[sustran] fwd from alt-transp: TRB Subcommittee on Paradigm Shift

[Paul Barter]

This from the alt-transp list may be of interest to sustran-discussers.
Paul.

From: litman at IslandNet.com (Todd Litman)
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 15:42:19 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: alt-transp TRB Subcommittee on New Paradigm  ???

Marty Bernard asked:

>I heard there is a new TRB subcommittee on this topic. Can anyone tell
>me how to contact the Chair or responsible TRB staff?  Thanks.

You heard right. The new "Paradigm Shift" subcommittee, A1C01(2), met for
the first time at this year's TRB Annual Meeting. It is intended to bridges
issues between economics and policy, planning, land use, and environmental
issues. Some of us are suggesting that the name be changed to "Sustainabile
Transportation" subcommittee.

See my notes and comments copied below.

The subcommittee chair is Gui Shearin, Ph.D., Principal Transportation
Planning        De Leuw, Cather & Co., 120 Howard Street, #850, P.O. Box 193821,
San Francisco CA 94119; email: Guillaume_Shearin at parsons.com; phone:
415-495-6060; fax: 415-546-1602.

We are hoping to sponsor a session at this year's TRB summer session, 13-14
July, in Seattle. Summer is a great time to visit the Puget Sound area. Hope
to see you there.

Sincerely,

Todd Litman, Director
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
Phone & Fax: (250) 360-1560
E-mail:     litman at islandnet.com
Website:    http://www.islandnet.com/~litman

=================================================================
           TRB A1C01 (2) Subcommittee on a Paradigm Shift
    Notes and Comments from 11 January 1998 Subcommittee Meeting
                            by Todd Litman

I.  Consider changing subcommittee name to ìSustainable Transportation.î
This could provide several benefits because:

1. Sustainable planning is an issue of growing interest among a wide variety
of popular and professional groups.

2. The concept of sustainable transportation is receiving increasing
attention among transportation professionals and the larger public. In
recent years there have been major conferences (ìTowards Sustainable
Transportationî sponsored by OECD, March 24-27, 1996, Vancouver and the
followup UN/ECE conference on Transport and the Environment, held November
1997 in Vienna) and publications (Sustainable Transport; Priorities for
Policy Reform, World Bank 1996; Sustainable Development Strategy, Transport
Canada, 1997; Toward a Sustainable Future; Addressing the Long-Term Effects
of Motor Vehicle Transportation on Climate and Ecology, Transportation
Research Board Special Report 251).

3. The recently released TRB special report on sustainable transportation
means that this issue should be receiving increasing recognition and
attention among TRB and related transportation organizations.

4. No existing TRB committee has a specific mandate to address
sustainability issues.


II.  Proposed Workshops, Paper Sessions, Issues and Activities for
Subcommittee to Address

1. Sustainable Transportation

 Literature review, events, activities.

 Summary of issues. (In particular, there is no agreement concerning the
scope of "sustainable transport"; some people assume that it only relates to
resource consumption and long-term ecological impacts, such as global
warming, while others define it more broadly to include a wide range of
economic, social and environmental issues.)

 Goals, objectives, policies.

 Evaluation criteria/indicators. (A summary of sustainabgle transportation
indictors is posted at the VTPI website.)

2. Redefining Transportation for Sustainability.

 An emphasis on access rather than vehicle movement or mobility.

 Land use/transportation interactions.

 Consideration of all potential environmental and social issues.

 Discussion of transportation polices that encourage a more "sustainable"
economic system (i.e., evaluation of impacts of transport policy on regional
economic development and productivity).

 Evaluation of a wider range of planning and policy options.

 Application of least-cost planning principles.

 Equity implications.

3. Win-Win Transport Options.
Identify transportation improvement strategies that are justified for their
economic benefits (reduced congestion, facility cost savings, crash cost
reductions, user cost savings, etc.) that also provide substantial
environmental and social benefits. Examples include:


 Parking cash-out.

 Distance based vehicle insurance.

 Least-cost transportation planning and investment policies.

 More efficient parking management.

 Transportation management associations.
(Contact Victoria Transport Policy Institute for additional information and
examples.)

4. Automobile Dependency.

 Economic, social and environmental implications.

 Evaluation methods.

 Mitigation strategies.

5. Sustainable Transportation Conference.
There has not yet been a major U.S. conference on the subject of sustainable
transportation. OECD has sponsored such conferences in other countries. The
recent TRB special report on sustainable transportation, and growing
interest in sustainable planning, indicates that such a conference would be
appropriate in the near future.