Post Carbon Cities :: Newsletter #10, May 2008

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Public transit in a world of $120 oil
2. Transportation organizations and resources
3. The land use - transportation connection
4. Recent news, upcoming events, and del.icio.us-ness
5. Introducing John Kaufmann

Welcome to Post Carbon Cities' tenth newsletter! Our theme this month is transportation, one of our program's hottest topics. Transportation planning and land use planning together shape the energy requirements of every person, business and government agency -- so as energy uncertainty increases (in the form of increased price volatility and even potential shortages), the development of less energy-intensive transportation and land use patterns becomes ever more urgent.

What does energy uncertainty mean for transportation in our communities, and what can we do about it? Read on.

(See also: Articles tagged "transportation" on postcarboncities.net.)

1. Public transit in a world of $120 oil

The rising price of gasoline is on everyone's mind. As gasoline rises past a record $4 per gallon in the United States^*, we're hearing more and more about people leaving their cars for public transit. In the first few months of 2008, transit ridership has increased 5% on New York City's commuter trains, 8% in Denver's system, and a full 16% on Minneapolis-St. Paul light rail, compared to the same time last year. Miami's commuter rail saw a whopping 28% year-over-year increase just for April.

The ability of people to switch from cars to transit (or bicycling or walking, for that matter), however, is directly tied to the past planning and investment decisions made by local government. People can only choose to use transit where transit exists -- and even where transit systems are built and operating, they will only last as long as they are funded in a sustainable way.

Read more in this article by Program Manager Daniel Lerch.

^* Gasoline/petrol, of course, is already well past this mark elsewhere, with prices above the equivalent of $8 per gallon in Germany and $9.50 per gallon in the UK.

2. Transportation organizations and resources

The organizations listed below can inform and aid your own planning for more sustainable transportation. These sites hold a wide range of resources and links to people already doing the research and the work needed to keep our communities moving in a low-energy world.

International Organizations

• The Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) uses research, policymaking and demonstration projects to make "urban transportation systems more environmentally sustainable and socially equitable." While focused on the less-developed world, their resources are just as applicable to Western communities. ITDP publishes highly-regarded Sustainable Transport magazine.
• The World Carfree Network is an international network of advocates, activists, professionals and officials promoting alternatives to car dependence and automobile-based planning. Their annual conference, Towards Carfree Cities, is being held this year in Portland, Ore. next month (see below).

The UK & Europe

• Sustrans promotes healthful and environmentally sustainable transportation in the UK. One of their many programs is the TravelSmart program, which offers tailored information to households for how to walk, bike, and take public transport more often.
• CIVITAS, which stands for City-VITAlity-Sustainability, is an initiative of the European Community promoting cleaner and better transport in cities. Member cities promote and implement sustainable transportation practices, essentially becoming a "living laboratory" for transportation advances.

The US & Canada

• Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP) is an American coalition promoting health, safety, economic prosperity, equity, livability and environmental protection through transportation choices. Check out their state-level statistics section.
• The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an independent research organization developing innovative and practical solutions to transportation problems. See their website for a wide range of resources on planning and policies.
• The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center and its subsidiary websites, walkinginfo.org and bicyclinginfo.org constitute a (U.S.) national clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access, and mobility for pedestrians (including transit users) and bicyclists. Their resources include information on funding bike or pedestrian infrastructure, performing walkability audits, promoting cycling, and how to do pedestrian planning.
• The National Center for Biking and Walking aims to change the way communities are planned, designed and managed to ensure that people of all ages and abilities can walk and bicycle. Their newsletter, Centerlines, comes out biweekly.
• And if you've got bike-friendly city envy after reading about Portland's recent platinum award, the League of American Bicyclists, who administer the Bicycle Friendly Communities award program, might be able to give your city a few pointers in excelling in the "five Es".

3. The land use - transportation connection

Most of us have some choice about where we will live, where we will work, and what form of transportation we will use to get around town. Businesses have similar choices about where to set up shop and how to move their goods and people around.

The scope of these choices is very much determined by land use and transportation planning decisions made at the local level. If you live or work in a typical American or Canadian suburb, you are largely restricted to using a car because of past decisions to zone for low-density development and to invest primarily in highways and roads. Those decisions, in turn, were made based on assumptions about the availability and affordability of transportation fuel for the future: Levittown, N.Y. (or Tysons Corner, Va., or most of Orange County, Calif., for that matter) would not have been built if their planners and developers could not have reasonably assumed that gasoline would be remain relatively affordable and available to thousands of new households and businesses years down the road.

But what happens when fuel prices shift out of old patterns, and those assumptions about fuel affordability and availability no longer hold? This was discussed in Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty, excerpted below:

Land use and transportation are inextricably linked, and there are many organizations and efforts promoting sensible decision-making in both. Here are a few that are particularly focused on the land use side:

• The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute: Based in Denver, Colorado, the RMLUI hosts an annual land use conference. They have developed a Sustainable Community Development Code that addresses many aspects of sustainability in a coherent code.
• Smart Growth Network: Smart Growth is an anti-sprawl ethic of urban design. One of the stated principles of Smart Growth is that it should "provide a variety of transportation choices." Smart Growth Network's online Library contains a wealth of information and policy resources.
• Lincoln Institute of Land Policy: the Institute's work "addresses issues involving the use, regulation and taxation of land." They have a wide range of useful publications, including the quarterly magazine Land Lines and the striking visualization tool Visualizing Density.
• Finally, no listing of land use - transportation resources would be complete without a link to Making the Land Use, Transportation and Air Quality Connection (LUTRAQ), a series of reports starting in 1988 that helped defeat a major highway project in the Portland, Ore. region, and set a precedent for similar decisions across the country. Required reading for all planners!

4. Recent news, upcoming events, and del.icio.us-ness

Recent news
	High fuel prices hit Sydney's suburbs hard Published 10 May 2008 by The Sydney Morning Herald Gas prices in Sydney, Australia, are soaring - but they're not hurting everyone evenly. A recent study has found that residents of the western ring of suburbs are spending, on average, three times what their inner-city counterparts are spending on fuel. Insufficient public transit infrastructure gives residents of these suburbs little option but to keep paying, at a cost to other parts of their lives and to the community.
	Gas prices send surge of riders to mass transit Published 10 May 2008 by New York Times Mass transit systems around the country are seeing huge growth in transit use. As people wean themselves from auto-dependency, can the transit systems keep up with demand? With related content from "The Peak Oil Crisis: Transiting to Transit," by Tom Whipple.
	Bicycle-sharing program to be first of kind in U.S. Published 27 April 2008 by The New York Times Bike-sharing is hardly new, but this initiative in Washington, D.C., modeled on Paris's Vélib, will be a test case for the more high-tech version in this country. Tracking technology on the bikes can address some of the historical weaknesses that have doomed similar programs in the past, and arrangements with advertisers can defray costs to the city and the customer.
	Fighting global warming block by block Published 4 May 2008 by The Washington Post Here's a simple test you can apply to every new public works project, building plan or government land purchase: Will it increase the region's total greenhouse-gas emissions, or reduce them? That test is courtesy of King County, Washington's Executive Ron Sims, but state, regional, and city governments across the country are taking action to make sure development doesn't undermine their energy and emissions goals.

Upcoming Events
	Street Smart: Streetcars and Cities in the 21st Century 22 May 2008 | Los Angeles, Calif. Hear about the success of the most robust new streetcar systems at the last of four national workshops, hosted by the national nonprofit Reconnecting America and the Seaside Institute.
	Energy Shock and Climate Change: Sustainable Solutions for Converging Crises 6 Jun 2008 | Old Westbury, NY The Center for Energy, Environment and Economics at the New York Institute of Technology is hosting their third annual conference, titled Energy Shock and Climate Change: Sustainable Solutions for Converging Crises. A full day of speakers and panelists, including Post Carbon Cities' Daniel Lerch, will explore the issues of climate and energy uncertainty.
	Towards Carfree Cities VIII: Rethinking mobility, rediscovering proximity Jun 16 - 20 2008 | Portland, Ore. The Towards Carfree Cities conference series brings together people from around the world who work to promote practical alternatives to car dependence. The conference attracts professionals, advocates, and community leaders who focus on the creation of sustainable transportation systems and on the transformation of cities, towns, and villages into human-scaled environments rich in public space and community life.

And... del.icio.us-ness? Our website has recently started featuring a list of links that users of the social bookmarking service del.icio.us have tagged "postcarboncities". If you're a user of the service, please feel free to share relevant articles and resources by tagging it. Anyone can subscribe to an RSS feed of links thus tagged.

5. John Kaufmann joins Post Carbon Cities

We're excited to welcome John Kaufmann to the Post Carbon Cities team as a Senior Associate. John, a Senior Policy Analyst with the Oregon Department of Energy, was the lead staffer for the groundbreaking Portland (Ore.) Peak Oil Task Force, and has since spoken to government audiences across the country about peak oil and the experiences of the Portland task force. A video of testimony he delivered to the Connecticut Legislature's Peak Oil and Gas Caucus has been one of the most sought after items on our site.

John joined Program Manager Daniel Lerch last month in a presentation to city planners and officials at this year's American Planning Association conference in Las Vegas. Like Daniel, John is available to speak to government and public audiences about peak oil, energy uncertainty and the ramifications of these challenges to cities and regions; visit our presentations and bookings page more for information.

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Photo credits:
View from an airplane window -11 by Nep Smith
Crossing Guard by Victoria Amato