Energy Consumption of the Urban Transport Fleet in UNESCO World Heritage Sites: A Case Study of Ávila (Spain)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It is an interesting issue. However, this paper suffers for some limits. 

1. Maybe the renewal decision of the UT fleet can be made according to the multiple regression model, which will be more meaningful and practical.
2. The last column in Table 5 is inaccurate.
3. Parameter m in Appendix A is repeated.
4. Figure 3 should be scaled down so that the font size is one size smaller than the text.

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript proposes a mathematical model to compare different urban transport routes and to locate the greatest improvement niches. However, the literature review should be enhanced, the contributions should be highlighted, and the limitations of the proposed method should be supplemented.

Therefore, I would suggest a major revision. The detailed comments are presented below：

1. The literature review should be enhanced，and many latest and important references are missed;
2. The source of Figure 1 should be shown in the manuscript;
3. I would like to suggest the literature review to be presented as a separate section;
4. In the section of methodology, many equations/models lack the interpretation and appropriate source citation;
5. How does the authors obtain the linear regression model shown in equation (18) and (19)?
6. The limitations of the proposed method should be added in the manuscript.

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

This paper provides documentation of an energy calculation algorithm used for six urban transport lines in Ávila city. The algorithm itself is simplistic, but the paper might offer some practical value to practitioners if improved.

• I object to the title of this paper. The paper did not propose any methods or algorithms to ‘optimise’ energy. The proposed algorithm is only capable of analysing energy consumption and with a lot of assumptions.
• What is the value of calculating energy consumption in this way? Can you not just obtain fuel consumption data? Did you make a comparison of your estimation with the actual fuel consumption?
• It is not clear to me what you mean by ‘Urban Transport (UT) fleet’. Do you mean a fleet of buses?
• If the UT lines refer to buses with fixed routes, I do not understand why do you need to calculate the routes using Phase 1 and 2? Isn’t all routes pre-defined?
• With ‘stops’, do you mean a bus stop, or a stop due to traffic?
• Eq 1 is unnecessary as it is a basic and well-defined parameter.
• ‘when the trajectory is curved, more GPS points are needed’; there are well established map-matching algorithms for such purposes. This analysis and processing seem unnecessary.
• I do not see any meaning to compare the six lines. These are six different lines, so obviously, they will be different. What conclusions and recommendations can you make out of the comparison?
• I do not understand what is different about ‘World Heritage Sites’. Is your algorithm not applicable to a normal city?

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors should continue to improve the literature review. In addition, as for the method, how do you know it it correct? Have you compared with other methods?

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

The authors have addressed most of my concerns. Some remaining issues:

• Regarding my previous concern about GPS data and processing, I recommend the authors also review some relevant papers in the field of transportation, e.g.
  • Wang, F., & Chen, C. (2018). On data processing required to derive mobility patterns from passively-generated mobile phone data. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 87, 58-74.
  • Zhao, P., Haitao, H., Li, A., & Mansourian, A. (2021). Impact of data processing on deriving micro-mobility patterns from vehicle availability data. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 97, 102913.
• If the research is about ‘replacement of old fuel buses’, does it mean the data collected came from these ‘old fuel buses’? Are you assuming the new electric buses will drive similarly as the collected data (velocity, acceleration, etc.)? Is this realistic? Please clarify.
• The current analysis is still very much limited within the six lines and has little transferable value to other cases. Could you make some statistical analysis across the six lines to draw some general conclusions as well?

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf