As the Paris climate talks hit the headlines, transportation comes in for its share of the chatter.
Todd Litman is a well-known, and in my opinion, a strong thinker on transportation and its role in shaping our lives and our cities. He is Executive Director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI).
Here’s an article by Mr. Litman in the US publication Planetizen.com. He writes about the many ways that we can create more diverse and efficient transport and help solve our climate change issues. (Sorry, deniers, but I’m taking climate change to be real and serious).
Reduce – Shift – Improve
This type of analysis generally indicates that greatest variety of benefits are provided by strategies that reduce total travel, for example, by creating more compact communities and applying more efficient transport pricing. The second greatest benefits result from strategies that shift travel from automobile to more resource-efficient modes, such as improvements to walking, cycling, public transit and mobility substitutes. The third greatest benefits tend to result from strategies that improve motor vehicle performance, such as more efficient and alternative fueled vehicles that use less energy and produce less pollution per mile or kilometer travelled. As a result, many experts recommend Reduce-Shift-Improve emission reduction priorities (video), as indicated in the following table.
Mr. Litman goes on to develop these themes in more detail with specific strategies (a few examples):
Eliminate Fuel Subsidies
Carbon Taxes, Cap-and-Trade, and Vehicle Fuel Tax Increases
In the United States, less than half of all roadway expenses are financed through vehicle user fees. This is economically inefficient and unfair. Fuel taxes will need to double for motorists to pay for roadways.
Favor Resource-Efficient Transport Travel Demands
Walking, cycling, public transit, and mobility substitutes are resource-efficient: compared with automobile travel they generally have much lower user costs, require less travel and parking space and so reduce road and parking facility costs, consume less fuel, and require less embodied energy (energy used to build vehicles and facilities). For these reasons, society benefits if, as much as possible, transport systems serve the demand for these modes; if somebody prefers to walk, bike, use public transit or telework rather than drive, virtually everybody benefits if we make it possible to do so.
Smart Growth Development Policies
Smart Growth includes various policies that result in more compact, mixed development and more multi-modal transport systems. These policies tend to have synergistic impacts (they become more effective if implemented together); where all economically justified smart growth policies are implemented, per capita vehicle travel and associated emissions typically decline by 40-60 percent compared with what occurs under sprawled conditions.
Smart Growth Policies and Their Impacts
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There are several more strategies that are quite specific. And the wrap-up is this:
The Sum Total
These strategies interact in various ways; many become more effective if implemented together so travelers have a combination of improved user information, more efficient options (better walking, cycling, public transit, and mobility substitutes), and incentives to choose the most efficient option for each trip. Because alternative modes experience economies of scale (their unit costs decline with increased use), integrated programs help maximize the returns on public investments. For example, money spent on sidewalk, bike lanes, and public transport service improvements are more cost-effective and beneficial if implemented with development reforms that increase the portion of housing and jobs located within convenient walking distance of transit stations, plus pricing reforms that encourage travelers to use these resource-efficient modes when possible.
