Impact of electric vehicles
Civil, Materials, and Environmental Engineering Professor Jane Lin is working with Associate Professor Serap Erdal, of the School of Public Health at UIC, and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Professor Julie Cidell on a project to gain a better understanding of how air quality, the environment, and public health in underserved communities might be improved through freight vehicle electrification.
For this project, the researchers are collaborating with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and focusing on the Little Village neighborhood on Chicago’s southwest side, which is situated in a multimodal hub with railroads and trucks and has faced various environmental problems.
“The project is looking at an energy transition paradigm,” said Lin. “In transportation, we’re talking about electrification of transport systems – specifically heavy-duty commercial trucks and freight – and in other fields maybe we’re talking about moving away from fossil fuel energy to renewable and other types of clean energy alternatives.”
The study has two parts. The first is gathering a baseline by looking at current air quality conditions and the health exposure of residents due to truck traffic.
The second part is to propose different electrification strategies or scenarios, which will be modeled for quantitative analysis by the UIC researchers.
“Not all of the vehicles can be converted immediately,” she said. “It will happen gradually and take time to get from 10% penetration up to 100% and measure the air quality benefit and the health exposure reduction.”
In addition, the researchers will be investigating the economic impact by selecting charging locations and reviewing how that would bring positive or negative economic activities to the neighborhood.