Assessing the Potential Impacts of Toll Discounts on Zero-Emission Vehicle Adoption

Programs granting carpool decals to electric and fuel cell vehicles have been important drivers of zero emission vehicle (ZEV) adoption in California, and studies have attributed as much as 40% of ZEV adoptions to these programs. This project will provide an analysis of the potential impacts of toll discounts on ZEV adoption and express lane usage for ZEV fleet sizes up to 5 million vehicles, the state’s adoption target for 2030. This analysis will test multiple pricing schemes: discounts from 0 to 100%; discounts that change by time of day; targeted discounts for low-income households; and discount durations of the first 3-10 years of a vehicle’s life. This analysis will assess the benefit of each pricing scheme for households with different potential to use toll lanes in order to accurately estimate the sensitivity of ZEV adoption to toll discounts statewide and to estimate the total number of vehicles that would use the discounts under each pricing system. The deliverables for this project will include a recommend pricing scheme, an expected number of ZEVs using the discount under this scheme, an identification of the most useful toll discount mechanisms to increase ZEV adoption among low-income households, and provide an interactive tool to explore the impact of different pricing schemes on adoption. This analysis will enable Caltrans to create statewide standards for express lane discounts to help California meet targets for ZEV adoption by 2030.

• Record URL:
  https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/project/assessing-potential-impacts-toll-discounts-zero-emission-vehicle-adoption

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $90000
• Contract Numbers:

  65A0686 TO 057

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  California Department of Transportation

  1227 O Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95843
• Managing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Project Managers:

  Iacobucci, Lauren

• Performing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Principal Investigators:

  Davis, Adam

• Start Date: 20210701
• Expected Completion Date: 20220630
• Actual Completion Date: 20230123
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Carpools; Discount; Electric vehicles; Express lanes; Fuel cell vehicles; Incentives; Policy making; Road pricing; Tolls; Zero emission vehicles
• Identifier Terms: California Department of Transportation
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Finance; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Policy; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01775905
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Sustainable Transportation
• Contract Numbers: 65A0686 TO 057
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jul 1 2021 5:08PM