Toronto EV Charging Accessibility Map

As Toronto accelerates toward its Net-Zero by 2040 goals, access to public EV charging remains highly uneven across the city — particularly in low-income, high-density, and transit-oriented communities. This solo project, developed for the 2025 Esri Canada App Challenge, investigates spatial disparities in EV charging availability using a multi-criteria demand index across 585 census tracts.

Through a dual-interface deployment — a public-facing StoryMap and a planner-focused Experience Builder App — this project supports equitable transportation planning by revealing where policy, infrastructure, and socioeconomic stressors collide. The final map enables decision-makers to explore high-demand, underserved zones and download tract-level data for planning and grant support.

Key Insights

• 60%+ of high-demand zones are concentrated in apartment-dense neighborhoods where residents lack access to at-home chargers, which posing major equity concerns.
• 30+ GO Train stations across Toronto are located in charging deserts, lacking public EV infrastructure within 500 meters, despite high commuter traffic.
• Areas with both high EV ownership and low charger access (e.g., Scarborough, North York) highlight critical mismatches in deployment strategy.
• Transit-adjacent employment zones where long-distance commuters or rideshare drivers park. This shows demand for workplace charging that is not currently met.
• The tool enables layered filtering of EV demand factors (housing, income, proximity) to help cities prioritize investment in the most infrastructure-poor neighborhoods.

Instructor: Lindsey Smith
Team: Zhuoxinran Li, William Chan
Challenge: Esri Canada App Challenge 2025
Skills: ArcGIS Pro, Experience Builder, StoryMap, buffer analysis, composite index design