Road transportation is one of the major causes for environmental degradation via exhaust emission nowadays. It is a challenge for policy makers to alleviate the emissions and travel congestions simultaneously. Numerous methods and policies were proposed all over the world to cope with emission sources. For the sake of explore the effectiveness of different methods, three emission management schemes: (1) emission pricing and fuel taxing, (2) bus replacement by railway and (3) early retirement of the bus fleet not meeting emission standards, are investigated, including their effects on the travel and financial aspects....[ Read more ]

Road transportation is one of the major causes for environmental degradation via exhaust emission nowadays. It is a challenge for policy makers to alleviate the emissions and travel congestions simultaneously. Numerous methods and policies were proposed all over the world to cope with emission sources. For the sake of explore the effectiveness of different methods, three emission management schemes: (1) emission pricing and fuel taxing, (2) bus replacement by railway and (3) early retirement of the bus fleet not meeting emission standards, are investigated, including their effects on the travel and financial aspects.

In this thesis, an analytical framework is firstly set to analyze transportation pricing policies (tunnel tolling, fuel taxing, and emission taxing) for the purpose of congestion and pollution mitigation. To understand the effectiveness of different pricing policies, sensitivity analyses are conducted for a case study in Hong Kong. Secondly, this thesis examines the role of urban rail transit in reducing vehicular exhaust emissions as compared with bus services. Using empirical data in Hong Kong, urban rail transit, as compared with bus services, it is shown that rail transit can lead to substantial reductions in emissions. To study the environmental impact of the results obtained, sensitivity analyses are conducted to ascertain the outcomes under different operation scenarios. Thirdly, a mathematical program is developed to determine the optimal bus replacement strategy by analyzing the additional benefit associated with vehicle technology replacement and the additional cost of retiring buses before their normal lifespan