Author
Listed:
- Aikaterini Deliali
- Dany Chhan
- Jennifer Oliver
- Rassil Sayess
- Krystal J. Godri Pollitt
- Eleni Christofa
Abstract
Several states and transit agencies have recently introduced zero-emission buses (ZEBs) to their fleets, including battery electric buses, fuel cell battery electric buses, and fuel cell plug-in hybrid electric buses in an effort to mitigate transportation-related impacts on air quality. The objective of this paper was to summarise information and insights from ZEB implementations across the United States (U.S.) to advance the state of practice and facilitate transit agencies’ transition to ZEBs. Information was obtained through a critical review of relevant literature from peer-reviewed journals and agency reports released by transit agencies and other relevant stakeholders, an online survey of several transit agencies that implemented or are planning to implement ZEBs, and interviews with transit agency representatives and other relevant stakeholders. This review focuses on ZEB in-service performance, cost, fuelling, and implementation strategies. In addition, challenges and lessons learned as reported by U.S. transit agencies are described. A comparison among the three technologies and conventional fuel buses (i.e. diesel and compressed natural gas) suggests that ZEBs outperform conventional buses in terms of fuel efficiency, but their procurement cost is higher. Battery electric buses present the highest fuel efficiency and lowest procurement, operation, and maintenance costs, and have been chosen by most transit agencies followed by fuel cell battery electric buses. While fuel cell hybrid plug-in buses have been implemented by several agencies over the past ten years, they have not gained popularity due to increased purchase and maintenance costs. Important factors for agencies to consider when implementing any of these ZEB technologies include: (1) fleet size: starting with a small fleet and gradually expanding; (2) technology type: understanding the technology and properly choosing the one that matches the needs and limitations of a service area (e.g. available space, existing schedule) as well as available resources and agency goals; (3) staff training: proper training for a suitable amount of time of drivers and maintenance personnel; and (4) stakeholder collaboration: having an effective level of collaboration, cooperation, and support between stakeholders. Overall, ZEBs are a viable and promising approach for reducing emissions from transit fleets. This review can assist in transit agencies’ transition to ZEB fleets by providing useful information and insights to ensure optimal technology choice and efficient implementations. It can also provide insights on ZEB implementation issues that warrant further research.
Suggested Citation
Aikaterini Deliali & Dany Chhan & Jennifer Oliver & Rassil Sayess & Krystal J. Godri Pollitt & Eleni Christofa, 2021.
"Transitioning to zero-emission bus fleets: state of practice of implementations in the United States,"
Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 164-191, March.
Handle:
RePEc:taf:transr:v:41:y:2021:i:2:p:164-191
DOI: 10.1080/01441647.2020.1800132
Download full text from publisher
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the
CitEc Project, subscribe to its
RSS feed for this item.
Cited by:
- Wang, Zhuowei & Yu, Jiangbo (Gabe) & Chen, Anthony & Fu, Xiaowen, 2024.
"Subsidy policies towards zero-emission bus fleets: A systematic technical-economic analysis,"
Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 1-13.
- Say, Kelvin & Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna & Brown, Felix Gabriel & Wang, Changlong, 2024.
"The economics of public transport electrification: The charging dilemma,"
Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
- Zhou, Yu & Ong, Ghim Ping & Meng, Qiang, 2023.
"The road to electrification: Bus fleet replacement strategies,"
Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
- Avenali, Alessandro & Catalano, Giuseppe & Giagnorio, Mirko & Matteucci, Giorgio, 2024.
"Factors influencing the adoption of zero-emission buses: A review-based framework,"
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
- Maciej Dzikuć & Rafał Miśko & Szymon Szufa, 2021.
"Modernization of the Public Transport Bus Fleet in the Context of Low-Carbon Development in Poland,"
Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-12, June.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:transr:v:41:y:2021:i:2:p:164-191. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/TTRV20 .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.