Transcript Transportation: A Key to Healthy Communities

Carbon-Free Communities:
Pairing Land Use and Mobility
Mary Bell Austin
Green To Do
Carbon Free Mobility conference
Oakland, CA
March 6, 2009
High Expectations
 Vibrant, healthy
communities
What role does
transportation play?
Can we work together?
 Beyond sustainability
My Challenge to Us All
 Apply Ecological Thinking
 Connect the dots
 Play well together
 Integrate solutions
 Care Enough to Take
Risks
 Know your discipline
 Listen to others
 Seek to collaborate
 Dare to dream big
The Challenges Before Us
 Climate Change
Short window of opportunity
80% reduction of GHG by 2050
 Peak Everything
Oil, water, seafood, farmland . . .
 Restoring Ecological Capital
Air, water, soil – natural systems
 Revitalizing Communities
Clean, safe, human scale,
connected
How Did We Get Here?
 Cheap oil, cheap travel
 Gobbling natural resources
 Becoming too mobile
 Building everywhere, anywhere
 Sprawling infrastructure
 Roads
 Housing
 Water
 Ignoring distance
 Food
 Work
 Goods
 Travel
The High Cost of Auto-Centrism
 Motor Vehicles as dominant
mode
 95% vehicle miles traveled
 90% passenger miles
 Environmental Costs
 Air quality - emissions
 Infrastructure (roads, parking)
 Wildlife killed and habitat
impaired
 Vehicle lifecycle costs
 Ties to climate change
California’s Greenhouse Gas Sources
2004 GHG emissions by Sector (Gross emissions: 484.4 MMT CO2e) -CA ARB
Post-Peak Transportation
Finding Solutions
 Start with Communities
What does livability look like?
 Quiet, and green space
 Local jobs, shops, schools, play
 Local food, clean air, safe water
 Neighborliness - interaction
 Human-scale movement
 Where does transportation fit in?
Pairing Mobility and Land Use
 Changing the paradigm
 Can you give up your car?
 Connecting systems / modes
 Can you get from A to B without gaps?
 Choosing good technology
 Clean, safe, affordable, efficient
 Prioritizing the best modes for scaled needs
 Walking, biking
 Great transit
 Accessories – automobiles, ships, planes, etc
Continuing the Discussion
 Questions deferred
 Dinners tonight
 Contact me:
[email protected]
www.greentodo.com