A quantitative, equitable framework for urban transportation electrification: Oakland, California as a mobility model of climate justice

1-Spatial framework for equitable transportation electrification in Oakland, California is presented.2-Bus routes and census tracts with highest environmental burden are identified.3-Solar rooftop PV in blocks to power electric buses is explored and quantified.4-Public and private transportation incentives are discussed in a local context for equitable urban mobility. This paper implements a framework that catalogs and maps opportunities at a city level to support the electrification of the transportation system in an equitable way. Leveraging on the use of hyper-local air quality data, paired with sociodemographic indicators, we evaluate the framework in the City of Oakland, CA under a context of public and private transport areas to prioritize interventions and incentives, while reducing environmental hazard exposure under an equity focus. Following the recognition of racial and socio-economic disparities, the subsequent steps of implementing operational strategies are to identify specific bus routes in the city in which decarbonization would render the highest impact with respect to the distribution of environmental burden, and to identify regions in which private vehicle interventions would render the highest impact with respect to racial and social equity and mobility.