Review of Environmentally Conscious Transportation by Myer Kutz: Wiley, Hoboken, N.J., 2008; ISBN 978-0-471-79369-4. Price: $135.

This book addresses a timely topic in this period of rising transportation costs and public consciousness of environmental effects of their transportation decisions. Recent fluctuations in the cost of conventional transportation fuels (i.e., gasoline and diesel) have driven an unprecedented level of interest in alternatives to petroleum-based fuels, which is part of the focus of this book. This book is part almanac, part handbook, and part reference material, potentially serving as a handy starting point to learn about the impacts of transportation on the natural and built environment as well as about alternative fuel vehicles. Although the chapters of the book are individually contributed, there is little overlap among them, but the level of detail and number of works referenced does vary widely.

For the engineer curious about alternative-fueled vehicles or the environmental impacts of mass transit systems, this book provides a reasonably thorough coverage of the issues. In this way, the book is likely more suitable as a reference than as the primary textbook in traditional civil engineering courses as there are no end-of-chapter problems and the compilation of material does not fit typical course syllabi. However, the book may serve well as supplemental or enrichment material. For example, Chapter 3, entitled “Transportation and Air Quality,” might serve well as a brief supplemental reading to accompany a lecture on environmental aspects of transportation planning in a junior-level first course in transportation engineering.

The remaining chapters are organized as follows. Chapter 1, “The Economic and Environmental Impacts of Transportation,” provides a brief overview of key economic and environmental transportation data. Chapter 2, “Public Transportation and the Environment,” provides a healthy discussion of environmental impacts, policies, and mitigation strategies of public transportation systems, covering air and noise pollution, energy consumption, and land use and development. Chapter 4, “The Social Cost of Motor Vehicle Use in the United States,” addresses social aspects of private vehicle use and the varying opinions as to what should be included in such an analysis for this dominant mode of transportation. The environmental impacts of traffic congestion are addressed in chapter 5, “Traffic Congestion Management,” with a focus mainly on estimating emissions and a brief overview of both demand- and supply-side strategies to reduce these impacts. Chapter 6, “Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Design and Performance,” provides a relatively detailed explanation of the design and operations of electric, hybrid, and fuel-cell vehicles, as well as the associated environmental and economic considerations. Hydraulic, or pressure-driven hybrids, are discussed in chapter 7, “Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicles.” Chapter 8, “Biofuels for Transportation,” addresses biomass-based fuels, focusing mainly on ethanol, biodiesel, and vegetable oil. Hydrogen gas as a fuel derived from water or biomass is also discussed. Chapter 11, “Impacts of the Aviation Sector on the Environment,” has an air transportation modal focus similar to that on public transportation systems in Chapter 2.

The other two chapters (9 and 10) do not focus explicitly on environmental impacts or alternate fuels but on system management. Therefore, much of the material in these chapters is not limited to environmental impact management. Evaluation of system performance and a brief overview of life-cycle cost analysis as a decision-making tool are presented in Chapter 9, entitled “Life-Cycle Assessment as a Tool for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure Management.” Chapter 10, “Pavement and Bridge Management and Maintenance,” focuses on management of system assets (pavement and bridge structures in this case) with brief mention of energy and environmental impacts not associated with use of the system but with its construction and maintenance.

Overall, this book presents an uncommon compendium of information, the subject of which is becoming increasingly relevant as public interest in reducing environmental impacts of our transportation decisions appears to be increasing and as the cost of traditional petroleum-based transportation changes rapidly. The focus is on the causes and contributing roles of transportation modes, as well as their effects, on the environment. The processes that create these environmental effects, along with supporting data, are described well enough to enable the unfamiliar reader to develop a basic fundamental understanding of the topics covered.