Evaluating Air Pollution Impacts of Transportation

The transportation literature of the past few years contains much on air pollution. While the majority of articles deal with the subject qualitatively, there is a significant amount of material concerned with quantitative analysis. The quantity and great diversity of this material makes it difficult to determine the extent to which existing methodology actually provides useful tools for use by transportation planners. Recognizing this difficulty, the ASCE Urban Transportation Division Task Committee on Urban Transportation Economics undertook this state-of-the-art survey of air pollution impact evaluation. The major conclusion is that there now exist a number of useful analysis tools that should be adopted for regular use by transportation planning agencies. However, more attention should be given to strengthening the role of formal evaluation methodologies, such as cost efectiveness analysis, in dealing with these issues.