The readings for this course are listed at the end of the syllabus. Most of the ...
Kohlhase (2004); Handy (2006); Lam and Niemeier (2005); TRB (2009). Week
11.
USP 510 Sustainable Transportation Winter 2012 Jim Strathman 382 NH (503) 725-4069
[email protected]
Course Overview In 1987, the UN World Commission on Environment and Development published what is known as the Brundtland Report, calling attention to the need to address sustainability in development policies and practices. The Brundtland Report provided a definition of sustainability that remains timely: development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In the context of transportation, Black (2005: 35) has defined sustainability as the ability “… to meet the current transport and mobility needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” The transportation sector plays an important role in the development process, and its services are a vital component of advanced economies. However, the transportation sector also poses a number of threats to sustainability. First, it is heavily reliant on nonrenewable resources, and its draw on petroleum resources is growing in the face of increasing uncertain and unstable supply. Second, transportation is a major contributor of the greenhouse gases that have been linked to global warming. In 1997, the Federal Highway Administration estimated the associated annual damages at $40 billion. Third, although transportation safety has steadily improved over time, more than 40,000 people are still killed annually in crashes. Annual crash-related costs were estimated at $231 billion in 2000. Fourth, increases in traffic congestion now account for about 30 hours of annual delay per person in US metropolitan areas, with annual costs to persons and businesses of $70 billion. Fifth, neither the benefits nor the negative impacts associated with the US transportation system are evenly distributed across society, raising questions of fairness and justice. This course examines the dimensions of transportation sustainability in the US, reviewing both the record and the prospects for the future. Some of the questions taken up by the readings for the course include: What is transportation’s energy efficiency record, and what are the prospects for future reductions in petroleum dependence? What is the outlook for world oil production, and what role will “unconventional” sources likely play in the future? What changes in travel and energy use can be expected with rising prices?
Is transportation becoming more or less important in the US economy? What is the extent of market failure in the transportation sector? Why is the US no longer the global leader in traffic safety? How has air quality policy and regulation affected vehicle emissions? What effect do land use and design policies and practices have on travel? What can be done to address environmental justice concerns? What can be done to reduce auto dependence? What would a sustainable transportation policy look like?
Required Readings The readings for this course are listed at the end of the syllabus. Most of the readings can be accessed on the Internet. Journals can be accessed online from through your ODIN account. For other items (which include several book chapters), copies will be provided for check out by the Center for Urban Studies, 350 URBN.
Course Requirements/Grading There will be a mid-term and final essay examination. Each will account for 45% of the final grade. The remaining 10% will be based on participation. Enrollment is expected to be fairly limited, and being prepared (by completing assigned readings on time) will be to everyone’s benefit.
Course Schedule Week 1:
Introduction: Definitions and Indicators of Sustainability Readings: Black (2005); Litman (2005)
Week 2:
Transportation & Energy Readings: Davis et al. (2011); Greene et al., (2006); Greene (1998); IEA (2011)
Week 3:
The Effect of Markets on the Demand and Supply Sides Readings: Adelman (2002); Goodwin et al. (2004); Hotelling (1931)
Week 4:
Externalities & Sustainability Readings: Delucchi (2004); Taylor (2006)
Week 5:
Safety & Sustainability Readings: Evans (2004); Vahidnia and Walsh (2002); Sivak et al. (2007)
Week 6:
Mid-term Exam
Week 7:
Emissions & Sustainability Readings: CBO (2009); Holden and Hoyer (2005); Howitt and Altshuler (1999); Searchinger et al. (2008); Socolow and Pacala (2006)
Week 8:
Multi-modal Issues Readings: Greene and Plotkin (2011); Sinha (2003)
Week 9:
Environmental Justice Readings: Forkenbrock and Sheeley (2004); Ash and Fetter (2004)
Week 10:
Transportation, Land Use & Sustainability at the Urban & Regional Levels Readings: Cervero (2005); Ewing and Cervero (2010); Glaeser and Kohlhase (2004); Handy (2006); Lam and Niemeier (2005); TRB (2009)
Week 11
Policy Readings: Deen (2003); Hall (1991); TRB (2011)
Week 12
Final Exam
References to Required Readings Adelman, M.A. 2002. World oil production & prices 1947-2000. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 42, pp. 169-191. Ash, M. and T.R. Fetter. 2004. Who lives on the wrong side of the environmental tracks? Evidence from the EPA’s risk-screening environmental indicators model. Social Science Quarterly, 85, 441-462. Black, W.R. 2005. Sustainable transport: Definitions and responses. In Transportation Research Board. Integrating Sustainability into the Transportation Planning Process. Conference Proceedings 37. Washington DC: National Research Council. Accessed at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/conf/CP37.pdf
Cervero, R. 2005. Accessible Cities and Regions: A Framework for Sustainable Transport and Urbanism in the 21st Century. Center for Future Urban Transport, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Accessed at http://repositories.cdlib.org/its/future_urban_transport/vwp-2005-3 Congressional Budget Office. 2009. The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions. Washington, DC: Congress of the United States. Accessed at http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/100xx/doc10057/04-08-Ethanol.pdf Davis, S.C., S.W. Diegel and R.G. Boundy. 2011. Transportation Energy Data Book; Edition 30. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Accessed at http://cta.ornl.gov/data/tedb30/Edition30_Full_Doc.pdf Delucchi, M.A. 2004. Summary of the Nonmonetary Externalities of Motor-Vehicle Use. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis. Accessed at http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/publications/2004/UCD-ITS-RR-96-03(09)_rev1.pdf Deen, T. 2003. Policy versus the market: Transportation’s battleground. Transportation Research Record 1839, pp. 5-22. ** Evans, L. 2004. Traffic Safety. Bloomfield Hills MI: Science Serving Society. Chapter 13, Measures to improve traffic safety. Ewing, R. and R. Cervero. 2010. Travel and the built environment: A meta-analysis. Journal of the American Planning Association, 76, pp. 265-294. Forkenbrock, D.J. and J. Sheeley. 2004. NCHRP Report 532: Effective Methods for Environmental Justice Assessment. Washington, DC: National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council. Accessed at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_532.pdf Glaeser, E.L. and J.E. Kohlhase. 2004. Cities, regions and the decline of transport costs. Papers in Regional Science, 83, pp. 197-228. Goodwin, P., J. Dargay and M. Hanly. 2004. Elasticities of road traffic and fuel consumption with respect to price and income: A review. Transport Reviews, 24, 275292. Accessed at Greene, D.L. 1998. Why CAFÉ worked. Energy Policy, 26, 595-613. Greene, D.L., J.L. Hopson and J. Li. 2006. Have we run out of oil yet? Oil peaking analysis from an optimist’s perspective. Energy Policy, 34, pp. 515-531
Greene, D.L. and S. E. Plotkin. 2011. Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission From U.S. Transportation. Prepared for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Arlinton, VA: authors. Accessed at http://www.c2es.org/docUploads/ustransp.pdf ** Hall, P. 1991. The Fourth Crisis in Urban Transportation. Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California at Berkeley. Handy, S. 2006. The road less driven. Journal of the American Planning Association, 72, pp. 274-278. Holden, E. and K.G. Hoyer. 2005. The ecological footprint of fuels. Transportation Research, Part D, 10, pp. 395-403. Hotelling, H. 1931. The economics of exhaustible resources. Journal of Political Economy, 39, pp. 137-175. ** Howitt, A.M. and A. Altshuler. 1999. The politics of controlling auto air pollution. In Gomez-Ibanez, J.A., W. B. Tye and C. Winston. Essays in Transportation Economics and Policy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, pp. 223-255. International Energy Agency (IEA). 2011. World Energy Outlook 2011: Are We Entering a Golden Age of Gas? Paris, France: author. Accessed at http://www.iea.org/weo/docs/weo2011/WEO2011_GoldenAgeofGasReport.pdf Lam, T. and D. Niemeier. 2005. An exploratory study of the impact of common land use policies on air quality. Transportation Research, Part D, 10, 365-383. Litman, T. 2005. Well Measured: Developing Indicators for Comprehensive and Sustainable Transport Planning. Victoria, BC: Victoria Transport Policy Institute. Accessed at http://www.vtpi.org/wellmeas.pdf Searchinger, T. et al. 2008. Use of US croplands for biofuels increases greenhouse gases through emissions from land use change. Science, 319, pp. 1238-1240. Sinha, K.C. 2003. Sustainability and urban public transportation. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 129, pp. 331-341. Sivak, M., J. Louma, M. Flannagan, C. Bingham, D. Eby and J. Shope. 2007. Traffic safety in the US: Re-examining major options. Journal of Safety Research, 38, pp. 337355. Socolow, R.H. and S.W. Pacala. 2006. A plan to keep carbon in check. Scientific American, 295 (3), pp. 50-57. Taylor, B.D. 2006. Putting a price on mobility: Cars and contradictions in planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 72, pp. 279-284.
Transportation Research Board (TRB). 2011. Special Report 307: Policy Options for Reducing Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions From U.S. Transportation. Chapter 5: Policy Options to Reduce Transportation’s Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emmissions, pp.133-178. Washington, DC: author. Accessed at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr307.pdf Transportation Research Board (TRB). 2009. Special Report 298: Driving and the Built Enviornment: The Effects of Compact Development on Motorized Travel, Energy Use, and CO2 Emmissions. Washington, DC: author. Accessed at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/sr/sr298.pdf Vahidnia, F. and J.A. Walsh. 2002. Cost-Effectiveness of Traffic Safety Interventions in the United States. Traffic Safety Center, Institute of Transportation Studies, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. Accessed at http://repositories.cdlib.org/its/tsc/UCB-TSC-RR-2002-01
** These references are not accessible online. Copies can be checked out from the Center for Urban Studies.
