The accessibility and inaccessibility of urban public charging station

The accessibility and inaccessibility of urban public charging station | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The accessibility and inaccessibility of urban public charging station Xinwu Qian, Hossein Gazmeh, Mario L. Small, Qi Wang, Yuntao Guo This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5702771/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Unlike refueling at gas stations, charging an electric vehicle (EV) requires significantly more time, ranging from 20 minutes to over an hour, even with the fastest chargers. This prolonged charging duration introduces unique complexities to the fundamental understanding of public charging station (PCS) accessibility, raises questions about the ongoing relevance of spatial proximity for different population groups, and highlights the need to consider amenities near PCS that users can access along their daily routines. To account for these critical distinctions, we introduce visit-based accessibility, a metric that evaluates PCS availability relative to amenities frequented during urban routine activities. Leveraging data from over 28,000 PCSs, 5.2 million points of interest (POIs), and mobility patterns from more than 35 million cell phone users across 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas, we reveal a striking mismatch between PCS locations and the spatial proximity to and the daily needs of their intended users. While existing PCSs are spatially proximate to lower-income communities, our visit-based measure reveals significant disparities, as these communities' routine activities align significantly less with PCS locations. Furthermore, when considering dwell time at nearby amenities, higher-income communities exhibit better alignment of PCSs with routine activities and longer dwell times at nearby POIs, which are also the most extensively covered by existing PCSs. Finally, our analysis reveals that experienced income and racial segregation are likely the major impedance for accessing PCSs that are spatially adjacent, which highlights a hidden social barrier where greater divergence from typical social encounters near charging infrastructure is associated with lower visit rates to PCSs. These findings underscore the necessity for targeted strategies to ensure equitable access to charging infrastructure, addressing both spatial and functional disparities to promote sustainable and inclusive urban development. Social science/Science, technology and society Scientific community and society/Energy and society/Energy access Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files ChargingSocialBarrierssubmissiontracksupplement.pdf Supplementary information ChargingSocialBarriersSIsubmissiontrack0120.pdf Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5702771","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":406091276,"identity":"32c6b102-1c19-4358-9a03-b8aecd05d610","order_by":0,"name":"Xinwu Qian","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA0klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACZgjFA2QdYEgAsxOI1sKWQKQWBOAxgDIIaDE4zntMmofBWoZ/ds+3Dw9qbBj42XMM8GqRbOZLA2pJ55G4c3bzjIRjaQySPW/wa+Fn5jG7zcNwmIfhRu5mhsSGwwwGNwjYwgbTIn8j5zFQy38Ge0Ja4LYADWcGajnAYCBB0C885j/nGKTzGN5IM2ZIOJbMI3HmWQFeLQbnzxgbvKmwtpe7kfyY8UeNnRx/e/IGvFqgGpnhTB4ilIMBM2Elo2AUjIJRMHIBAD1eOss3+aUzAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8001-2164","institution":"Rice University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xinwu","middleName":"","lastName":"Qian","suffix":""},{"id":406091277,"identity":"3ab136fe-e0c6-45b2-aa13-bd0eaec3b835","order_by":1,"name":"Hossein Gazmeh","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Rice University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hossein","middleName":"","lastName":"Gazmeh","suffix":""},{"id":406091278,"identity":"45602083-bccd-45ab-9c37-76f73a576be3","order_by":2,"name":"Mario L. 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This prolonged charging duration introduces unique complexities to the fundamental understanding of public charging station (PCS) accessibility, raises questions about the ongoing relevance of spatial proximity for different population groups, and highlights the need to consider amenities near PCS that users can access along their daily routines. To account for these critical distinctions, we introduce visit-based accessibility, a metric that evaluates PCS availability relative to amenities frequented during urban routine activities. Leveraging data from over 28,000 PCSs, 5.2 million points of interest (POIs), and mobility patterns from more than 35 million cell phone users across 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas, we reveal a striking mismatch between PCS locations and the spatial proximity to and the daily needs of their intended users. While existing PCSs are spatially proximate to lower-income communities, our visit-based measure reveals significant disparities, as these communities' routine activities align significantly less with PCS locations. Furthermore, when considering dwell time at nearby amenities, higher-income communities exhibit better alignment of PCSs with routine activities and longer dwell times at nearby POIs, which are also the most extensively covered by existing PCSs. Finally, our analysis reveals that experienced income and racial segregation are likely the major impedance for accessing PCSs that are spatially adjacent, which highlights a hidden social barrier where greater divergence from typical social encounters near charging infrastructure is associated with lower visit rates to PCSs. These findings underscore the necessity for targeted strategies to ensure equitable access to charging infrastructure, addressing both spatial and functional disparities to promote sustainable and inclusive urban development.","manuscriptTitle":"The accessibility and inaccessibility of urban public charging station","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-01-24 04:53:33","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5702771/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"58e2e8da-0715-4e21-826f-b897c84b7fc7","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 24th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":43302171,"name":"Social science/Science, technology and society"},{"id":43302172,"name":"Scientific community and society/Energy and society/Energy access"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-28T11:45:09+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-01-24 04:53:33","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-5702771","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-5702771","identity":"rs-5702771","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}