Date: June 1, 2019
Author(s): "Gabrielle ""Libby"" Bradley", Naseem Golestani, Kazutaka Izumi, Kento Tanaka, Tsuyoshi Yamakawa
Abstract
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the largest container shipping ports in the nation and support thousands of jobs in Southern California. Unfortunately, the emissions produced by drayage trucks that transport cargo have significant impacts on regional air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, with the greatest impact felt by surrounding communities. In response to this issue, local community leaders have been pushing for a transition to zero-emission heavy-duty trucks. Our goal is to develop a strategy for rolling out heavy-duty electric vehicle charging stations that best supports the conversion of diesel port drayage trucks to electric. In this analysis, we created an algorithm that can be used to identify optimal placement for drayage truck electric charging stations in the short- and long-term. After establishing drayage industry travel patterns and charger and electric truck capabilities, we identified where trucks dwell overnight and assigned a likely electric truck adoption rate in the early phase of adoption. In the short-term, our findings indicate that optimal placement will be in truck yards nearest to the ports, where a majority of them are aggregated. For the long term (year 2035), we identified drayage trip destinations using Los Angeles Countyorigin/destination trip data to determine which zones in Southern California will have the highest demand for day time opportunity chargers. Our findings indicate that optimal placement should take place at both truck yards and warehouses, the primary destinations for cargo transported by drayage trucks. Destinations are mainly concentrated in the 710 Corridor and areas surrounding the I-10/I-15 interchange in San Bernardino County. We estimate that 4,941 trucks can be electrified, which would decrease CO2 emissions by 565,117.66 metric tons, NOx by 528.39metric tons, and PM by 2.55 metric tons per year.
About the Project
This capstone project was completed in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Urban & Regional Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.