Project Team
Student(s)
Maya Tessler
Environmental Science
Barnard College
Mentor(s)
Larson Transportation Institute
Project Video
Project Abstract
Emissions reductions in the transportation sector are critical to decreasing the urban carbon footprint and ensuring resident health. Electric buses are a sound investment to work towards these goals. However, they require a steady electricity supply to function and therefore face unique challenges from power network disruptions in the aftermath of natural disasters, unlike diesel buses which can receive fuel from municipal and regional storage facilities. The research to date has tended to focus on personal electric vehicle or diesel bus operations resilience methods, with little scholarship on the adaptability of these methods to electric buses. This study examines hurricane vulnerability on two New York City electric bus routes. We use power loss and flooding scenarios to determine that the critical element of NYC’s electric bus infrastructure is on-street fast chargers, and not overnight depot chargers. This conclusion holds true for both bus routes, despite significant differences in route length, charging pattern, and battery size. Based on available space, existing infrastructure, and cost analyses, we conclude that temporary flood barriers used in combination with diesel generators and solar panels are strong resiliency methods to protect NYC on-street chargers. This combination of methods is a departure from disaster planning focused on centralized diesel distribution facilities and bus depots. We also found that fast charging siting should take disaster projection models into consideration to avoid future repair and resiliency infrastructure costs. As New York and other US cities work towards fully electric bus fleets, this study and similar analyses will inform charger placement and resiliency spending in the transportation system.
