Urban transportation energy and carbon dioxide emission reduction strategies

Sustainability is an urban development priority. Thus, energy and carbon dioxide emission reduction is becoming more significant in the sustainability of urban transportation systems. However, urban transportation systems are complex and involve social, economic, and environmental aspects. We present solutions for a sustainable urban transportation system by establishing a simplified system dynamics model with a timeframe of 30 years (from 1995 to 2025) to simulate the effects of urban transportation management policies and to explore their potential in reducing vehicular fuel consumption and mitigating CO2 emissions. Kaohsiung City was selected as a case study because it is the second largest metropolis in Taiwan and is an important industrial center. Three policies are examined in the study including fuel tax, motorcycle parking management, and free bus service. Simulation results indicate that both the fuel tax and motorcycle parking management policies are suggested as potentially the most effective methods for restraining the growth of the number of private vehicles, the amount of fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions. We also conducted a synthetic policy consisting of all policies which outperforms the three individual policies. The conclusions of this study can assist urban transport planners in designing appropriate urban transport management strategies and can assist transport operation agencies in creating operational strategies to reduce their energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The proposed approach should be generalized in other cities to develop an appropriate model to understand the various effects of policies on energy and CO2 emissions.