Sustainable Transportation

Since the late 1980s, sustainable development has garnered much interest from government agencies, businesses, non-government organizations, and civic groups, resulting in policy initiatives in both the public and private sector. Yet, people and organizations citing sustainable development as an objective often lack a firm grasp of the origins and true meaning of the concept. Such an understanding is important as it provides a holistic perspective on development against which a sectoral—e.g., transportation-specific—focus on sustainability can be considered. This chapter explores the evolution of sustainable development through the perspective of international conferences and publications often referred to in discussions of sustainability. The chapter then introduces the challenges that are frequently confronted when trying to conceptualize sustainable development through different disciplinary lenses. It concludes with a discussion of the need to adopt a holistic and integrative approach to the design of policies and initiatives aimed at achieving more sustainable forms of development.

Transportation is fundamental to the development of society. It provides opportunities to interact with others, moves the goods we need, and supports a vibrant economy. This chapter introduces the demand for transportation and explores key trends and growth forecasts. These underline the on-going importance of transportation to social progress and the significant challenge that lies ahead in planning transportation in the face of growing population, rising incomes, and technological change.

As discussed in Chap. 3, the transportation system is often envisioned as the engine of development. It is seen as the backbone of the twentieth century’s economic and social progress and is the means by which humans access goods and services and connect to communities. Yet, it is also a major contributor to environmental degradation and community disruption, which is often inequitably distributed. The falling costs and increasing efficiency of the transportation system have enabled the emergence of the throughput society (see Sect. 2.​3). The ease with which materials and goods can be moved within and between nations has transformed the structure of national economies, enabling connectivity across the world. This process is further enhanced by the global emergence of information and communication technology (ICT). The complexity unleashed by the integration of regional and national economies means that tracing who or what is responsible for negative externalities is not a simple question to ask or answer. With the possibility of two billion vehicles on the horizon (Sperling and Gordon 2010) and growing mobility trends around the world, the challenges presented by transportation are likely to command public attention for the foreseeable future.

The transportation system is developed and managed by a wide range of governmental actors and agencies. As transportation crosses administrative boundaries there is a need for coordination of policies and actions between the local, regional, national, and international level. In Chaps. 2–4, the importance of coordinating (or better still, integrating) policy areas within any given level of government to promote sustainable development is identified. Further complexity is added when one considers that the transportation system is owned and operated by a mixture of public and private operators acting within a framework set by different levels of government. The challenge of steering and coordinating this complex system is referred to as governance.

The ideas and concepts of sustainability need to be given operational forms if they are to influence and count in the governance of transportation systems. Such a prerogative has been acknowledged by many policy bodies and scholars over the last two decades; and the term indicators is often evoked as an important element in this respect (Jeon and Amekudzi 2005; Joumard and Gudmundsson 2010). The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the concept of an indicator as a key informational device for both planning and delivery (see Chap. 5) with regard to sustainability in transportation, and to present various ways to develop and use indicators. However, a key problem for making sustainability count in transportation with the use of indicators is the diversity of values, scientific disciplines, and planning tasks that are involved. This creates a number of challenges for developing indicators that will be effective and resonate with a broad array of stakeholders and contexts. It also undermines the idea that one “general set of sustainable transportation indicators” can be found, which is why we have not pursued this task in this book.

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the essential role of frameworks in measuring and managing sustainability in transportation. In Chap. 6 indicators were defined as key informational devices for planning and delivery with a number of distinct applications. Frameworks organize how combinations of indicators are selected and used. The chapter starts by defining and describing frameworks and why they are important. It then outlines a wide range of methods to ‘frame’ indicators, from broad ideas and paradigms, to more specific systems adopted by organizations. The active process of ‘framing,’ i.e., setting up a framework to develop and apply indicators and performance measures will also be discussed. The chapter will illustrate a number of generic framework types as well as practical frameworks that are used in areas such as transportation appraisal, environmental planning, sustainability assessment, and performance measurement. These examples are each discussed in terms of how well they support thinking and acting upon sustainability in transportation, and how well they support the different indicator applications that were introduced in Chap. 6. The chapter will summarize the key features a framework should generally possess in order to provide optimal support to sustainability, without proposing one master framework to fit all situations. In the case studies discussed in Chaps. 8–11, detailed examples of the application of frameworks will be analyzed. The analysis will draw from the concepts and typologies presented in this chapter, and will serve to show how different contexts in terms of spatial scale, institutional setting, policy goals, or task portfolio can affect how sustainability is framed and measured.

This case study examines the European Transport White Paper of 2011 as an example of a planning domain application. The European Union is an economic and political union of some 28 states in Europe. Some of the key premises of the European Union have been to open up markets to free trade within the region and to seek to harmonise technical standards, laws, and processes to facilitate the free movement of people and goods. It is interesting that sustainability is also emphasized as an overarching goal for all areas of European policy making. The European Union employs a wide range of assessment and monitoring mechanisms to track progress on the implementation and performance of policies in the transport area, which is seen as a keystone for the so-called Single European Market. These mechanisms clearly reflect tensions between the different goals and pose challenges for the interpretation of indicators on transportation trends. Also the sheer size and complexity of the Union raises challenges for the effective application of indicator based evidence. The chapter will place the indicator- and application rich example of the ex ante assessment of the European Transport Policy White Paper in the wider context European Union policy making.

This case study refers to the ex-ante assessment of the case for the development of a High Speed Rail network in England for domestic travel connecting London and cities to the north of England. The proposal, at an estimated cost of around US$24 bn is the second largest investment decision in the English transport system for many decades. Although the cost of the scheme is distinctive, the decision is being taken within the same framework which governs all major transport infrastructure investments in the UK. The scheme is so large and significant to the UK it has led to the development of a bespoke sustainability appraisal, the design and application of which are fundamental to the themes of this book. The chapter explores the relationship between the politics of major infrastructure decisions and the purpose and scope of influence of sustainability assessments.

New York State Department of Transportation’s (NYSDOT’s) GreenLITES (Leadership In Transportation and Environmental Sustainability) programs are collectively one of the leading sustainable transportation performance assessment systems in the US. This case study begins by examining the historical context that enabled the GreenLITES programs to be created, after which each of the programs is discussed. A unique aspect explored in the case is how the GreenLITES certification (or rating) programs are promoting change within NYSDOT. Particular attention is paid to how the data (or indicators) from the programs are used within a multi-actor decision-making context (Holden 2013). The case study concludes by examining how NYSDOT’s four asset management teams (specifically the Sustainability team) and the Comprehensive Program Team (CPT) build on the GreenLITES programs to promote a culture of sustainability across the agency. Attention is paid to how the GreenLITES certification data and sustainability concepts are used in the context of the Learn, Decide, Forecast, and Communicate indicator application types (described in Chap. 6).

This case focuses on the Eco-Model City (EMC) program created by the Japanese Government in 2008. The EMC program was created to demonstrate how cities could radically transform themselves towards a low carbon future. The program uses a range of indicators and other evaluation tools to monitor a city’s progress and performance, which are discussed throughout the case study.

In this book, we set out to address the question of “How do we make sustainability count in transportation?” This chapter offers our reflections on Parts I and II of the book, from the process of bringing together state-of-the-art knowledge in the field to putting this information to the test through the critical examination of four real-world case studies.