IDENTIFYING THE EARLY ADOPTERS OF ALTERNATIVE FUEL VEHICLES: A CASE STUDY OF BIRMINGHAM, UNITED KINGDOM

摘要

The transport sector has been identified as a significant contributor to greenhouse gasemissions. As part of its emissions reduction strategy, the United Kingdom Government isdemonstrating support for new vehicle technologies, paying attention, in particular, to electricvehicles.Cluster analysis has been applied to Census data in order to identify potentialalternative fuel vehicle drivers in the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom. The clusteringhas been carried out based on characteristics of age, income, car ownership and education.Almost 60% of areas that most closely fitted the profile of an alternative fuel vehicle driverwere found to be located across four wards furthest from Birmingham city centre, while theareas with the poorest fit were located towards the centre of Birmingham. The paperdemonstrates how Census data can be used in the initial stages of identifying potential earlyadopters of alternative vehicle drivers. It also shows how such research can provide scope forinfrastructure planning and policy development for local and national authorities, while alsoproviding useful marketing information to car manufacturers.