Citation

Ruan T, Lv Q. Transp. Res. Interdiscip. Persp. 2024; 25: e101103.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.trip.2024.101103

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered a promising solution for climate change. However, their introduction has raised uncertainties in transportation equity, reflecting the diverse public perceptions and discussions on this issue. Understanding these perceptions is crucial for integrating equity into EV adoption effectively. To bridge this gap, our study used a social media approach to conduct a cross-platform equity analysis on two popular online social networks (OSNs): Twitter and Reddit. We identified 22,533 tweets and 12,318 Reddit comments relevant to equity from all EV-related discussions from 2011 to 2022. Our analysis utilized different features of the two OSNs, including verified account identity and Reddit communities, to present a comprehensive picture of equity perception in social media. Additionally, we used machine learning methods to infer Twitter users' demographic attributes and integrate user demographics into equity analysis. Our findings show that political accounts are the center of attention on Twitter, but they are accompanied by negative attitudes. Many fringe communities are highly active in equity discussions on Reddit. Our study also found that younger people pay less attention and hold more negative sentiments towards equity discussions, while male and female users have similar interests in equity and similar sentiment. Notably, the proportion of equity discussions remains low in the overall EV corpus, despite a significant increase in recent years.

Keywords

Computational social science; Electric vehicles; Public perception; Social media; Transportation equity