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SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORTATION:RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Christopher A. Kennedy,Dept. of Civil Engineering,

University of Toronto.

Contents:

Comparison of Public and Private Transportation in GTA

Role of Transportation in the Urban Metabolism

The Four Pillars of Sustainable Urban Transportation

Integrated Methodologies and Solutions

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N

Halton

Peel

York

Durham

City of Toronto

!

Greater Toronto Area0

kilometres4020

Lake Ontario

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

Energy and Resources

Local Air Pollution

Global Air Pollution

Biodiversity

Accidents

Innovation

WealthDiversity

External Trade

Internal Costs

Employment

Service/Accessibility

$$

~~

~~

~~

Quality of Life

Figure 2 Assessing the role of transportation in urban sustainability from economic, environmental and social perspectives.

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Private Automobile Public Transportation Economic Auto. parts and assembly industry

accounts for $4.6 billion in the GTA economy (1993)

Cost per person-km (1996) $ 0.55 GO transit: $0.24 local transit: $0.35

Cost per person-km in traded dollars (1996), including sensitivity.

$ 0.24 (+0.06) local transit: $0.07 ( 0.03)

Table 1. Summary of the role of public and private transportation in the Greater Toronto Area(Table 13 from Kennedy, 2002).

Private Automobile Public Transportation Environmental Estimated impacts of air pollution (City of Toronto only - upper estimates)

408 premature mortalities 1606 hospitalizations

1 premature mortality 6.5 hospitalizations

Greenhouse Gas Production 14.9 Tg CO2 approx. 170 g C /person.km

TTC: 0.021 Tg CO2 3 - 14 g C /person.km

Energy intensity 1.47-1.58 MJ/seat-km 0.42-0.84 MJ/seat-km

Table 1. Summary of the role of public and private transportation in the Greater Toronto Area(Table 13 from Kennedy, 2002).

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Table 1. Summary of the role of public and private transportation in the Greater Toronto Area(Table 13 from Kennedy, 2002).

Private Automobile Public Transportation Social Level of Service (estimates from EMME2 model)

av. speed: 47 km/hr. 50% accessibility in 37 minutes

av. speed: 12 km/hr. 10% accessibility in 37 minutes

Employment 67,000 in auto parts and assembly (1993); 25,000 in auto. maintenance (1988)

TTC: 10,000 GO: 1,011

Accidents (annual) 100,000 accidents producing 220 deaths and 42,000 injuries

rare (crash in 1995: 3 killed and 30 injured)

Insurance Costs (annual) $1.8 to 2.3 billion TTC: $10 million accident claim costs

GTA1999

Electricity

Water

Food

Wastewater

Residential Solid Waste

CO2

BOD5

32,700

183

0.84

14,000

157

0.9

0.27

Hong Kong1997

Electricity

Water

Food

Wastewater

Residential Solid Waste

CO2

BOD5

17,542

138

0.68

4,800

102

31

0.38

Comparison of urban metabolisms: Hong Kong 1997 and GTA 1999 (all units in tonnes/cap, except electricity MJ/cap, CO2 kg/cap, BOD5 kg/cap).

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Category 106t / yr 1987 1999

% change (over 12 years)

INPUTS Food 3.4 4.3 + 27 Gasoline 2.9 3.7 + 27 Diesel 0.65 1.1 + 67 Electricity (GWh) 38,505 46,121 + 24 Water Supply 752 931 + 24

OUTPUTS Emissions

GHG (CO2 eq.)CO2

73 59

83 71

+ 18 +27

Residential Solid Wastes

1.5

1.4

- 11

Wastewater Discharged

BOD5SS

770 0.01 0.012

798 0.005 0.010

+ 4 -56 -16

Trends in selected inputs and outputs fluxes in the GTA 1987-1999 (Table 16 of Sahely et al., 2002b)

FoodGasoline

Diesel

Electr. WaterGHG

CO2

Solid Waste

Wastewater

BOD

SS

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

Changes in the GTAs urban metabolism 1987-1999, normalized by population growth.

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SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORTATION

ENVIRONMENT

SOCIETY ECONOMY

NEIGHBOUR-HOODS

GOVERNANCE INFRA-STRUCTURE

FINANCING

Four Pillars of Sustainable Urban Transportation

Establish an effective body for integrated land-use transportation planning

Create a fair, efficient and stable funding mechanism

Make strategic investments in major infrastructure

Support investments through local neighbourhood design and policy

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Governance

The greatest failure of our organization of planning is its inability to coordinate

each agency has organized their governance and funding structures in ways that may not necessarily represent what theory would define as an effective metropolitan agency

Yet the fragmented political authority in most metropolitan areas makes it difficult to address regional transportation impacts and needs.

Governance

Local / community

Non-electedprofessional

Elected

Higher level government

Free market Command and control

HierarchicalDecoupled

Representation

Structure

Democracy

Market philosophy

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Financing

Road tollsCongestion pricingParking feesTransit user fees

Development feesTransit impact feesRight of way feesLeverage real estate assets

Location-related

Fuel taxesVehicle license feesNew vehicle or vehicle parts sales taxesVehicle use feesEmissions fees

General tax baseLocal transportation levy

Non-location-related

Vehicle-relatedNon-vehicle related

Table 3.1 Potential sources of funding for urban transportation systems.

What is the Optimal Transit Subsidy?

EXPRESS

EXPRESS

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Infrastructure

Transit Infrastructure: LRT vs. BRT? How to design infrastructure for alternative

fuel vehicles? ITS infrastructure?

Neighbourhood Design

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Does pedestrian-friendly neighborhood design actually encourage travel by sustainable modes?

19 %17 %37 %31 % (walking)

2 %5 %21 %13 % (walking)

Shopping Social-recreationalWork trips (main mode)Access trips to BART for work

Rockridge(traditional neighborhood)

Lafayette (contemporary neighborhood)

Type of trip

Percentage of trips by non-auto modes by residents of two communities in San Franciso Bay area (Cervero and Radisch, 1996)

Design for Pedestrians

Pushkarev, B and J. Zupan (1975) Urban Space for Pedestrians, A report of the regional plan association. The MIT Press: Cambridge. Massachusetts

Tables and figures detail: space per pedestrian at maximum flow; coefficients of pedestrian flow equations; speed-flow relationships; speed-density relationships.

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Jammed Flow (Figure from p.90 of Pushkarev and Zupan; space per pedestrian is about 0.35 m2 on the lower end of the speed-flow curve).

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Four Pillars - Summary

What is the ideal form of regional governance?

How should infrastructure be financed? (location? vehicle? private vs. public?)

What infrastructure? (LRT, BRT, alt. fuels, ITS)

Does neighbourhood design matter?

Integrated Methodologies and Solutions

Coupling of regional transportation and economy

Sustainable design at micro and macro scales

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Generation of infrastructure investment alternatives considering:

business competitiveness environment social equity innovation potential

Base case scenarios

Infrastructure

Management

System

Regional

Economic

Model

Land-use /

Transportation

Model

Capital & Maintenance

Costs

Growth

Labour Productivity

Agglomeration

Income

GDP Employment Wealth

Environmental Impacts

Consumer Surplus

Accidents

Figure 6. Summary of an urban infrastructure investment framework (Kennedy and Miller, 2002)

Transportation Model

Regional Economic Model

Economic drivers of the demand for transportation services

Changes in accessibility impact the productivity of different sectors

Figure 8. Feedback mechanisms between regional economicand transportation models

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Baetz & Churchill, 1999.

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