Multiobjective Traffic Network Design Accounting for Plug-in Electric Vehicle Energy Consumption

In order to exploit the potential of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) as a sustainable form of transport, this novel technology must be integrated into the traditional transport system planning process. This work takes a step in that direction by incorporating PEV energy consumption rates into network design decisions. Not only is energy consumption a proxy for emissions in traditional vehicles, it will also become an essential issue for regional energy providers who will need to adapt to the additional electricity demand created as PEVs become a more ubiquitous form of transport. This work addresses the network design problem (NDP) to minimize both system level energy consumption and total system travel time, independently and as a multi-objective problem. The NDP is formulated and solved for a road network with a high penetration of PEVs using a heuristic approach. For certain design scenarios, minimizing total system travel time and minimizing energy consumption are demonstrated to be conflicting objectives. The trade-off in terms of each system performance measure is quantified. Based on the results it is evident that both objectives must be considered when planning for future networks that will be comprised of some portion of PEVs.