Volpe Center: Transportation Strategic Plans

National Transportation Technology Plan

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7. TRANSPORTATION AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

VISION

A transportation system that meets the needs for mobility and accessibility while balancing the current and long-term goals of economic growth, environmental quality, and social equity.

GOALS

Integrate and coordinate existing research agendas to minimize duplication and research gaps while optimizing support for a sustainable transportation system; develop improved technical tools and models to analyze the impacts of transportation activities on both the natural and the social environment.

NEAR-TERM OUTCOMES

By 2001, reduce on-road mobile source emissions to a target level of 62.2 million tons as compared to the 1998 level of 63.7 million tons.

Reduce carbon-equivalent emissions from transportation sources.

By 2001, increase to 11.78 percent the percentage of urban population living within a quarter mile of transit stops with service frequency of 15 minutes or less (non-rush hour) from a 1999 level of 11.24 percent.

Minimize the adverse impacts of transportation projects on wetlands and replace at least 1.5 acres of wetlands for every 1 acre affected where impacts are unavoidable.

MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM

Transportation is vital to our economy and our society. It supports economic development through the movement of goods and through access to jobs, services, and other activities. However, as we enter the 21^st century, concerns are growing about how to meet increasing demands for access and mobility, safe and efficient operations, capacity of the current transportation infrastructure, environmental quality, and social equity.

The negative effects of transportation activities, and the development patterns they support, include contribution to greenhouse gases and global warming, congestion, air and water pollution, inefficient land use, unequal access to transportation, and ecosystem fragmentation. Specifically:

Transportation accounts for as much as a third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

After bottoming out in 2010 at levels about 30 percent lower than in 1990, nitrogen oxide emissions in the Northeast Ozone Transport Region will reverse course and begin climbing through 2015 and beyond, unless new technologies can keep pace.

Congestion costs are $6.6 billion in New York City and $7.7 billion in Los Angeles, where it would require 665 new lane miles of highway annually just to maintain current mobility.

Welfare reform is helping individuals get and keep jobs across the country: caseloads have fallen by 7.2 million since 1993, but transportation remains one of the biggest barriers facing people who move from welfare to work. Few welfare recipients own cars. Existing mass transit does not provide adequate links to many suburban jobs at all, or within a reasonable commute time. In addition, in many urban and rural areas-where most recipients reside-transit does not reach most of the potential jobs or is nonexistent.

These and related concerns are of vital importance to regional, national, and international environmental policy.

REQUIREMENTS

Despite widespread recognition of the concerns listed above, there is a lack of understanding of how best to balance the often conflicting goals of economic growth, environmental quality, and sustainability. This partnership's key focus is exploring how sustainable transportation and land use can contribute to this balance.

As acknowledged above, transportation systems interact with other built, social, and natural systems, and thus have broad impacts on sustainability. This partnership looks at the interrelationships between transportation decisions¾including policies, investments, and strategies¾and development. These relationships produce environmental, social equity, and economic outcomes, sometimes characterized as the "Three E's." Transportation can be considered "sustainable" to the extent that it contributes to improved economic opportunity, social equity, public health, and environmental quality.

Federal agencies contribute to sustainable communities through several means, including:

Expanding understanding of both the positive and negative consequences of transportation choices.

Facilitating development of effective regional entities that can guide investment in transportation and other infrastructure.

Developing better forecasting, planning, and impact assessment tools for use by regional bodies and localities.

Continuing environmentally beneficial technology research.

Supporting development, demonstration, and evaluation of sustainable community and transportation initiatives.

This partnership furthers the efforts of Federal agencies to work with each other and with other levels of government and the private sector to contribute to sustainability.

INVESTMENT STRATEGY

Participants

Federal: DOD (USACE); DOE; DOT (Office of the Secretary, BTS, FAA, FHWA, FRA, FTA, RSPA); EPA; HHS (CDC); HUD; Interior (National Parks Service); OMB-- all lead agencies.

Other: State and local transportation/environmental agencies and organizations; public health agencies; MPOs; mayoral offices; environmental advocates; environmental technology manufacturers and vendors; transportation system design, engineering, and construction firms; materials manufacturers; vehicle and fuel manufacturers; universities.

Management

The Federal partners in this initiative jointly manage its activities, with overall direction from the NSTC and guidance from the non-Federal participants.

Critical Technology Elements and Activities

This partnership encompasses a broad range of research and technology development activities, which are described in detail in the National Research Agenda for Transportation and Sustainable Communities. These efforts are summarized below and on the accompanying roadmap.

Improved Awareness and Understanding of Sustainable Transportation: This activity furthers dialog among Federal, state, and local agencies; the private sector; environmental and other advocacy groups; and, ultimately, the public, on the national policy implications and choices relating to transportation and sustainable communities.

Behavioral, Social, and Institutional Factors: This activity seeks to (1) explicate the complex relationships among transportation planning, land use, and social equity, and (2) develop model institutional approaches for cooperative decision making and regional transportation and land-use planning.

Implementation Issues for Next Generation Vehicles and Fuels: Addressing the critical role of alternative fuels and vehicles in making transportation more sustainable, this activity involves analysis of (1) the implications of new vehicles and fuels for the transportation infrastructure and the economy; (2) the different evolutionary pathways in moving toward an alternative vehicle/fuel system; and (3) the broader role of petroleum alternatives in achieving sustainability.

Information Technology and Sustainable Transportation: This looks at the implications of information technologies for sustainability, such as whether they result in major changes in travel demand and patterns. It also addresses how such technologies could promote sustainability, for example, by increasing the productivity of transit systems; facilitating congestion pricing; affording better methods for transportation and environmental planning; or enabling intelligent vehicle applications, such as electronic speed-control systems, that regulate vehicle speeds in residential areas and pedestrian activity centers.

Improved Analytical Tools and Indicators: This activity is developing better tools for understanding the complex relationships between transportation systems and land use/ development strategies-- including improved data, performance measures, and a new generation of analytical models.

Aviation and Sustainability: Efforts in this area will examine the environmental impacts of continued growth in aviation, including the implications of introducing "free flight"; policy options for managing this growth; and competitive intermodal options for intercity transportation.

Funding Requirement

Funding will be provided from a mix of Federal, State, and local government and private sources. Federal funding will be determined through the annual budget process.

TECHNICAL CHALLENGES AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

As discussed above, "sustainability" is a matter of degree, with progress measured by outcomes ranging from reduced greenhouse gases to better access to jobs. Thus, the greatest challenge for decision makers at all levels is to achieve a balance among preferred sustainability outcomes, some of which may be in competition. For this partnership, the choice of outcomes and measures will be evolutionary and will continue to be refined by participating agencies and key stakeholders.