EPA Releases Guide to Sustainable Transportation Performance Measures

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supports a State and Local Climate and Energy Program that provides technical assistance, analytical tools, and outreach support to state, local, and tribal governments. The following information was delivered recently via email listserv: 

EPA's Office of Sustainable Communities has published a Guide to Sustainable Transportation PerformanceMeasures. The guide describes opportunities for transportation agencies to incorporate environmental, economic, and social sustainability into decision-making through the use of performance measures. Performance measures allow decision-makers to quickly observe the effects of a proposed transportation plan or project, or to monitor trends in transportation system performance over time. The guide describes 12 performance measures that can readily be used in transportation decision-making, and for each, it presents possible metrics, summarizes analytical methods and data sources, and illustrates its use by one or more transportation agencies.

The Guide to Sustainable Transportation Performance Measures is available at http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/transpo_performance.htm.

Report on "Driving and the Built Environment"

A recent report from the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES), both subsets of the National Academies, analyzes the effects of compact development on motorized travel, energy use, and carbon dioxide emissions.

The results are presented in a full report (Special Report 298) and a four-page PDF summary.

Quoting from the study overview:

The committee that produced the report estimated that the reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), energy use, and CO2 emissions resulting from more compact, mixed-use development would be in the range of less than 1 percent to 11 percent by 2050, although committee members disagreed about whether the changes in development patterns and public policies necessary to achieve the high end of these estimates are plausible.

TRB will conduct a web briefing or "Webinar" on Wednesday, October 21, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT that will explore Special Report 298: Driving and the Built Environment: The Effects of Compact Development on Motorized Travel, Energy Use, and CO2 Emissions. There is no fee to join this webinar. Space is limited, so they encourage participants to register 24 hours prior to the start of the webinar.

USDOT Transportation Secretary addresses energy & the transportation sector

The US Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, spoke to the Council on Competiveness National Energy Summit & International Dialogue on September 23 about the role of the transportation sector in our energy challenges, and the steps the US Department of Transportation is taking to address those challenges.

See Secretary LaHood's blog entry about the event.

Thumbnail updates of his "Welcome to the Fast Lane" blog, as well as other transportation-related blogs, appear on the right side of this blog. Scroll down to see the list.

5 years of Washington State climate action summarized in one place

The Washington State Department of Ecology has summarized all of the legislation and executive orders passed or issued in Washington State over the past five years that serve to reduce our state’s greenhouse gas emissions or otherwise address climate change. The text of the bills and executive order are linked to the summaries. Here is a link: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/docs/2009_ClimateChangeActions_071509.pdf

Jefferson County, the City of Port Townsend, and other local partners have joined together to plan and implement climate action. Visit this webpage for more information:

http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/commdevelopment/ClimateChange.htm

Stop idling your car

After doing a fair amount of research, it seems that if you are going to be idling for more than 10 seconds, turn off your car. Don't idle your car in the morning to 'warm' it up. Driving your car gently to warm it up not only reduces pollution but warms up your car much more quickly and it warms up the drivetrain, transmission, etc. which idling doesn't do. There is a myth left over from 40 years ago that your car would last longer if you idled and warmed it up before you drove. That was before modern lubricants and electric oil pumps. It is now known that you are actually wearing out your car by idling.

Start watching and you will see people on the ferry start their cars before the ferry even docks! People dropping kids off at school (which is surprising in itself) idling for long periods of time, you people with kids- they are the ones inheriting this planet. Let's give them something worth inheriting. Cars in drive throughs, banks, food, etc., turn off those cars.

I grew up on a farm and some of our tractors had to be started with a hand crank in the front of the tractor but turning a key on from inside a comfortable car can't be that difficult.

Time for some CLEAN-TEA

On March 11, 2009, the Clean Low-Emissions Affordable New Transportation Equity Act, known as CLEAN-TEA for short, was introduced in Congress as the next transportation Federal aid package.

Senators Carper (D-DE) and Specter (R-PA) and Reps. Blumenauer (D-OR), Tauscher (D-CA), and LaTourette (R-OH) are the lead sponsors of S. 575 in the Senate and H.R. 1329 in the House. CLEAN-TEA would be the latest in a line of Federal aid transportation packages that began with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, and have included recent reauthorizations known as ISTEA (1991, pronounced "ice tea"), TEA-21 (1998), and SAFETEA-LU (2005), the current act which expires on September 30, 2009.

Some had speculated that the next package would be called "GREEN-TEA," but it looks like "CLEAN-TEA" won out in the end.)

Read the press release from Representative Blumenauer for the perspective of one of the sponsors.

Alternatively, there is a one-page PDF summary from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and a two-page factsheet from Smart Growth America that focuses on the relationship between CLEAN-TEA and reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). (From their website: "Smart Growth America is a coalition of national, state and local organizations working to improve the ways we plan and build the towns, cities and metro areas we call home.")

You can follow the Senate version here and the House version here as the bills go through the legislative process.

In leading up to development of a new transportation package, a National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission released a report concerning the challenges we face as as nation with respect to maintaining and improving our transportation infrastructure.

Whatever the final Federal transportation aid package, it will have significant effects on the national , state and local transportation system for years to come.

New State Climate Report

The State Department of Ecology put out a press release today. The referenced report includes an appendix item dedicated to transportation-related activities, which according to the report account for nearly half of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Washington state. Here are excerpts from the new climate change report to the Governor and Legislature:

* * * *

New state climate change report provides blueprint for new jobs, green economy, energy independence

OLYMPIA – A new report continues Washington’s bold leadership against climate change and shows how creating new “green” jobs will keep the state at the forefront of building a clean, green economy.

Gov. Chris Gregoire required the report, “Growing Washington’s Economy in a Carbon-Constrained World,” in her requested climate change legislation, HB 2815. The 2008 Washington Legislature approved the bill, and she signed it into law.

“This report is our blueprint for continuing to build the new, clean, green economy,” said Jay Manning, director of the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology). “We will reduce our emissions of planet-warming pollution and, in the process, develop new technologies that create clean energy and new jobs while reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The plan describes changes we will make to transition to a green economy, shrink our carbon footprint, and do our part to stabilize the climate.”

“We’re constantly competing in the world market for private investment dollars, especially in clean technology and renewable energy,” said Juli Wilkerson, director of the Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED). “A strong climate change policy will help Washington’s businesses become even more competitive. We need to show business that we are serious about climate change – now and for the long term. This will attract and keep businesses here, putting people to work today and growing jobs for the future.”

Ecology and CTED led the report’s creation. The report also includes the work of the departments of Transportation, Natural Resources and Agriculture; the Western Climate Initiative; the many business and environmental interests, tribal, local and state governments, and others who made up the state’s Climate Action Team; and other statewide groups that examined forestry, agriculture and land use.

The report:

• Outlines how curbing Washington’s changing climate will create jobs, make us more energy independent, and grow the green economy.


• Details what is already being done to curb climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions and additional actions necessary to achieve required greenhouse gas reductions.


• Summarizes the Climate Action Team’s recommendations for increasing energy efficiency and green buildings; expanding waste reduction and recycling; improving transportation choices to cut greenhouse gas emissions; and using the State Environmental Policy Act to limit climate change.


• Discusses how land-use choices can influence climate change.


• Advocates adoption of the Western Climate Initiative’s cap-and-trade program for controlling carbon emissions. A cap-and-trade system is the needed centerpiece policy for reducing emissions, and will spur the creation of innovative technologies and green jobs.

Read the report at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/2008CompPlan.htm.

Find fact sheets that outline cap-and-trade and other issues at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/factsheets.htm.


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Media Contacts: Seth Preston, Ecology media relations, 360-407-6848; 360-584-5744 cell
Penny Thomas, CTED media relations, 360-725-2805
Dave Workman, Ecology media relations, 360-407-7004

For more information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/index.htm

Ecology’s Web site: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/