Electrifying the urban transportation sector by building on equitable foundations
About the project
This is a suite of projects that have been constructed to quantify and evaluate the opportunities to transition from diesel-based to electrified buses.
We first started by coupling a vehicle emissions model to a stream of data shared by industry partners. From this, we were able to model and visualize the impact different policies could have in air quality improvement.
We then took this further and developed an environmental justice index to reveal the areas for where we need to prioritize infrastructure interventions.
Lastly, we are performing detailed analysis to evaluate how buses drive, how much energy they use, and the feasibility of technoeconomic fuel-conversion.
The research is centred around Mexico City, but is expected to have binational benefits (in Mexico and the US).
Project highlights
1st prize in an international UN-sponsored competition
Our innovative data-driven approaches to understand traffic and its implications in air quality in Mexico City earned us the winning spot in the competition. Our model showed that different policies can make vastly different impacts in the population, and ultimately helped resolved the impact at a large scale.
Developed an environmental justice index
We collaborated with Mexico's Institute for Ecology and Climate Change to design and implement an index that reveal the areas for where we need to prioritize infrastructure interventions for bus electrification.
Making a difference in Mexico and the US
We are performing detailed analysis to evaluate how buses drive, how much energy they use, and the feasibility of technoeconomic fuel-conversion. This project is being sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency and is expected to benefit both Mexico and the US.
Reports & publications:
Collaborators
