Urban electric vehicle infrastructure: Strategic planning for curbside charging

Abstract

As electric vehicles (EVs) become increasingly popular, urban areas face the challenge of deploying accessible charging infrastructure. This paper presents a diverse stakeholder framework for the strategic planning of curbside EV charging stations, focusing on San Francisco, CA. Utilizing a geospatial multi-criteria decision-making framework, this study evaluates potential curbside charging sites based on economic, fairness, and environmental criteria. Four scenarios (i.e., entropy weight method, equal weight method, high demand, and high need) are analyzed to produce curbside charging suitability maps and installation plans. A benefit evaluation system is incorporated to assess the economic, environmental, and social impacts of the proposed installation plans. The results show that the high need scenario, which targets underserved areas with high social and environmental needs, provides the greatest equity benefits. On the other hand, the high demand scenario focuses on areas with heavy traffic and high parking turnover, maximizing economic and environmental benefits, and outperforming the entropy weight method, equal weight method, and high need scenarios by 14%, 23%, and 57% in environmental benefits and 17%, 16%, and 13% in economic benefits, respectively. Neighborhoods are classified into six clusters based on factors such as demographics, parking space availability, and parking regulations to uncover the unique characteristics and needs. Urban planners should prioritize high-density residential areas for curbside charging, adjust parking regulations by extending EV parking durations during off-peak and establishing dedicated EV charging zones to reduce conflicts with general parking needs, and implement targeted incentive programs to facilitate curbside charging installations in underserved neighborhoods.