Selection of an efficient transportation energy conservation strategy for Bangladesh

Abstract

An adequatc and efficient transport system is a prerequisite for economIc development. This study compares three transportation energy conservation strategies such as introduction of fuel-efficient vehicles; use of alternative fuels and increase of fuel price using a comprehensive evaluation framework that takes into account how each strategy affects annual vehicle travel, and therefore mileagerelated impacts such as traffic congestion, road and parking facility costs, and crashes. The transportation system in Bangladesh is extensive and about 140000 km of roads in addition to railways and waterways. Travelers tend to place a high value on qualitative factors such as convenience, comfort, security and prestige. However, conventional transport planning practices tend to focus on quantitative impacts and undervalue qualitative impacts. This study describes ways to evaluate qualitative impacts. These mileage-related impacts tend to be large in magnitude compared with energy conservation benefits, so even small changes in total vehicle travel can have a large impact on net benefits. For selecting the best energy conservation strategy at first some planning objectives is selected like energy conservation, pollution reduction, congestion reduction, road related cost savings, accident reduction etc. Some energy conscrvation strategy is selected like introduction of fuel efficient vehicles, use of alternative fuels and increase of fuel price. Introduction of fuel-efficient vehicles and use of altemative fuel cause vehicle travel to increase that is 3% and 3.5% respectively from a questionnaire survey that was conducted for this study. Higher fuel prices cause a combination of increased vehicle fuel economy and reduced mileagc that is 5% from survey. To know the consumers decisions about the selection of strategy a questionnaire survey is conducted. From the survey it is known that the amount of mileage is decreased/increased if any of the strategies are applied. Then the condition of planning objectives is collected. For the increment/decrement of mileage the condition of planning objectives is also decreased/increased. From the increment! decrement the planning objectives are rated. It gives the total rating +2 for introduction of fuel efficient vehicles, + I for use of alternative fuels and +6 for increase of fuel price. It is for the qualitative analysis. Again for quantitative analysis the cost values i. e. per km cost for every planning objective dctellnined from different published documents. Then per km cost is multiplied by the mileage increment/decrement of each vehicle. It gives Tk. 1597.44 increases for introduction of fuel efficient vehicles, Tk. 3899.62 decreases for use of alternative fuels and Tk. 8406 decreases for increase of fuel price per vehicle per year. Then the best energy conservation strategy is easily found. In this study it is found that increase of fuel price strategy is the best strategy than introduction of fuel-efficient vehicles and use of alternative fuels. From a survey it is found that the mileage of vehicles is decreased if fuel price is increased. That is why the mileage related costs are decreased. So the finding from this study is increase of fuel price is the best energy conservation strategy for Bangladesh.