Business Logistics 420 Public Transportation

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Business Logistics 420Public Transportation

• Lectures 16
• Policy Issues III Public Transportation and Air
  Quality

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Lecture Objectives

• Provide an overview the transportation-related
  air pollution problem in the US
• Describe options for reducing transportation
  sectors contribution to air pollution
• Outline the history of legislative and regulatory
  attempts to reduce air pollution from motor
  vehicles
• Evaluate public transits potential contribution
  to air quality improvements

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Transportation As a Major Source of Air Pollution

• 83 Carbon Monoxide (CO)
• 41 Hydrocarbons (VOC)
• 40 Nitrogen Oxides (NOX)
• .2 Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)
• 9 Particulate

4
Carbon Monoxide Trends
From VMT Growth and Improved Air Quality How
Long Can Progress Continue?, FHWA
5
VOC Trends
From VMT Growth and Improved Air Quality How
Long Can Progress Continue?, FHWA
6
Nitrogen Oxide Trends
From VMT Growth and Improved Air Quality How
Long Can Progress Continue?, FHWA
7
Ways To Reduce Air Pollution from Mobile
(Transportation) Sources

• Solutions generally the same as for energy
  conservation
• Reduce demand
• Shift demand to less polluting modes
• Clean up modes

8
Ways To Reduce Air Pollution from Mobile
(Transportation) Sources (Continued)

• Major difference is that air quality is not a
  major issue in all areas
• The benefit from reducing pollution in terms of
  health costs and other pollution-related costs
  varies depending on the overall or ambient air
  quality in a region
• Example, the benefit of further reducing
  pollution from vehicles is lower in State College
  than in Los Angeles or Baltimore

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Clean Air Act of 1970

• The major piece of federal air quality
  legislation that is still in effect as amended
• Set Ambient Air Quality Standards for urbanized
  areas, i.e., standards for the amount of several
  types of pollutants allowed in the communitys
  air.
• Also set vehicle emissions standards

10
1990 Amendments to Clean Air Act

• Adopted at the same time as the major
  transportation legislation, ISTEA
• The Clean Air Act amendments set the rules, ISTEA
  implemented and paid for the changes

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1990 Amendments to Clean Air Act (Continued)

• Set more stringent emission standards for cars,
  trucks, and buses
• Set national Ambient Air Quality Standards
• Identified categories of non attainment and
  identified cities that fell into each category
• Required special conformity tests before
  allowing new highway construction
• Included sanctions on states for non conformity
  (lose federal highway funds)

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Categories of Non Attainment

• Extreme -- Los Angeles
• Severe -- Philadelphia, New York,
  Baltimore, and 5 other cities
• Serious -- Washington DC, Boston, 12 other
  cities
• Moderate -- Pittsburgh, Reading and many others
• Marginal -- all other Pa cities except State
  College and Williamsport
  

13
Two Major US Strategies for Reducing Pollution
from Mobile Sources

• Clean up vehicles
• More stringent emissions controls on internal
  combustion vehicles
• Low emission vehicles
• Zero emission vehicles (for example, electric
  cars)
• Stringent requirements on buses
• Shift travel from private vehicles

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Strategies to Reduce Pollution From Vehicles

• New controls on engines
• Reformulated gas (one of the sources of the
  recent run up in gasoline costs)
• Emission system inspections
• Low emission vehicles (LEV)
• Zero emission vehicles -- the California
  experiment

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Strategies to Reduce Auto Travel, AKA,
Transportation Control Measures

• Restrict auto travel
• Facilitate transit
• Improve transit

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Restrict Auto Travel

• Trip reduction ordinances and the CAA requirement
  for Employee Commuting Options (ECO)
• Vehicle use restrictions (days of week)
• Auto-restricted zones

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Facilitate Transit

• TMAs
• Pass subsidies
• Ridesharing offices
• Area wide ridesharing

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Improve Transit

• New services
• Marketing
• Park and Ride

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Big Question -- How Can We Modify Traveler
Behavior to Shift Modes?

• Pollution benefits resulting from transit use
  only occur if individuals chose to ride
• Major resistance to CAA transportation control
  measures led to abandonment of most of them --
  reason cited -- dont know how to change behaviors

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Employee Commuting Options

• 1990 CAA amendments required areas with extreme
  or severe pollution to implement Employee Trip
  Reduction Programs, or, by another name,
  Employee Commuting Options (ECO)
• In these areas, employers with more than 100
  employees had to increase average vehicle
  occupancy by 25

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Definition of Average Vehicle Occupancy (AVO)

• Average vehicle occupancy for all employee
  commuting trips during peak hours within an area
• Estimated by dividing the number of people
  reporting to work throughout an area over the
  course of a normal M-F work week by the number of
  vehicles in which they commute

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Example AVO Calculation

• Single Occupant Vehicle -- one person, one
  vehicle 1/1 1
• Four-person carpool -- four people, one vehicle
  4/1 4
• Bus rider, bicyclist, pedestrian -- 1 person/0
  vehicles

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Example of Implementation

• Connecticut did survey of employees, determined
  AVO 1.19 so under the regulations, needed to
  increase to 1.49 (25 percent increase over base)
• Current situation say 1,190 employees arrive in
  1,000 vehicles (the 1.19 AVO)
• To comply in future, the 1,190 persons will have
  to arrive in no more than 800 vehicles

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Example of Implementation (Continued)

• AVO Required 1,190/800 1.49
• How to reduce vehicles by 200
• Have 400 employees that now drive alone form
  two-person carpools
• Generate 4 bus loads of riders (50 per bus)
• Form 20 vanpools with 11 persons each

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Employer Options to Comply

• Offering cash incentives for ridesharing/ using
  mass transit
• Imposing parking fees
• Instituting preferential parking for ridesharers
  
• Instituting compressed work weeks or staggered
  scheduling
• Providing a comprehensive ridematching service
• Subsidizing mid-day shuttles to local shopping
  areas

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Employer Options to Comply (Continued)

• Providing company-owned vehicles for
  ridesharing
• Providing a guaranteed ride home program
• Promoting bicycling and walking to work
• Promoting the establishment of on-site amenities
  like banks, drug stores, and restaurants and
• Offering telecommuting and work-at-home options.
  

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ECO History

• Many communities tried to comply in early 1990s,
  but others (NYC) resisted
• Environmental Protection Agency essentially
  abandoned the program in 1994
• Said only incentives could be offered
• Could not force any changes in behavior
• Neither employers or states would be penalized or
  sanctioned

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Study Questions

• What are the major pollutants that are largely
  attributable to transportation?
• What are the major strategies that can be and/or
  have been tried to reduce pollution from
  transportation sources?
• Does transit have a role to play in reducing air
  pollution? What is it?