Green light for the future of battery electric buses? Examining the performance of battery electric buses from the operator's and customer's perspective

2019冠状病毒病大流行对加拿大人的生活造成了巨大影响，带来了前所未有的经济压力。加拿大各地的联邦、省和市政府正在制定恢复计划，投资于公共交通，这也可以满足可持续性和社会包容性目标。零排放（ZE）PT车辆，包括电动公交车（e-bus），对气候来说是双赢的，通过取代单人乘坐车辆和减少柴油燃料的排放，有效地降低了排放。到2050年实现net-ZE不仅取决于新PT系统的建设或ZE总线的采用，还取决于对这些系统的使用和吸收的理解。拟议的5年计划将提供一个彻底的评估，电动巴士是否是冬季准备，并制定详细的洞察力的性能，电动巴士车队从运营商和客户的角度来看，使用埃德蒙顿作为案例研究。我将讨论四个相互关联的研究目标。首先，我将开发一个工具来衡量客户对埃德蒙顿电动巴士的看法。拟议的工具将被设计为将业务数据与客户感知调查（两个传统上不同的数据集）联系起来，从而以前所未有的形式收集数据。其次，我将确定出行水平电池耗尽的决定因素，以更好地了解在加拿大广泛采用电动巴士的可行性。将测量对电池耗尽的几种操作影响，包括天气、速度、地形、空调使用和乘客负载的影响。该项目将建立一种建模技术，将自动车辆定位（AVL）和自动乘客计数器（APC）数据（用于提取路线级别的乘客活动，速度和路线物流）与充电状态和电池使用数据配对。第三，我将分析驾驶员行为对旅行级再生制动的影响，提供驾驶员习惯对电池耗尽的作用的见解。预计在有效制动再生的实践中训练驾驶员将有益于骑手体验，同时也提高电池里程。最后，我将测试电池电动巴士在冬季天气条件下的可靠性。将获得AVL/APC，以开发停留时间模型，目的是了解电动公交车在冬季条件下的效率和可靠性，比较柴油和电池电动公交车的运行。拟议的研究计划将：（1）培养跨学科的HQP团队（2名博士，2名硕士生）作为下一代高技能的运输专业人员，（2）将为PT研究人员和从业人员提供新的方法和工具，以便在PT运营和客户满意度的交叉点工作，（3）将告知电子巴士的设计和开发，定位加拿大电动巴士制造商和加拿大城市，以获得不断增长的清洁经济的回报。

COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the lives of Canadians imposing an unprecedented economic stress. Federal, provincial, and municipal governments across Canada are developing recovery plans with investments in public transport (PT), which can also meet sustainability and social inclusion goals. Zero-emission (ZE) PT vehicles, including electric buses (e-buses), are a double win for the climate, effectively lowering emissions through replacing single occupancy vehicles and reducing emissions from diesel fuel. Achieving net-ZE by 2050 will depend not just on the building of new PT systems or adoption of ZE buses, but on understanding use and uptake of these systems. The proposed 5-year program will provide a thorough assessment of whether e-buses are winter ready and develop detailed insight on the performance of an e-bus fleet from operator and customer perspectives, using Edmonton as a case study. I will address four interrelated research objectives. First, I will develop a tool to measure customer perceptions of e-buses in Edmonton. The proposed tool will be designed to link operations data with the customer perception survey (two traditionally distinct datasets), thereby collecting data in a form that has not been done before. Second, I will identify the determinants of trip-level battery depletion to better understand the feasibility of widespread adoption of e-buses in Canada. There are several operational impacts on battery depletion that will be measured, including effects of weather, speed, terrain, use of air conditioning, and passenger load. This project will establish a modeling technique to pair automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger counter (APC) data (used to extract route-level passenger activity, speed, and route logistics) with data on the state of charge and battery use. Third, I will analyze the effect of driver behaviour on trip-level regenerative braking, providing insight on the role of driver habits on battery depletion. It is expected that training drivers in the practice of effective braking regeneration will have benefits on the rider experience while also improving battery mileage. Last, I will test the reliability of battery electric buses during winter weather conditions. AVL/APC will be obtained to develop a dwell time model with the goal of understanding the efficiency and reliability of e-buses in winter conditions, comparing the operations of both diesel and battery electric buses. The proposed research program will: (1) train an interdisciplinary group of HQP (2 PhD, 2 MSc students) as the next generation of highly-skilled transport professionals, (2) will present new methods and tools for PT researchers and practitioners to work at the intersection of PT operations and customer satisfaction, and (3) will inform the design and development of e-buses, positioning both Canadian e-bus manufacturers and Canadian cities to reap the rewards of a growing clean economy.