Climate Change and Sustainable Transportation: The Case of California
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 6
Abstract
California has adopted innovative legislation to tackle climate change. Energy-efficient buildings, lower-emissions industrial processes, and more fuel-efficient transportation vehicles operating on cleaner fuels are among the many strategies that are being implemented. However, to attain the needed reductions, California must find additional strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, especially from the transportation sector, which is a large fraction of the total emissions problem. This paper discusses the efforts that are underway to further increase transportation efficiency, shift transportation to less CO2-intensive modes, and slow or reverse growth in vehicle-kilometers of travel (VKT). The legislative mandate is leading to a new focus on methods for quantifying travel changes and emissions reductions, ranging from spreadsheet approaches to integrated transportation-land use models. It also is renewing interest in travel-demand management and land-use policies that could reduce overall travel. While a number of cities have embraced these strategies, their success in the face of the state’s continuing growth will likely depend on both federal and state policies and funding incentives.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 6 • June 2011
Pages: 372 - 382
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 23, 2009
Accepted: Nov 6, 2010
Published online: May 16, 2011
Published in print: Jun 1, 2011
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