Refueling and new fuels: An exploratory analysis

On the way or around the corner? Observed refueling choices of alternative-fuel drivers in Southern California

“…In this study, we interviewed 259 drivers of CNG vehicles at five CNG stations in Southern California using the same type of intercept survey methodology as in Sperling's 1986 and studies. We then used GIS to calculate: (a) how far off the shortest path between their origin and destination did drivers travel in order to refuel, (b) how far away from their home did they refuel, and (c) which CNG station(s) was actually closest to their home or would have required the smallest deviation.…”

“…Sperling and Kitamura (1986) and Kitamura and Sperling (1987) surveyed drivers of gasoline and diesel vehicles while they refueled at stations in Sacramento, Berkeley, and rural highway locations in Northern California, treating the diesel drivers as a proxy for future AFV drivers. These studies analyzed how early adopters of fast-fueling AFVs, such as those fueled by hydrogen or natural gas, might behave in an early infrastructure, noting in particular the types of trips on which drivers refueled, the trip lengths, and the distance from the driver's home.…”

TAFV Alternative Fuels and Vehicles Choice Model Documentation

“…There are few empirical studies of the value of fuel availability. Surveys of diesel vehicle owners suggested that at station densities of 10 percent to 20 percent, fuel availability went from a major concern to a minor one (Sperling and Kitamura, 1986;Sperling and Kurani, 1987). Stated preference surveys conducted in California suggest very high values for fuel availability, in the tens of thousands of dollars per vehicle for full versus negligible fuel availability (Brownstone et al, 1995).…”

The fuel-travel-back approach to hydrogen station siting

“…By examining alternative fuel experiences in the United States [4][5] [7], New Zealand [8], Canada [9], these studies attempt to estimate a sufficient number of stations, in terms of percentages of existing gasoline stations, for a successful alternative fuel vehicle fleet, but do not explicitly consider where to locate the stations. In the field of operations research, the station siting problem has often been treated as facility location on a network of roads [10]- [13] or as a subset of the existing gasoline station network [14].…”

“…To introduce hydrogen vehicles, a refueling network must be built to ensure some certain level of fuel accessibility [4]- [6], but fuel accessibility could be extremely costly in an early market due to a high ratio of capital investment to demand. This raises the question of how to effectively locate a limited number of stations.…”