canopy positions (about 3.2 dBA lower). Results identify important factors for transport planners to consider when locating and designing in-roadway LRT platforms.     

Rural environment stakeholders and policy making: Willingness to pay to reduce road transportation pollution impact in the Western Pyrenees

In spite of the strategic national and regional development importance of transportation infrastructures, road transportation is one of the major sources of externalities worldwide. Using data collected from 900 residents living in 14 rural towns near the roads crossing the Spanish Pyrenees, we model citizens’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) to reduce noise and air pollution. We collect the data adopting a contingent valuation method (CVM) design and we analyze the data employing a Zero-Inflated Ordered Probit (ZIOP) model, which allows us to account for an excessive number of zero observations. Our results are in contrast with previous studies’ results with regard to environmental attitudes and socio-economic profiles of residents. Our findings indicate that the stakeholders living near major roads have higher incentives to offset environmental costs. Also, younger, better educated, and more environmentally-aware citizens are willing to pay more to reduce externalities, as they are influenced by their values and environmentally friendly sub-culture, possibly fostered during the past 30 years of green movement worldwide campaigning.     

Energy efficiency and time charter rates: Energy efficiency savings recovered by ship owners in the Panamax market

This paper presents the first analysis on how financial savings arising from energy efficient ships are allocated between owners and those hiring the ships. This as an important undertaking as allocation of financial savings is expected to have an impact on the incentives faced by ship owners to invest in more energy efficient vessels. We focus on the dry bulk Panamax segment as it contributes to around 50 Mt (5%) of total CO₂ emissions from shipping in 2007 and therefore its importance in terms of environmental impact should not be neglected. The time charter market represents a classical example of the principal–agent problem similar to the tenant–landlord problem in the buildings sector. We discovered that on average only 40% of the financial savings delivered by energy efficiency accrue to ship owner for the period 2008–2012. The finding that only part of the savings are recouped by shipowners affecting their incentives towards energy efficiency could consequently have implications on the type of emission reduction policies opted at both, global and regional levels.     

Winter problems on mountain passes – Implications for cost-benefit analysis

Cost-benefit analysis is a tool in government decision-making for determining the consequences of alternative uses of society’s scarce resources. Such a systematic process of comparing benefits and costs was adopted in early years for transportation projects and it has been the subject of much refining over the years. There are still some flaws, however, in the application of the method. In this article we have studied the impact of weather conditions on traffic speed on low traffic roads often exposed to adverse weather. This is an issue not currently considered in the cost-benefit analysis of road projects. By using two analytical approaches—structural equation modelling and classification and regression tree analysis—the impact of the weather indicators temperature, wind speed, and precipitation on traffic speed has been quantified. The data relates to three winter months on the European Route 6 road over the mountain pass Saltfjellet in Norway. Increase in wind speed, increase in precipitation and temperatures around freezing point all caused significant decrease in traffic speed in the case studied. If actions were taken to reduce the impact of adverse weather on traffic (e.g. by building a tunnel through the mountain) this study indicates that the road users would gain a total benefit of approximately 2,348,000 NOK (282,000 EUR) each winter at Saltfjellet if all the weather related benefits were included. We argue that this is a significant number that is highly relevant to include in CBAs. This applies both to the CBAs of new transportation projects as well as when resources are allocated for operation, maintenance, and monitoring of the existing transport systems. Including the weather related benefits would improve the application of CBA as a decision-making tool for policy makers.     

Cost overruns in transportation infrastructure projects: Sowing the seeds for a probabilistic theory of causation

Understanding the cause of cost overruns in transportation infrastructure projects has been a topic that has received considerable attention from academics and the popular press. Despite studies providing the essential building blocks and frameworks for cost overrun mitigation and containment, the problem still remains a pervasive issue for Governments worldwide. The interdependency that exists between ‘causes’ that lead to cost overruns materialising have largely been ignored when considering the likelihood and impact of their occurrence. The vast majority of the cost overrun literature has tended to adopt a deterministic approach in examining the occurrence of the phenomenon; in this paper a shift towards the adoption of pluralistic probabilistic approach to cost overrun causation is proposed. The establishment of probabilistic theory incorporates the ability to consider the interdependencies of causes so to provide Governments with a holistic understanding of the uncertainties and risks that may derail the delivery and increase the cost of transportation infrastructure projects. This will further assist in the design of effective mitigation and containment strategies that will ensure future transportation infrastructure projects meet their expected costs as well as the need of taxpayers.     

Detailed assessment of global transport-energy models’ structures and projections

This paper focuses on comparing the frameworks and projections from four global transportation models with considerable technology details. We analyze and compare the modeling frameworks, underlying data, assumptions, intermediate parameters, and projections to identify the sources of divergence or consistency, as well as key knowledge gaps. We find that there are significant differences in the base-year data and key parameters for future projections, especially for developing countries. These include passenger and freight activity, mode shares, vehicle ownership rates, and energy consumption by mode, particularly for shipping, aviation and trucking. This may be due in part to a lack of previous efforts to do such consistency-checking and “bench-marking.” We find that the four models differ in terms of the relative roles of various mitigation strategies to achieve a 2 °C/450 ppm target: the economics-based integrated assessment models favor the use of low carbon fuels as the primary mitigation option followed by efficiency improvements, whereas transport-only and expert-based models favor efficiency improvements of vehicles followed by mode shifts. We offer recommendations for future modeling improvements focusing on (1) reducing data gaps; (2) translating the findings from this study into relevant policy implications such as gaps of current policy goals, additional policy targets needed, regional vs. global reductions; (3) modeling strata of demographic groups to improve understanding of vehicle ownership levels, travel behavior, and urban vs. rural considerations; and (4) conducting coordinated efforts in aligning historical data, and comparing input assumptions and results of policy analysis and modeling insights.     

Costs and benefits of US aviation noise land-use policies

Aircraft noise affects human health and welfare. One method US airports use to mitigate the impact of noise on nearby residents is through sound insulation and residential land acquisition projects. Costs of residential insulation and acquisition projects are taken from federal grant summaries while the benefits of noise reduction are calculated as the combined willingness-to-pay for abatement and direct and indirect costs of illness from hypertension, myocardial infarction, and stroke. We show that the average cost of sound insulation projects is $15,600 per person affected while that of land acquisition is $48,900 per person affected. We find that for only in 15% of projects do the benefits to residents from willingness-to-pay for reduction and reduced risk of mortality and morbidity exceed the costs of sound insulation for residences exposed to 65 dB Day Night Level (DNL) of noise. Our estimates suggest that noise insulation projects are more cost-effective than fleet wide mandatory aircraft retirement.     

Fueling for contingencies: The hidden cost of unpredictability in the air transportation system

The aviation community is increasing its attention on the concept of predictability when conducting aviation service quality assessments. Reduced fuel consumption and the related cost is one of the various benefits that could be achieved through improved flight predictability. A lack of predictability may cause airline dispatchers to load more fuel onto aircraft before they depart; the flights would then in turn consume extra fuel just to carry excess fuel loaded. In this study, we employ a large dataset with flight-level fuel loading and consumption information from a major US airline. With these data, we estimate the relationship between the amount of loaded fuel and flight predictability performance using a statistical model. The impact of loaded fuel is translated into fuel consumption and, ultimately, fuel cost and environmental impact for US domestic operations. We find that a one-minute increase in the standard deviation of airborne time leads to a 0.88 min increase in loaded contingency fuel and 1.66 min in loaded contingency and alternate fuel. If there were no unpredictability in the aviation system, captured in our model by eliminating standard deviation in flight time, the reduction in the loaded fuel would between 6.12 and 11.28 min per flight. Given a range of fuel prices, this ultimately would translate into cost savings for US domestic airlines on the order of $120–$452 million per year.