[sustran] VTPI News - Winter 2003

[Todd Alexander Litman]

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                                   VTPI NEWS
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                       Victoria Transport Policy Institute
                          "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
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                            Winter 2003    Vol. 6, No. 1
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The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an independent research 
organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transportation 
problems. The VTPI website (http://www.vtpi.org) has many resources 
addressing a wide range of transport planning and policy issues. VTPI also 
provides consulting services.

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TRANSPORTATION COST AND BENEFIT ANALYSIS GUIDEBOOK 
==================================================
VTPI continues to update the Online edition of "Transportation Cost And 
Benefit Analysis: Techniques, Estimates And Implications" 
(http://www.vtpi.org/tca). This free guidebook provides comprehensive 
information on transportation economic impacts for use in planning and 
policy analysis. We have also updated the Cost Analysis Spreadsheet that 
automates costing calculations and allows values to be easily modified to 
reflect a particular situation or analysis perspective.

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VTPI ONLINE TDM ENCYCLOPEDIA - UPDATES
======================================
The VTPI "Online TDM Encyclopedia" (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm) is the most 
comprehensive resource available anywhere to help identify and evaluate 
innovative solutions to transport problems. It has dozens of chapters with 
hundreds of pages of text and thousands of Internet links, providing 
convenient information for Transportation Demand Management (TDM) planning, 
evaluation and implementation. We have been busy expanding and updating the 
Encyclopedia. Below are highlights.

* Fuel Tax Increases (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm17.htm) - This chapter 
discusses various justifications for increasing fuel taxes and the impacts 
this has on fuel consumption and vehicle travel.

* TDM Marketing (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm23.htm) - This chapter 
discusses how to implement marketing and promotion campaigns, and the 
effect they can have on travel behavior. Includes several examples.

* Smart Growth (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm38.htm) - This chapter discusses 
Smart Growth land use policies, their benefits and costs, and their impacts 
on mobility and accessibility.

* Measuring Transportation (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm55.htm) - This 
chapter discusses various ways of measuring transportation activities and 
conditions, and how different quantification methods affect transport 
decision-making.

* Emission Reduction Strategies (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm59.htm) - This 
chapter describes and evaluates various strategies for reducing transport 
energy consumption and pollution emissions. Also see the revised report 
"Efficient Vehicles Versus Efficient Transportation" 
(http://www.vtpi.org/cafe.pdf), which compares the total benefits and costs 
of strategies that increase vehicle fuel efficiency with mobility 
management strategies.

* Sustainable Transportation and TDM (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm67.htm) - 
This chapter discusses sustainability and the role TDM can play in creating 
more sustainable transport systems. Sustainability is a planning 
perspective that accounts for economic, social and environmental impacts, 
including those that are indirect and difficult to measure.

* Smart Growth Policy Reforms (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm95.htm) - This 
chapter describes various planning, regulatory and fiscal reforms that help 
create more efficient land use. These reforms correct current practices 
that encourage lower-density, urban periphery, automobile-dependent 
development patterns.

* Health and Fitness (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm102.htm) - This chapter 
discusses the potential of improving public health and fitness through more 
active transportation, including walking, cycling, running and skating. 
Transportation and land use policies that result in even modest increases 
in aerobic exercise could provide significant health benefits. Many TDM 
strategies increase active transportation by improving nonmotorized travel 
conditions, creating land use patterns more suitable for nonmotorized 
travel, and by encouraging shifts from driving to nonmotorized travel.

* Managing Nonmotorized Facilities (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm108.htm) - 
This chapter describes best practices for managing nonmotorized facilities 
such as walkways, sidewalks and paths. It provides guidelines for sharing 
such facilities among different types of users, public education and 
enforcement programs, and facility maintenance standards.

* Wit and Humor (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm94.htm) - This chapter adds a 
little fun by linking to jokes and witty quotes scattered around the 
Encyclopedia.


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NEW AND UPDATED REPORTS
=======================
The following documents are posted at the VTPI website.

"Economic Value of Walkability" 
(http://www.vtpi.org/walkability.pdf).  This paper, presented at the 
Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, received the Pedestrian 
Committee's 2003 Outstanding Paper Award. It uses standard economic 
evaluation methods to investigate the value of walking (the activity) and 
walkability (the quality of walking conditions). It indicates that current 
transport planning practices tend to undervalue walking. More comprehensive 
analysis techniques are likely to justify increased support for walking.

"Sustainable Transportation Indicators" (http://www.vtpi.org/sus-indx.pdf). 
This revised paper describes various sustainable transportation performance 
indicators, including a proposed set that accounts for various economic, 
social and environmental impacts.

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SPECIAL PROJECTS
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PAYDAYS Insurance Pricing
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Pay-As-You-Drive-And-You-Save (PAYDAYS) is a new insurance pricing concept 
that directly links vehicle insurance premiums to the amount a vehicle is 
driven by giving motorists a rebate based on annual mileage: the less you 
drive the larger your rebate. A coalition of national organizations 
including Environmental Defense, the Conservation Law Foundation, Oregon 
Environmental Council, King County Metro, Northwest Environment Watch, 
Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Surface Transportation 
Policy Project, Clean Air and Transportation, Inc., and the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency is working with a private insurance broker 
to develop this concept. At least one major insurance company has already 
submitted a proposal to provide insurance services to the coalition, based 
on the PAYDAYS concept. We hope to have a specific program ready by this 
Summer.

A workshop will be held for interested parties on Thursday, March 20, 2003 
at Environmental Defense's Washington DC office. For information on this 
event contact Tracy Freuder, tfreuder at environmentaldefense.org or call 
202-387-3500.

VTPI is working on this and other efforts to develop Pay-As-You-Drive 
vehicle insurance. For more information see:

Environmental Defense PAYD Insurance Program 
(http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentid=2205)

The Oregon Environmental Council's PAYD campaign 
(http://www.orcouncil.org/Laws/PAYDFactsheet.PDF)


Transportation and Social Exclusion
-----------------------------------
VTPI Director Todd Litman will present a paper titled "Social Inclusion As 
A Transport Planning Issue in Canada" at a seminar on social exclusion and 
transportation at the University of Westminster in London, April 3-4. 
Representatives from each of the G-7 countries will present findings. This 
is the first phase of a major research project sponsored by the Federation 
Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

Social exclusion refers to constraints that prevent people from 
participating adequately in society, including education, employment, 
public services and activities (http://www.socialexclusionunit.gov.uk). The 
term social exclusion is not widely used in North America, but most 
transport officials are concerned with providing basic mobility to 
disadvantaged groups. A wide range of transport and land use policies and 
programs can help improve social inclusion, many of which are often 
overlooked as possible solutions to this problem. Further research is 
needed to better evaluate the problem and potential solutions.


Vancouver Region Mobility Management
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VTPI is providing support for an Environment Canada sponsored project to 
evaluate the role that mobility management strategies can play to help 
achieve sustainable transportation objectives. We have recently completed a 
draft report that identifies potential mobility management strategies, 
evaluates their potential impacts on regional sustainability, discusses 
their current status, and what can be done to help implement them in the 
region. Draft reports are available at the URL below.

Summary Report: http://www.vtpi.org/mm_sum.pdf
Full Report: http://www.vtpi.org/mm_rpt.pdf

We appreciate feedback on these reports and are organizing a 
multi-stakeholder technical workshop to be held April 24 in Vancouver. For 
more information contact Todd Litman (litman at vtpi.org).


Federal Policies to Support Active Transportation
-------------------------------------------------
VTPI is working with the organization "Go For Green" 
(http://www.goforgreen.ca) to produce a background paper that identifies 
ways to incorporate public health objectives into transport planning, and 
recommends specific federal policies to encourage more physically active 
transportation (walking, cycling, skating, etc.). For information on this 
issue see our paper "If Health Matters" (http://www.vtpi.org/health.pdf).

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UPCOMING EVENTS
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Walk21 Conference (http://www.walk21.com)
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Walk21 IV: Health, Equity & Environment, the 4th International Conference 
on Walking in the 21st Century, will be held in Portland, Oregon, 1-3 May 
2003. The conference will focus on rethinking the context and perfecting 
the tools for a more walkable world. Advocates, practitioners, academics 
and policy makers interested in walkability are encouraged to attend.


Urban Street Symposium - "Uptown, Downtown, or Small Town: Designing Urban 
Streets that Work" and Smart Growth Debate, 
(http://gulliver.trb.org/conferences/USS2)
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The 2nd Urban Street Symposium will be held July 28-30, 2003 in Anaheim, 
California. This symposium provides a forum for evaluating alternative 
urban street design practices, including problems caused by current design 
practices and potential alternatives; reexamining long-held urban street 
design practices in light of the "new urbanism" movement; identifying 
better urban street design practices; sharing experience and innovations; 
with case studies and workshops on "how to do it".

This symposium will close with a debate titled "Smart Growth Pro or Con" 
between Todd Litman, VTPI Executive Director, and Wendell Cox, a critic of 
smart growth and mobility management.

Sponsors include the Transportation Research Board, Institute of 
Transportation Engineers, ITE Traffic Engineer Council, the American 
Society of Civil Engineers, the Federal Highway Administration and the US 
Access Board.

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SUCCESS STORIES
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Quebec Income tax deduction for transit passes
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Feliciatations a nous tous!

After years of lobbying by a diverse coalition of supporters, the Quebec 
provincial government recently approved an income tax deduction for transit 
pass users, worth about $120 per year in income tax reduction. Proponents 
hope that this will help lead to similar deductions by the Canadian federal 
government and other provinces. The U.S. has had such a deduction for 
several years, which has increased transit ridership in many markets.

For more information on this issue see:

IBI, "Tax Exempt Status For Employer-Provided Transit Benefits," 
Transportation Issue Table, National Climate Change Process and Transport 
Canada 
(http://www.tc.gc.ca/programs/environment/climatechange/subgroups1/passenger_urban/study5/exec_summary/english/transitpass.htm), 
1999.

The Commuter Choice Program (http://www.commuterchoice.com) provides 
information on Commute Trip Reduction programs and benefits, particularly 
U.S. income tax policies related to commuter benefits.

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USEFUL RESOURCES
================

"This View of Density" (http://www.sflcv.org/density) by the San Francisco 
League of Conservation Voters is a new website that illustrates different 
types of land use patterns, predicts their impacts on land consumption and 
travel behavior (using an automated calculator), and discusses various 
issues related to new urbanist development.


"Transport Geography on the Web" (http://www.people.hofstra.edu/geotrans) 
provides excellent information on transport geography, including academic 
articles, maps, figures, and datatsets. VTPI has contributed material for 
chapters 6 (Urban Transportation) and 9 (Transport Planning and Policies) 
of this website.

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Please let us know if you have comments or questions about any information 
in this newsletter, or if you would like to be removed from our mailing 
list. And please pass this newsletter on to others who may find it useful.


NOTE: Please use our current email address (litman at vtpi.org or 
info at vtpi.org), rather than litman at islandnet.com, which will be 
discontinued in the future.




Sincerely,
Todd Litman, Director
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560
Email: litman at vtpi.org
Website: http://www.vtpi.org