Tandon researchers to advance equitable, resilient EV charging to turbocharge the economy

Research that aims to optimize the placement of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations with a focus on supporting small businesses and promoting social equity is underway at NYU Tandon with support from a National Science Foundation (NSF) collaborative research grant. 

The project, titled “Planning for electric vehicle charging infrastructure,” is led by Takahiro Yabe, assistant professor at the Center for Urban Science + Progress (CUSP) and the Department of Technology Management and Innovation, along with Joseph Chow, institute associate professor in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering, deputy director of C2SMARTER and affiliated faculty member at CUSP. 

The placement of EV charging stations influences dining, shopping, and other activity patterns, and the researchers aim to provide policy makers with tools to support small and medium-sized businesses. The project explores how and where charging stations should be placed to not only meet drivers’ needs but also enhance the economic resilience of local businesses and promote social equity.

“The idea for this project stemmed from a research project I had just completed on modeling the economic spillover effects of disruptions through human behavior change,” said Yabe. “For this research, which was published in Nature Human Behavior, we analyzed how behavioral shifts like increased work-from-home could significantly impact restaurants near business districts, using large-scale mobility data. During a conversation with Chow, who leads research on EV drivers’ behavioral choice modeling, the idea of applying this method to EV charging station placement came up.” 

To carry out this project, Yabe and Chow will leverage datasets including mobile phone GPS, charging station usage data, and real-world intervention experiments. Using a complex systems approach, the researchers aim to introduce a new model for developing and managing infrastructure by focusing on the social and economic community-wide effects of charging systems.

This grant was funded as part of the NSF’s Strengthening American Infrastructure (SAI) program, which supports research integrating scientific insights into human behavior and social dynamics to improve the design, development, rehabilitation and maintenance of infrastructure in the United States.  

“We are thinking of developing an interactive platform that can compute the multidimensional impacts of placing an EV charging station, including economic impacts on businesses, quality of social interactions in urban environments, and changes in traffic patterns and congestion,” said Yabe. “We will engage with city agencies who provide subsidies for EVCS deployment, as well as business owners and vehicle companies who are considering EVCS installment, to see how this information could be integrated into their decision making processes.” 

Collaborators include Jing Li, assistant professor in Tufts University’s Department of Economics, and Esteban Moro Egido, professor in the Physics Department and the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University.

This open-source optimization and visualization platform would extend benefits to diverse community stakeholders, reflecting the researchers’ commitment to inclusive urban development and recognition that supporting local businesses is essential to maintaining a community’s well-being.