Green Transportation Definition (MALAYSIA)

UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING

Urban Transportation (UDM 717) Msc. In Urban Development And Management

GREEN TRANSPORTATION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORTATION PLANNING IN ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY Prepared by: ANWAR BIN SURAN 2012977513

Prepared for : ASSOC. PROF AHMAD SUHAIMI BIN ISMAIL

Institute Of Graduate Studies Faculty Of Architecture, Planning And Surveying Universiti Technology Mara

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UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING Abstract Green transport refers to the broad subject of transport that is or approaches being sustainable. Transport operations and logistics as well as transit-oriented development are involved. Transportation sustainability is largely being measured by transportation system effectiveness and efficiency as well as the environmental impacts of the system. The entire life cycle of green transport systems is subject to sustainability measurement and optimization. Green transport systems make a positive contribution to the environmental, social and economic sustainability of the communities they serve. Transport systems exist to provide social and economic connections, and people quickly take up the opportunities offered by increased mobility.

Keywords: Green Transport, Sustainable Transportation Planning

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Introduction

Transportation helps shape an area’s economic health and quality of life. Not only does the transportation system provide for the mobility of people and goods, it also influences patterns of growth and economic activity by providing access to land. The performance of the system affects public policy concerns like air quality, environmental resource consumption, social equity, land use, urban growth, economic development, safety, and security. Transportation planning recognizes the critical links between transportation and other societal goals. The planning process is more than merely listing highway and transit capital projects. It requires developing strategies for operating, managing, maintaining, and financing the area’s transportation system in such a way as to advance the area’s long-term goals.

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What is Green Transportation?

The Centre for Sustainable Transportation's (CST) definition of a sustainable transportation system is one that:

i.

Allows the basic access needs of individuals and societies to be met safely and in a manner consistent with human and ecosystem health, and with equity within and between generations 1

UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING ii. Is affordable, operates efficiently, offers choice of transport mode, and supports a vibrant economy. iii. Limits emissions and waste within the planet's ability to absorb them, minimizes consumption of non-renewable resources, limits consumption of renewable resources to the sustainable yield level, reuses and recycles its components, and minimizes the use of land and the production of noise.

Therefore, green transport is a category of sustainable transport which uses human power, animal power, public transportation, smart design, and renewable energy. In common usage public transport is considered a green transport option in comparison with private vehicles, as is car pooling. But some people prefer a definition that does not include public transport or vehicle movements which relies on non-renewable energy.

Green transport includes: i.

Walking

ii. Cycling and some other types of human-powered transport iii. Green vehicles a. Solar powered vehicles b. Wind powered vehicles c. Water powered vehicles d. Electric powered vehicles

People Walking to work

Wind Powered Vehicle

Smart Car (Electric Power Vehicle)

Often there can be a sliding scale of green transport depending on the sustainability of the option. Public transport on traditional diesel buses uses less fuel per passenger than private vehicles so is more green than private vehicles, but is not as green as using a hybrid electric powered bus. It can often be useful to talk about moving a community towards the ultimate 2

UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING green mode transport outcomes - instead of declaring that they are there if they cross a particular sustainability threshold. Walking across sensitive environments can often cause considerable damage and so is not always the greenest option. Green transportation is for reducing the environmental damage originated in individual's use of cars and light trucks.

The green transportation hierarchy is the basic concept behind transportation reform groups all over the world such as Transportation Alternatives. The hierarchy puts city-friendly cyclists and pedestrians first. It rewards their low cost, space efficiency, and zero environmental impact. Trucks are not last because they perform vital commercial functions in cities. An important part of the green transportation hierarchy is that trucks get priority over personal automobiles for scarce curb side parking. This would eliminate many of the double-parking problems that plague places such as the 6th Avenue bike lane.

In an ideal, many high development city such as in New York, transportation decision-making, allocation of road space, and project funding and resources would reflect the green transportation hierarchy. While we still have a long way to go, we champion projects such as the widened sidewalks at Herald and Greeley Square, and new bike lanes, as important steps towards more rational transportation planning. Green Transportation Hierarchy

Other policies that would reflect and reinforce the green transportation hierarchy include: i.

The pricing of all on-street parking in Manhattan south of 96th Street

ii. Tolls on bridges and tunnels iii. Congestion pricing iv. Parking policies that prioritize commercial needs over personal autos

Sustainable transportation can be supported by promoting the use of:

i.

more energy efficient forms of transportation such as public transit

ii. alternative transportation to the single occupancy vehicle iii. low emissions vehicles 3

UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING iv. transportation demand management v. active transportation, and vi. supportive land use practices.

Sustainable and well plan commuter

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The Importance of Transportation Planning in Achieve Sustainability

Transportation planning plays a fundamental role in the state, region or community’s vision for its future. It includes a comprehensive consideration of possible strategies; an evaluation process that encompasses diverse viewpoints; the collaborative participation of relevant transportation-related agencies and organizations; and open, timely, and meaningful public involvement.

Transportation planning is concerned with identifying and planning for the accessibility needs of people and freight within livable and sustainable communities. Transport planning therefore takes into account the desirable social, environmental, economic outcomes and develops strategies to achieve those outcomes within planning frameworks.

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The Traditional Transport Planning Process

Transport planning is usually focused on specific problems or on broad transport concerns at a local level. It has been traditionally a preoccupation of lower tier governments, such as the state or municipality. Because of this fact, transport planning is most developed in the urban sphere, 4

UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING and it is there where most experience has been gathered. The planning process, however, has a number of similarities with the policy process. Identifying a problem, seeking options and implementing the chosen strategy are essential steps in planning too. Because it tends to deal with localized problems, the solutions adopted in transport planning tend to be much more exact and specific than policy directives.

For a long time been planning was a field dominated by traffic engineers who gave it a distinctly mechanistic character, in which the planning process was seen as a series of rigorous steps undertaken to measure likely impacts and to propose engineering solutions. There were four major steps: Trip generation, trip distribution, modal split, and route selection. They involved the use of mathematical models, including regression analysis, entropy-maximizing models, and critical path analysis.

There are many reasons why the results of these models should be treated with caution:

i.

They are only as good as the data they manipulate and many times the data is inaccurate or incomplete.

ii. They are based on assumptions that the mathematical relationships between variables remain constant. iii. They can be manipulated to produce the outcome that the analyst knows the client prefers. iv. Because the predictions were rarely subjected to subsequent evaluation, their validity is largely questioned, and the modeler is happy to predict the future since projections rarely question the validity of the methodology.

The predictions of future traffic flows produced by the four stage sequence are then used to identify planning options. Since the most common prediction of the modeling is that present capacities will be unable to cope with traffic growth, the tendency has been to produce planning solutions that call for an expansion of capacity. This has been referred to as predict and accommodate. It is the solution that has typified so much urban transport planning from the 1940s to the 1980s. It has given rise to the enormous expansion of highway construction that reinforces the dominance of the automobile. Rarely are there post mortems of the prediction models, and as has been learned by empirical observation, the issue of induced demand has distorted the actual traffic. 5

UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING 2.2

Contemporary Transport Planning

In cities traffic problems have increased significantly since the 1970s, despite a great deal of urban transport planning. There is a growing realization that perhaps planning has failed and that the wrong questions have been asked. Rather than estimate traffic increases and then provide capacity to meet the expected growth, it is now accepted that what is required is better management of the transport system through new approaches to planning. Just as urban planning requires the inputs of many specialists, transport planning is beginning to utilize multidisciplinary teams in order to broaden the scope of the planning process. Planning is still a multi-step process, but it has changed considerably: a. Goals and objectives. While the goal of traditional transport policy, improving accessibility, is still useful, it has to be considered in the context of other desirable goals. For instance improving safety and health, reducing emissions from vehicles, improving equity, enhancing economic opportunities, improving community livability, promoting mobility are all valid. But which goal(s) are pursued results in a very different planning process.

b. Options. Given the possible range of goals that transport planners have to consider, it becomes necessary to provide a set of possible options. Several objectives may be desirable, and thus it is important to consider what they imply. Several scenarios may have to be considered, and they must become important components of the planning process.

c. Identification of actors, institutions, stakeholders. Given that transport planning has the potential to influence so many elements of society - economic wellbeing, environmental conditions, social integration – it is important that those affected by the transport problem and its potential resolution should be identified so that they can be engaged. d. Predicting outcomes, identifying benefits, and assessing costs. The stage of predicting the outcomes for each of the options is a critical step in the process. Models continue to play an important role, but whereas the traditional models were based on the number of trips, increasingly modeling is becoming more activity based. Transport is seen in the context of scheduling household decisions in time and 6

UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING space. Demographic and social data are used extensively, and the mathematical models have become more sophisticated. e. Choosing course of action. Evaluation of the scenarios has to consider the costs and benefits from the frequently conflicting perspectives of the stakeholders and actors. Extensive public consultation may be required. The information has to be disseminated and explained so that an informed public can participate in the debate.

Planning is commonly scale specific and multidimensional.

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Transport Demand Management

In rejecting the former paradigm of building capacity, transport planners have turned increasingly to managing both demand and the transport system. Building roads has produced a car-oriented society in which the other modal alternatives have little opportunity to co-exist. Car ownership is beyond the ability of the transport planner to control directly and the question remains if it should. But car use and ownership is affected by land use and density, both elements that planners can affect.

High population densities, in particular, favor walking, bicycling and public transit use. It is for this reason that a great deal of attention in planning is being paid to densification and integration. This includes concentrating development along well served transport corridors (transit oriented development) and increasing densities in areas undergoing rehabilitation.

Managing the demand for transport is made up of a large number of small interventions that cumulatively can impact of car use, but in particular improve the livability of cities. A sample of well-practiced and successful interventions includes: a. Park and ride. Parking spaces are provided, usually close to an expressway, where drivers can board busses that provide service to the city center. This has become a staple feature in the outer zones of many US and British cities. Its success is variable, however, and there is 7

UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING some evidence from the UK that park and ride may actually increase car use, as people who may have used regular bus services now use their cars to drive to the car parks. b. Traffic calming. Measures that seek to reduce the speed of vehicles in urban areas, such as speed bumps and street narrowing. For residential streets the goal is to make their use by car drivers unattractive because of the obstacles, for thoroughfares the objective is to reduce the average speeds. The measures indicate the need for much greater attention to street design and layout. c. Priority lanes for busses and high occupancy vehicles. Lanes on major thoroughfares and expressways that are reserved for busses, taxis and passenger vehicles with several occupants. This has become an important feature of transport planning in North America, where major highway expansion projects offer priority lanes. The goal is to encourage use of busses and high occupancy vehicles that can be seen to travel at higher speeds along the reserved lanes by other drivers who may be stuck in traffic jams.

d. Alternate work schedules. Encouraging work hours other than the dominant 9 to 5 schedule. One of the great problems in transport planning is that demand is concentrated in two main peak periods. In the past, efforts were made to meet this demand by increasing road capacity, which was never sufficient, and resulted in an under use of the capacity the other 20 hours each day. Promoting flexible schedules and encouraging telecommuting are policies that are seeking to spread out the demand for transport over more hours and even reducing the demand altogether. e. Promoting bicycle use. In some countries, particularly the Netherlands, the bicycle is an important mode of travel. It is a green and healthy mode, but in automobile dependent cities, the bicycle does not share the roads easily with trucks and cars. Encouraging greater use of the bicycle requires significant planning adjustments, such as the provision of bicycle lanes and bike stands.

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UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING f.

Car sharing. Encouraging drivers to share car use with neighbors or co-workers.

g. Enhancing pedestrian areas. In most cities vehicles dominate the streets. In many areas of high population density, the quality of life (enhanced safety, less pollution etc.) and the visual attractiveness of streetscapes can be enhanced by excluding vehicles from streets altogether, or limiting access to public transport vehicles. In Europe this has become a distinctive feature of the historic cores of many cities. h. Improving public transit. For fifty years or more public transit use as declined in most cities. Yet it is the only major alternative to the car in these cities, and thus enhancing the use of transit has become a major planning objective. Improvements include making transit more attractive, by improving bus schedules and improving the appearance and comfort of transit vehicles and stations.

i.

Parking management. Restricting on-street parking and charging higher rates for parking.

Intelligence Highway System

Well plan parking Management

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UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING 2.4

Benefit Sustainable Transportation Planning (Commuter based)

Economic Benefits i.

Save money on gas. Driving 18,000 km per year costs an average of $9,525 per year or 52.9 cents per kilometer (Canadian Automobile Association 2004 national average for a 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier Z-24).

ii. Reduce health care costs. It is estimated that transportation-related emissions will cost the health care system $11 billion to $38 billion between 1997 and 2020 (Transportation Association of Canada, 1998). iii. Save tax. Reduce roadway construction and maintenance costs. Community Benefits i.

Active and sustainable transportation makes the community safer by reducing the risk of vehicle-pedestrian accidents.

ii. Increase social interaction within the community, resulting in much improved personal relationships and community health. iii. Support community-based businesses, such as local shops, restaurants, bakeries and newsstands. iv. Decrease traffic noise like engines and horns, or sprockets and bells v. Reduce traffic jams and parking hassles. Environmental Benefits i.

Active and sustainable transportation keeps air clean by improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

ii. Reduce toxic air pollution. Pollutants from many transportation sources aggravate respiratory disease, and contribute to property damage and acid rain. iii. Reduce the threat of climate change. This is because, it takes 130 trees to produce the amount of oxygen needed to combat the carbon dioxide emitted from one car each year. iv. Conserve natural habitat. Fewer cars on the road decrease the demand for more roads and parking lots, allowing more land for green space. v. Driving less reduces the need for non-renewable fossil fuel resources. vi. Reduce ozone layer destruction. Did you know that motor vehicle air conditioners are the world’s single largest source of CFC leakage into the atmosphere? (Zielinski, 1995).

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UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING 3.0

Conclusion

Sustainable transport planning systems make a positive contribution to the environmental, social and economic sustainability of the communities they serve. Transport systems exist to provide social and economic connections, and people quickly take up the opportunities offered by increased mobility. The advantages of increased mobility need to be weighed against the environmental, social and economic costs that transport systems pose. Green vehicles are intended to have less environmental impact than equivalent standard vehicles, although when the environmental impact of a vehicle is assessed over the whole of its life cycle this may not be the case. Electric vehicle technology has the potential to reduce transport CO2 emissions, depending on the embodied energy of the vehicle and the source of the electricity.

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UDM717: URBAN TRANSPORTATION: GREEN TRANSPORATATION PLANNING List of References

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Brinkman, Norman; Eberle, Ulrich; Formanski, Volker; Grebe, Uwe-Dieter; Matthe, Roland (2012-04-15). "Vehicle Electrification - Quo Vadis". VDI.

Ellis, Cliff. "Lewis Mumford and Norman Bel Geddes: the highway, the city and the future". Planning Perspectives 20 (1): 51–68.

Kenworthy, J R Transport Energy Use and Greenhouse Emissions in Urban Passenger Transport Systems : A Study of 84 Global Cities Murdoch University

Ewing, R and R Cervero (2001). "Travel and the Built Environment: A Synthesis" (PDF). Transportation Research Record, 1780: 87-114. 2001. Transportation Research Record 1780,87-114.

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