Business Logistics 420Public Transportation

Lectures 16 (Revised)

Policy Issues III: Public Transportation and Air Quality

Lecture Objectives

• Provide an overview the transportation-related air pollution problem in the US

• Describe options for reducing transportation sector’s contribution to air pollution

• Outline the history of legislative and regulatory attempts to reduce air pollution from motor vehicles

• Evaluate public transit’s potential contribution to air quality improvements

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

Carbon Monoxide Trends

From: VMT Growth and Improved Air Quality: How Long Can Progress Continue?”, FHWA

VOC Trends

From: VMT Growth and Improved Air Quality: How Long Can Progress Continue?”, FHWA

Nitrogen Oxide Trends

From :VMT Growth and Improved Air Quality: How Long Can Progress Continue?”, FHWA

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

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

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 community’s air.

• Also set vehicle emissions standards

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

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)

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

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

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

Strategies to Reduce Auto Travel, AKA, Transportation

Control Measures• Restrict auto travel

• Facilitate transit

• Improve transit

Restrict Auto Travel

• Trip reduction ordinances and the CAA requirement for Employee Commuting Options (ECO)

• Vehicle use restrictions (days of week)

• Auto-restricted zones

Facilitate Transit

• TMAs

• Pass subsidies

• Ridesharing offices

• Area wide ridesharing

Improve Transit

• New services

• Marketing

• Park and Ride

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 -- don’t know how to change behaviors

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%

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

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

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

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

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;

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.

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

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?