Assessment of Sustainability for Transportation Vehicles

Traditional urban planning ignores vehicle technology, including the large differences between conventional-, hybrid-, and alternative-fuel vehicles and buses. This study develops an assessment framework that has its foundations in the overarching principle of sustainability. The framework is composed of five sustainability dimensions: environment, technology, energy, economy, and users. From these dimensions, a set of indicators was developed for assessing the sustainability performance of five urban transportation vehicles. The indicators are based on vehicle life-cycle impacts and measure individual vehicle features that contribute to maximizing sustainability. The assessment reveals that the hybrid diesel-electric bus and the hybrid electric vehicle have the highest scores. Performance indices by vehicle type provide the basis for a sustainability tool. The tool was applied to a corridor in Honolulu, Hawaii, to assess the sustainability performance of three scenarios for mode share. Results show that modern propulsion systems can improve the overall sustainability performance relative to the technologies of the internal combustion engine. The sustainability performance of some new technologies currently suffers from limitations in engine and battery performance, comfort and convenience, and availability of charging stations.