Proposal for reducing carbon emissions by incentivizing the use of electric vehicles on UBC Vancouver Campus

To:                   Dr. Erika Paterson
From:              Daniel Tsui
Date:               October 15, 2021
Subject:          Proposal for reducing carbon emissions by incentivizing the use of electric vehicles on UBC Vancouver Campus

Intended Audience

This proposal is intended for those who operate and maintain UBC Parking Services.  It aims to gather surveys from students that use UBC parking facilities and live a reasonable distance away from campus and not from students who live near or on campus. Those who primarily use parking facilities at UBC should have opinions on such to better improve parking facilities.

Introduction

As on-campus activities and classes resume back to normal, many students prefer to use alternate transportation methods that do not include public transportation due to COVID-19 concerns.  Many students and faculty staff do not live on campus and live all around the Greater Vancouver Regional District. On an average distance basis, one drives an estimated combined distance of 50 kilometers round-trip on average each school day. This equates to approximately 1000 kilometers driven per month, per car when driving on every weekday.  The average car in Canada consumes 8.9 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers.  This equates to 89 liters consumes every month which contributes to around 205kg of CO2 released into the environment per month, per car. This proposal aims to highlight the EV charger accessibility and environmental problems.

Statement of Problem

The current global warming temperature rate of increase is rising faster than ever. As countries around the world are declaring the switch to all-electric solutions but the switch to all-electric is simply too slow and we must make all efforts to reduce carbon emissions. As stated in the introduction, many students do not live close to campus and there may be some people that live even further than the estimated average distance.  Public transportation is simply not good enough of an alternative for distant students and faculty as it takes too much time and is not easily accessible in some areas. Currently, UBC provides 10 EV charging stalls per parkade, but this is not sufficient as they are constantly occupied during peak hours and have a time limit of 4 hours. This makes charging for people cumbersome as they must move their car before the time limit is elapsed to avoid getting a violation ticket.

In addition, an outdated press release post from UBC Parking in 2019, EV sales in B.C. had not spiked by tremendous amounts due to the lack of EV grants. For the year 2020 alone, 9.4% of all new car sales in B.C. were all electric cars. In the Lower Mainland alone, there were around 29,000 electric vehicles registered according to ICBC. While it may seem that UBC provides as many chargers as the City of Vancouver, it is nothing to be proud of as it is a small number to begin with based on the comparison between registered vehicles in the Lower Mainland to the number of chargers offered to the public. It is important to consider that students only had the ability to purchase only 2 parkade options this year and that amounts to a maximum of 20 chargers are available to them at the very best-case scenario. This severely limits the number of accessible chargers to long term parking users.

In comparison, UBC Building Operations shares 20 chargers between its own fleet of cars reserved for their own use alone. How would 10 chargers per parkade be adequate for a parking lot that can house up to 1,650 vehicles (Thunderbird Parkade) at any given time?

As a university that prides in sustainability in recycling and waste nationwide, curbing the carbon emissions through encouragement, will contribute even more to our sustainability efforts. This aims to set an example for other universities and large-scale office towers for others to follow suit. We must try our best to help the planet, even if it only makes a little difference.

Proposed Solution

A possible solution is to educate users of UBC parkades the benefits of electric vehicles and to provide even more charging spots located around UBC parkades as EV adoption exponentially rises. Introduction of high-speed chargers and even a Tesla Supercharger station will ease the demand for charging at peak times. By curbing the concerns that most people have, it makes the transition to electric vehicles feasible and accessible even for those that do not have access to a charger at home. Additionally, by offering discounts to parking and charging costs, and prime parking spots, this can incentivize users to transition to electric vehicles.

Scope

Gauging feasibility of the incentivization of EV vehicles, the following questions are to be answered by UBC parking users:

1. How far is your daily commute, round-trip?
2. What form of transportation do you currently use?
3. What are your main concerns of owning/switching to an electric vehicle?
4. Will incentivizing parking costs, increased accessibility to chargers, and prime parking spots convince you to switch to an electric vehicle?
5. Are there any negatives to implementing such? Additionally, do the benefits significantly outweigh the consequences if there is any?

Methods

One of the primary sources of research will involve surveying current users of all UBC parkades around campus to understand the challenges users face and to possibly raise awareness to users.   Secondary sources will involve national average statistics, UBC parking statistics and general information of a typical vehicle in Canada.

Qualifications

I am currently studying in Computer Science at UBC as my second degree. I do live quite far from campus and rely on non-public transportation due to the very same reasons.  I drive a fully electric vehicle and have experienced the very same problems listed above and to help the save the environment.

Conclusion

Although UBC recommends for using public transportation as a means for getting to and from school, it is simply not viable in many situations due to the inaccessibility of the transit system. Incentivizing the use of electric vehicles will surely make a difference in the environment we all belong to and by transitioning to such, many more institutions may follow suit and adopt similar protocols. Following your approval, research and questionnaires will commence.