Business Logistics 420 Public Transportation

1. Business Logistics 420Public Transportation Lectures 16 (Revised) Policy Issues III: Public Transportation and Air Quality

2. 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

3. 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

4. Carbon Monoxide Trends From: VMT Growth and Improved Air Quality: How Long Can Progress Continue?”, FHWA

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

6. Nitrogen Oxide Trends From :VMT Growth and Improved Air Quality: How Long Can Progress Continue?”, FHWA

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Strategies to Reduce Auto Travel, AKA, Transportation Control Measures • Restrict auto travel • Facilitate transit • Improve transit

16. Restrict Auto Travel • Trip reduction ordinances and the CAA requirement for Employee Commuting Options (ECO) • Vehicle use restrictions (days of week) • Auto-restricted zones

17. Facilitate Transit • TMAs • Pass subsidies • Ridesharing offices • Area wide ridesharing

18. Improve Transit • New services • Marketing • Park and Ride

20. 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

21. 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%

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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;

27. 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.

28. 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

29. 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?