OSUStudentsPresentCapstonesonSmartColumbusPrograms

For a second year, students at The Ohio State University majoring in environment, economy development and sustainability (EEDS) presented capstone projects based on real Smart Columbus programs that would affect area businesses and residents, and also promote electrification and mobility.

The EEDS major is a multidisciplinary degree program that focuses on the human dimensions of sustainability. This cutting-edge program provides the core knowledge and skills students need to launch a career in sustainability in the private, public or nonprofit sectors.

The capstone projects offer an in-depth analysis of several Smart Columbus projects, including electric vehicle (EV) adoption, shared mobility options entering the market and energy savings programs. Read more about the projects below and download the full projects from the sidebar.

City of Columbus EV Fleet Adoption Analysis

The city wishes to understand better the financial and environmental benefits from incorporating 200 electric vehicles into their fleet. The research group’s main focus was to look at this motivation principally from the economic viewpoint, by running Net Present Value analyses to determine long-term net cost savings from this decision of the city. The City Sustainability Goals that this project addresses include becoming a world-class logistics leader, improving people’s quality of life, and fostering sustainability.

EV Adoption Among Lyft & Uber Drivers

Smart Columbus aims to create benefits and equitable opportunities through a series of different grants and initiatives to improve societal, environmental and economic factors throughout the city. The team’s role in this initiative was determining if Uber, Lyft and similar ride-hailing platform drivers represent a promising market for electric vehicle adoption.

Impact of Docked Bikes in Columbus

This project is important for the city to address because of the immense amount of changes happening with bike sharing programs. Due to the recent development of Lime discontinuing their dockless bikes in the city of Columbus, it has become increasingly important to explore where bike share systems in Columbus stand and how it can be enhanced. This team evaluated the current status of Columbus as well as three other supporting objectives relating to mobility, health and low-income communities to develop final recommendations for the city. The major findings were based on researching successful programs in other cities and considering how to apply successful models in other cities to the needs of the City of Columbus.

Fuel Source Impacts on Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction by Electric Vehicles

One of Smart Columbus’ goals is to reduce the carbon footprint of the seven-county Columbus region. With transportation contributing 28 percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the conversion from gas-powered vehicles to EVs is essential to reducing these emissions. To advance this effort, Smart Columbus recently partnered with Columbus Yellow Cab to deploy EVs into their fleet with hopes of reducing GHG emissions in Columbus. Following positive results of an initial study in reducing GHG emissions by cabs in the area, further studies were performed to determine the potential future benefits if Columbus Yellow Cab were to convert and deploy more EVs in place of the company’s current combustion engine vehicles. The scope of this project was to study the conversion from combustion vehicles to EVs from an environmental standpoint with GHG emissions. Further, an economic analysis was completed to determine the feasibility of the investment for Columbus Yellow Cab to fund a transition to EVs.

Identifying Best Practices for Management of Electric Scooters

In 2018, rentable electric scooter companies flooded urban markets. Cities across the U.S. have attempted to manage this new mode of transportation by passing different policies to regulate electric scooters. As of April 2019, Columbus had a few policies in place to regulate electric scooters. This research identifies some best practices for electric scooter policy to ensure safety of residents and fair distribution.

Identifying Barriers to Linden Energy Saving Programs

The goal of this project was to provide focus to the Community Energy Savers (CES) program being administered by AEP Ohio and Columbia Gas by identifying barriers to resident participation in the program. The CES program incentivizes energy efficiency through in-home energy audits and various rebate programs.

The CES program is currently being implemented in Linden, a neighborhood in the Northeast area of Columbus. After speaking with contacts at AEP Ohio and Columbia Gas, along with the Linden Energy Savers working group (a subset of the CES program), the project team created a survey to identify possible barriers to participation that residents in Linden may face when participating in energy saving programs.

Mobility Equity Analysis of Electric Scooters in Linden

Electric scooters as a form of micro-transportation present one solution for overcoming mobility barriers, with advantages including cheap fares, easy parking options and limited waits for rides. Linden is one of the “opportunity zones” of Columbus, where mobility is a significantly high barrier that impedes a higher quality of life for its residents. Scooters present a unique opportunity to address this need in the community.

The overall research goal of this project was to provide the City of Columbus with mobility information regarding the feasibility of electric scooter transportation in the neighborhood of Linden.

Potential for Municipal Procurement of Renewable Energy via Virtual Power Purchase Agreements

The objective of this research was to determine whether or not a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) would be a viable method for Columbus to procure renewable energy as the city attempts to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

The findings suggest that VPPAs are extremely effective for corporations with facilities located in different grids spread across the country. Unfortunately, there is very limited data and information related to municipal application of these agreements.