Skip to main content

Transportation

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Urban Sustainability in the US

Abstract

This chapter discusses sustainable transportation. We begin by noting that US cities face a significant challenge in overcoming automobile dependence as they seek to create more sustainability transportation options. We explore the challenges of deteriorating transportation infrastructure in the face of reduced government support and funding. We then examine how cities are beginning to rethink urban design and to support efforts to create more diverse, sustainable transportation, such as car and bikeshares. Transit-oriented development is a major trend in planning that holds the promise to reduce the need for automobile in cities. We also examine ways that cities link transportation to climate change and economics. We then examine how cities are taking action to reduce emissions that contribute to both climate change and localized air pollution. Finally we explore ways that cities are implementing programs designed to increase fuel-efficient transportation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Transportation Sector Emissions,” April 14, 2017, https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#transportation.

  2. 2.

    United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Smog, Soot, and Other Air Pollution from Transportation,” accessed April 2, 2018, https://www.epa.gov/air-pollution-transportation/smog-soot-and-local-air-pollution.

  3. 3.

    World Health Organization, “Ambient Air Pollution: Health Impacts,” accessed March 28, 2018, http://www.who.int/airpollution/ambient/health-impacts/en/.

  4. 4.

    Jennifer Chu, “Study: Air Pollution Causes 200,000 Early Deaths Each Year in the U.S.,” MIT News, 2013, http://news.mit.edu/2013/study-air-pollution-causes-200000-early-deaths-each-year-in-the-us-0829.

  5. 5.

    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Motor Vehicle Safety: Pedestrian Safety,” August 9, 2017, https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/pedestrian_safety/index.html.

  6. 6.

    National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Traffic Fatalities up Sharply in 2015” (United States Department of Transportation, August 29, 2016), https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/traffic-fatalities-sharply-2015.

  7. 7.

    American Society of Civil Engineers, “2017 Infrastructure Report Card.”

  8. 8.

    Doug Hecox, “3.2 Trillion Miles Driven On U.S. Roads In 2016,” U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, February 21, 2017, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pressroom/fhwa1704.cfm.

  9. 9.

    City of Portland, “The Portland Plan April 2012,” 2012, 42, http://www.portlandonline.com/portlandplan/index.cfm?c=58776.

  10. 10.

    Livable Streets, “Urban Happiness with Enrique Peñalosa,” n.d.

  11. 11.

    Sarah Parsons, “4 Big Ideas to Revolutionize Transportation,” World Resources Institute, 2013, http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/01/4-big-ideas-revolutionize-transportation.

  12. 12.

    Parsons.

  13. 13.

    Hayley Richardson, “All Transportation Is Local,” accessed November 28, 2017, http://www.nlc.org/article/all-transportation-is-local.

  14. 14.

    American Society of Civil Engineers, “2017 Infrastructure Report Card.”

  15. 15.

    The City of Madison, “The Madison Sustainability Plan: Fostering Environmental, Economic, and Social Resistance,” 2011, 27, https://www.cityofmadison.com/sustainability/documents/SustainPlan2011.pdf.

  16. 16.

    Sustainable DC, “Sustainability DC,” 2012, 80, https://sustainable.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/sustainable/page_content/attachments/DCS-008%20Report%20508.3j.pdf.

  17. 17.

    The Economist, “Bicycles and Bans Are Reshaping the City,” September 14, 2017, https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21728997-motorists-denounce-hipster-takeover-bicycles-and-bans-are-reshaping-city.

  18. 18.

    Charleston Green Committee, “Charleston Green Plan,” 2007, 15, http://www.charlestongreencommittee.com/charlestongreenplan2010.pdf.

  19. 19.

    Sustainable DC, “Sustainability DC,” 87.

  20. 20.

    Sustainable DC, 32.

  21. 21.

    City of Burlington, “The Burlington Legacy Project,” 2000, https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/sites/default/files/CEDO/Legacy_Project/Legacy%20Action%20Plan.pdf.

  22. 22.

    Pierre-Henri Bono et al., “Métros et attractivité internationales des villes” (Sciences Po LIEPP Policy Brief, December 2017), https://spire.sciencespo.fr/hdl:/2441/1nc1j3sifu9p2pr7v2hj7cpd05/resources/liepp-pb36-bono-et-ali.pdf.

  23. 23.

    City of Burlington, 13.

  24. 24.

    The City of Miami Beach, “Sustainability Plan Energy Economic Zone Work Plan,” November 12, 2009, 12, http://www.miamibeachfl.gov/green/scroll.aspx?id=63975.

  25. 25.

    All Transit, “Potential Uses,” accessed January 26, 2018, https://alltransit.cnt.org/potential-uses/.

  26. 26.

    City of Newport News, “Roadmap to Sustainability,” February 2013, 92, https://www.nngov.com/DocumentCenter/View/1586.

  27. 27.

    City of Chicago, “2015 Sustainable Chicago Action Agenda,” September 2012, 16, https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/progs/env/SustainableChicago2015.pdf.

  28. 28.

    The City of New York, “PlaNYC A Greener, Greater New York,” 2011, 42, http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc/downloads/pdf/publications/planyc_2011_planyc_full_report.pdf.

  29. 29.

    John I. Gilderbloom, William W. Riggs, and Wesley L. Meares, “Does Walkability Matter? An Examination of Walkability’s Impact on Housing Values, Foreclosures and Crime,” Cities 42, no. Part A (February 1, 2015): 13–24, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2014.08.001.

  30. 30.

    Walk Score, “Walk Score,” accessed January 26, 2018, https://www.walkscore.com/.

  31. 31.

    City of Portland, “The Portland Plan April 2012,” 40.

  32. 32.

    City of Portland Oregon and Multnomah County, “Climate Action Plan: Local Strategies to Address Climate Change,” June 2015, 26, https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/531984.

  33. 33.

    City of Portland Oregon and Multnomah County, “Climate Action Plan Progress Report,” April 2017, 2, https://multco.us/file/62269/download.

  34. 34.

    City of Portland, “The Portland Plan April 2012,” 42.

  35. 35.

    City of St. Louis Planning Commission, “City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan,” February 6, 2013, 40, https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/mayor/documents/upload/STL-Sustainability-Plan.pdf.

  36. 36.

    The City of New York, “PlaNYC,” 95.

  37. 37.

    The City of San Jose, “San Jose’s Green Vision,” 2007, 12, http://www.globalurban.org/San_Jose_Green_Vision.pdf.

  38. 38.

    The City of Madison, “The Madison Sustainability Plan,” 57.

  39. 39.

    Charleston Green Committee, “Charleston Green Plan,” 72.

  40. 40.

    City of Chicago, “2015 Sustainable Chicago Action Agenda,” 16, 82.

  41. 41.

    American Society of Civil Engineers, “2017 Infrastructure Report Card.”

  42. 42.

    City of Chicago, “2015 Sustainable Chicago Action Agenda,” 17.

  43. 43.

    City of Philadelphia, “Greenworks Philadelphia,” 2009, 65, https://beta.phila.gov/documents/greenworks-progress-reports/.

  44. 44.

    City of Philadelphia, 66.

  45. 45.

    City of Philadelphia, 66.

  46. 46.

    Cynthia Shahan, “5 Largest Public Transit Systems In US (Infographic)” (Clean Technica, August 30, 2014), https://cleantechnica.com/2014/08/30/largest-public-transit-systems-us-infographic/.

  47. 47.

    John Rennie Short, “Why Is the U.S. Unwilling to Pay for Good Public Transportation?,” The Conversation, April 1, 2016, https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-u-s-unwilling-to-pay-for-good-public-transportation-56788.

  48. 48.

    Gulliver, “How to Fix Washington, DC’s Unloved Metro,” The Economist, March 17, 2016, https://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2016/03/subway-systems-problems-run-deep.

  49. 49.

    Gulliver.

  50. 50.

    Martine Powers, “Metro’s Wild Year Included a Paint Debate,” Washington Post, December 31, 2017, http://thewashingtonpost.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx?issue=10582017123100000000001001&page=28&article=6aa748be-2d75-4cf5-a361-ae631000a364&key=F9O%2BUQI5QRpiTD5fKvCtFw%3D%3D&feed=rss.

  51. 51.

    Robert McCartney, “Metro Gets Third and Final ‘Yes’ as Maryland Commits to Its Full Share of Dedicated Funding,” Washington Post, March 22, 2018, sec. Transportation, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-gets-3rd-and-final-yes-as-maryland-commits-to-its-full-share-of-dedicated-funding/2018/03/22/ecd63946-2dfa-11e8-8ad6-fbc50284fce8_story.html.

  52. 52.

    Patrick Sisson, “Perfecting Public Transportation: 10 U.S. Cities Getting Public Transportation Right,” Curbed, January 24, 2017, https://www.curbed.com/2017/1/24/14361030/best-cities-public-transportation-light-rail-bus.

  53. 53.

    Eli Portillo, “Along the Blue Line Extension, New Developments Are Taking Shape,” News, The Charlotte Observer, January 24, 2016, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/development/article55922980.html.

  54. 54.

    Eli Portillo, “Charlotte’s Light Rail Was Supposed to Change Our Attitude about Cars. It Hasn’t.,” News, The Charlotte Observer, accessed November 29, 2017, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/development/article149577004.html.

  55. 55.

    The City of Austin, “Rethink For A Bright Green Future,” 2008, 11.

  56. 56.

    Drew Reed, “How Curitiba’s BRT Stations Sparked a Transport Revolution—a History of Cities in 50 Buildings, Day 43,” The Guardian, May 26, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/26/curitiba-brazil-brt-transport-revolution-history-cities-50-buildings.

  57. 57.

    Charleston Green Committee, “Charleston Green Plan,” 96.

  58. 58.

    Municipality of Anchorage, “Adopt-A-Stop Checklist,” Municipality of Anchorage, accessed November 29, 2017, https://www.muni.org/Departments/transit/PeopleMover/Pages/AASCheck.aspx.

  59. 59.

    The City of Madison, “The Madison Sustainability Plan,” 19; City of Chicago, “2015 Sustainable Chicago Action Agenda,” 26.

  60. 60.

    City of Chicago, “2015 Sustainable Chicago Action Agenda,” 17.

  61. 61.

    John Pucher and Ralph Buehler, “Safer Cycling Through Improved Infrastructure,” American Journal of Public Health 106, no. 12 (December 2016): 2089–91, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303507.

  62. 62.

    Ralph Buehler and John Pucher, “Trends in Walking and Cycling Safety: Recent Evidence From High-Income Countries, With a Focus on the United States and Germany,” American Journal of Public Health 107, no. 2 (February 2017): 281–87, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303546.

  63. 63.

    Charleston Green Committee, “Charleston Green Plan,” 97.

  64. 64.

    Liz Murphy, “Bicycle Friendly Communities,” Text, League of American Bicyclists, May 14, 2013, http://bikeleague.org/community.

  65. 65.

    Sustainable DC, “Sustainability DC,” 83.

  66. 66.

    East Coast Greenway Alliance, “East Coast Greenway—Home,” accessed November 29, 2017, https://www.greenway.org/.

  67. 67.

    Ford GoBike, “Bike Share for All,” accessed November 29, 2017, http://www.fordgobike.com/pricing/bikeshareforall.

  68. 68.

    Vock Daniel, “Dockless Bike Shares Are Here. Are Cities Ready for Them?,” Governing, October 2, 2017, http://www.governing.com/gov-dockless-bikeshare.html.

  69. 69.

    Javier C. Hernández, “As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong With Us?,” The New York Times, September 2, 2017, sec. Asia Pacific, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/world/asia/china-beijing-dockless-bike-share.html.

  70. 70.

    Luz Lazo, “Dockless Bike-Share Companies Race to Washington,” Washington Post, September 19, 2017, sec. Transportation, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/dockless-bike-share-companies-race-to-washington/2017/09/19/a7e2c346-9a33-11e7-b569-3360011663b4_story.html.

  71. 71.

    The City of New York, “PlaNYC,” 125; The City of New York, “NYC Clean Fleet,” December 2015.

  72. 72.

    City of Shoreline, “Shoreline Environmental Sustainability Strategy,” July 14, 2008, 24, http://cosweb.ci.shoreline.wa.us/uploads/attachments/pds/esc/COMPLETE_FinalSESStrategy2008July.pdf; City of Chicago, “2015 Sustainable Chicago Action Agenda,” 18.

  73. 73.

    The City of San Jose, “Goal 8: Ensure That 100 Percent of Public Fleet Vehicles Run on Alternative Fuels,” San Jose, California, January 2018, 8, http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=2953.

  74. 74.

    City of Philadelphia, “Greenworks Philadelphia,” 30.

  75. 75.

    Hakan Caliskan and Kazutoshi Mori, “Environmental, Enviroeconomic and Enhanced Thermodynamic Analyses of a Diesel Engine with Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) and Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) after Treatment Systems,” Energy 128, no. Supplement C (June 1, 2017): 128–44, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.04.014.

  76. 76.

    City of Philadelphia, “Greenworks Philadelphia,” 31.

  77. 77.

    The City of New York, “PlaNYC,” 126; The City of Madison, “The Madison Sustainability Plan,” 38.

  78. 78.

    The City of Madison, “The Madison Sustainability Plan,” 33; Charleston Green Committee, “Charleston Green Plan,” 106.

  79. 79.

    Charleston Green Committee, “Charleston Green Plan,” 106.

  80. 80.

    American Society of Civil Engineers, “2017 Infrastructure Report Card,” 1.

  81. 81.

    Sustainable DC, “Sustainability DC,” 19.

  82. 82.

    Sustainable DC, 32.

  83. 83.

    The City of New York, “PlaNYC,” 127.

  84. 84.

    Salt Lake City Division of Sustainability, “Sustainable Salt Lake: Plan 2015,” 2015, 9, http://www.slcdocs.com/slcgreen/sustainablesaltlake_plan2015.pdf.

  85. 85.

    The City of Madison, “The Madison Sustainability Plan,” 28.

  86. 86.

    Sustainable DC, “Sustainability DC,” 86.

  87. 87.

    Gilles Duranton and Matthew Turner, “The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities,” American Economic Review 101, no. 6 (October 2011): 2616–52.

  88. 88.

    Smart Growth America, “National Complete Streets Coalition,” accessed March 20, 2018, https://smartgrowthamerica.org/program/national-complete-streets-coalition/.

  89. 89.

    New York City Department of Transportation, “Measuring the Street: New Metric for 21st Century Streets,” 2012, http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/2012-10-measuring-the-street.pdf.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Keeley, M., Benton-Short, L. (2019). Transportation. In: Urban Sustainability in the US. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93296-5_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93296-5_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93295-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93296-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics