Tech-policy integrated validation of spatiotemporal energy-emissions efficiency in public bus systems

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2025

Subject Area

place - asia, place - urban, mode - bus, technology - emissions, technology - alternative fuels, policy - environment, policy - sustainable, economics - subsidy, organisation - governance

Keywords

Energy consumption, Pollutant emission, Carbon reduction efficiency, Bus electrification

Abstract

To capture energy-emissions dynamics and provide spatiotemporally differentiated low-carbon benchmarks for urban bus governance, this study integrates grid-specific power and emission factors into a super-efficiency Slack-Based Measure model, assessing energy consumption and emissions under tech-policy interactions using 2014–2023 bus fleet data from Fuzhou, China. Key findings reveal: (1) A decade of electrification initiative cut bus energy use and emissions by 45–82%, with a 2018 policy shift accelerating progress. Yet rising non-tailpipe PM2.5 and stagnant SO2 levels reveal limits of unilateral electrification strategies. (2) Annual carbon emission efficiency declined—particularly after 2016—due to subsidy-induced fleet overexpansion, despite temporary improvements from 2018 policy adjustments. These findings highlight non-linear decarbonization pathways and the necessity of capped incentives and demand-aligned planning to ensure sustainable efficiency gains. (3) Route-level carbon emission efficiency varied spatially and exhibited ridership and route-service dependence, demonstrating that passenger-normalized metrics better reflect operator-level decarbonization performance than aggregate benchmarks.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

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Transportation Research Part D Home Page:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13619209

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