Valuation of Public Bus Electrification with Open Data

This research provides a novel framework to estimate the economic, environmental, and social values of electrifying public transit buses, for cities across the world, based on open-source data. Electric buses are a compelling candidate to replace diesel buses for the environmental and social benefits. However, the state-of-art models to evaluate the value of bus electrification are limited in applicability because they require granular and bespoke data on bus operation that can be difficult to procure. Our valuation tool uses General Transit Feed Specification, a standard data format used by transit agencies worldwide, to provide high-level guidance on developing a prioritization strategy for electrifying a bus fleet. We develop physics-informed machine learning models to evaluate the energy consumption, the carbon emissions, the health impacts, and the total cost of ownership for each transit route. We demonstrate the scalability of our tool with a case study of the bus lines in the Greater Boston and Milan metropolitan areas. Detailed Affiliation: U.Vijay, S.Woo, and S.J.Moura are at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California-Berkeley, Davis Hall, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA. A.Jain is at Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California-Berkeley, Soda Hall, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA. D.Rodriguez and E.Mellekas are at Enel X, North America, Inc., One Marina Park Drive, Boston, 02210, MA, USA. S. Gambacorta is at Enel X, Innovation and Sustainability Global, Smart City, Viale Tor di Quinto, Rome, 00191, Italy. G.Ferrara is at Enel X, Innovation and Sustainability Global, Smart City, Passo Martino, Catania, 95121, Italy. L.Lanuzza is at Enel X, Innovation and Sustainability B2C & B2B Innovation Factory, Viale Tor di Quinto, Rome, 00191, Italy. C.Zulberti and C.Papa are at Enel Foundation, Via Bellini, Rome, 00198, Italy. Vehicle electrification is crucial for reducing the climate impact of the transportation sector, which currently accounts for 16.2% of the global greenhouse gas emissions [22]. Zero-emission electric vehicles can significantly improve the air quality, health, and environmental equity [23], [24].