Transport Emissions and Energy Consumption Impacts of Private Capital Investment in Public Transport

Bing Zhang,Hongzhi Guan,Huanmei Qin,Jonathan Corey,Hai Yan,Yunqiang Xue,Yan Han

doi:10.3390/su9101760

Abstract

Introducing private capital into the public transport system for its sustainable development has been increasing around the world. However, previous research ignores emissions and energy consumption impacts, which are important for private capital investment policy-making. To address this problem, the system dynamic (SD) approach was used to quantitatively analyze the cumulative effects of different private capital investment models in public transport from the environmental perspective. The SD model validity was verified in the case study of Jinan public traffic. Simulation results show that the fuel consumption and emission reductions are obvious when the private capital considering passenger value invests in public transport compared with the no private capital investment and traditional investment models. There are obvious cumulative reductions for fuel consumption, CO2, CO, SO2, and PM10 emissions for 100 months compared with no private capital investment. This research verifies the superiority of the passenger value investment model in public transport from the environmental point of view, and supplies a theoretical tool for administrators to evaluate the private capital investment effects systematically.

Highlights

It has been considered common sense that public transport benefits sustainable urban development and transportation sustainability [1]
The system dynamic (SD) method is used in the paper to analyze the cumulative effect of private capital investment in public transport from the perspective of the environment
The simulation results show that the passenger value private capital investment model in public transport has a more significant cumulative effect of energy-saving and emission reductions

Summary

Introduction

It has been considered common sense that public transport benefits sustainable urban development and transportation sustainability [1]. Governments at all levels have to face the problem of maintaining service quality based on limited financial resources and keeping transit fares at low levels [2,3]. The developed countries’ experiences and successful practices [5,6,7,8,9] show that introducing private capital into public transport industry, and establishing competition between private and public sectors is the best way for a public transport system to solve this dilemma, and public–private partnership (PPP) is a common way to introduce private capital. After 2000, more and more developed and developing countries [7,12,13,14,15] have become interested in PPPs. Chinese governments encouraged public transport marketization due to financial burdens after 2010 [3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion