Date of Graduation

Spring 5-19-2017

Document Access

Project/Capstone - Global access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Environmental Management (MSEM)

College/School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department/Program

Environmental Management

First Advisor

Maggie Winslow

Abstract

In California, the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads has been increasing over the past several years. As EVs continue to grow, additional electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) will be needed for EV drivers to utilize. However, before implementing EVCSs in the public, there are various criteria that need to be considered. One of these criteria is public EVCSs’ accessibility to amenities. When people are charging their EVs that require a significant amount of waiting time, having amenities nearby will provide them with the option to spend their time efficiently on worthwhile activities. To understand the accessibility of California public EVCSs to amenities, existing charging stations were examined with two popular amenities. Closest facility analysis from ArcGIS 10.4.1 was used to analyze and compute the distance from each of the public charging station to the closest amenity. The accessibility was based on whether the distances between the EVCSs and the amenities are within a tolerable walking distance. From the data analysis, two results were produced for the amenities examined and presented different percentages of the accessibility. For more precise results, further examination of public EVCSs’ accessibility to amenities is needed and can be accomplished by considering additional amenities in the data analysis. Additionally, this study provides an approach to evaluate the accessibility of charging stations to amenities, which can be useful for locating optimal EVCS sites.

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