Transcript Noland 2 - UCLA Lewis Center

Congestion Mitigation Strategies:
Which Produces the Most
Environmental Benefit and/or the
Least Environmental Cost?
Bob Noland
Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College London
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Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College
Overview of presentation
• Environmental impacts of transport policies
• Policies often promoted to reduce
congestion
• Some examples of possible environmental
effects of alternative policies
• Attempt to rank by environmental
costs/benefits
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Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College
What are the environmental
effects of transport?
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Air quality
Climate change
Noise
Construction impacts
Visual / aesthetic impacts
Land use change
Ecological impacts on wildlife
Water quality / run-off
Community severance
Safety
Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College
Scale of environmental impacts
• Global
– Climate change
• Regional
– Air quality
– Land use
– Ecological impacts
• Localized
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Noise
Construction impacts
Visual/aesthetic impacts
Water quality / run-off
Community severance / safety
Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College
What policies are promoted to
reduce vehicle congestion? (1)
• Network capacity expansion
– Road network
• HOV lanes
• Signal coordination
• Incident management
– Public transport
• Capacity reduction
– Pedestrianization
– Bicycle lanes
– Land use / urban design
• Demand management
– (see next slide)
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Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College
What policies are promoted to
reduce vehicle congestion? (2)
• Demand management
– Pricing policies
• Congestion pricing (including HOT lanes, corridor pricing,
cordon pricing, area-wide pricing)
• Parking pricing
• Fuel taxes
• VMT fees
– Employer-based policies
• Ridesharing
• Parking cash-out / transit subsidies
• Telecommuting / work schedules
• Policies should not be viewed in isolation as many
need to be implemented in combination
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Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College
Environmental effects related to
behavioral impacts of policies
• Capacity expansion
– Induced travel
– Land use impacts
– Changes in speed and driving style
• Capacity reduction
– Economic responses to land use / urban design change
• Pricing policies
– Elasticity of demand
– Other travel alternatives available
• Employer-based policies
– Telecommuting behavior
– Location of employer and other options available
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Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College
Environmental effects dependent
on technology
• Air quality
– Dependent on emission control technology and type of
fuels used
• Climate change
– Dependent on fuel efficiency technology and advances in
alternative sources of energy
• Noise
– Technologies to reduce engine and tire noise
• Safety
– Vehicle safety technology and advances in medical care
procedures
– Also dependent on behavioral reactions to safety
regulations, for example seat-belt usage
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Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College
Environmental impacts associated with
congestion reduction policies
• Capacity expansion
– increase in number of lanes on a congested freeway
– construction of rail line along major corridor
– signal coordination along arterials, some new lanes
• Congestion pricing options
– Corridor pricing
– Cordon pricing
– HOT lanes
• Capacity reduction
– pedestrianization
– land use / urban design changes
• Do nothing
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Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College
Ranking of policies?
List does not reflect beneficial effect of these policies on
congestion reduction or increased mobility
• Environmentally better
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Pedestrianization
Bicycle lanes
Land use / urban design
Telecommuting / work
schedules
Parking cash-out / transit
subsidies
Incident management
Fuel taxes
VMT fees
Parking pricing
• Environmentally worse
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Congestion pricing: corridor
Congestion pricing: cordon
HOV lanes
HOT lanes
Do nothing
Ridesharing
Increased bus service
Signal coordination
– Fixed rail expansion (urban)
• Environmentally even worse
– Fixed rail expansion (suburbs)
– Road network expansion
Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College