Jia Li | Washington State University

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Presentation Description

Electric Vehicles (EV) play a significant role in the reduction of emission, and this can bring additional benefits in public health. While the first aspect is relatively well discussed in literature, the second aspect is not fully clear. In this research, we aim to explore several sources of data from the state of Washington and derive insights into the nexus of EV market, emissions, and lung cancers in various communities of the state, which vary in socioeconomic and demographic characters. Specifically, we aim to answer two related research questions: Q1) EV market’s health impacts: We are interested in exploring whether EV adaptation temporally and spatially correlates with lung cancer cases across different communities of Washington; Q2) Causality analysis of EV’s health impacts: Based on Q1), we aim to further unveil causality relationship between EV adaptation, emission rates, observed lung cancers. To answer these questions, we will carefully align and analyze several longitudinal data sets that span a decade, from 2012 through 2022. The data include the state-level EV and regular registration data, reported emissions in Washington, EPA’s direct daily emission measurements, and lung cancer-related hospital visits in Washington, and Washington’s demographic data. Our analysis unveils the existence of consistent relationships between several variables, such as annual total hospital visits and yearly emission level, which are indicative of the correlation between EV market and lung cancer cases. A further comprehensive and rigorous analysis will be conducted based on the preliminary findings. The analysis will involve: 1. Developing proper metrics to measure the trend and volatility of EV market, emission, lung cancer cases; 2. Performing correlational analysis to prove or disprove the relationship between EV market, emission, and lung cancer; 3. Developing causal inference models to estimate the mixed effects of EV adaptation on lung cancers, and inversely, the impacts of anticipated health benefits on EV adaptation. The finding of this research will shed light on better understanding the EV’s health effects and policymaking to improve social benefits through EVs.

Speaker Biography

Dr. Jia Li is an assistant professor of transportation at Washington State University. His current research focuses on modeling and analysis of multimodal transportation systems and their interactions with other dimensions of communities, including emission and public health. His research aims at improving efficiency, sustainability, and equity of transportation systems, through developing original modeling methodologies, tools, and analysis to capture the complex decision-making and interplay of different entities and resulted equilibrium and dynamical behaviors. His research has been published in primer journals and conferences of the field. He has been a PI of multiple research projects in automated and connected transportation, transportation electrification and public health, and road safety, which are sponsored by USDOT, different state agencies, and two seed grants.

Co-presenters

Tiankai Wang
Texas State University

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