Newest Resources (March 2012)

Transport Pricing Reforms for Traffic Safety
This report, presented at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, evaluates the traffic safety impacts of transport pricing reforms (increased fuel taxes, efficient road and parking pricing, distance-based insurance and registration fees, and public transit fare reductions). This analysis indicates that such reforms can significantly reduce traffic risks, but these benefits are often overlooked in policy analysis and safety planning.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Transport Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Policies
This report identifies specific factors to consider for comprehensive evaluation of transportation energy conservation and emission reduction options. It applies this framework to evaluating various strategies, including cleaner vehicle strategies that reduce emission rates per vehicle-kilometer, and mobility management strategies that reduce total vehicle travel. Analyses that favor clean vehicle strategies tend to overlook or undervalue significant impacts including embodied energy, rebound effects, and co-benefits. More comprehensive analysis tends to favor mobility management.

Smart Congestion Relief: Comprehensive Analysis Of Traffic Congestion Costs and Congestion Reduction Benefits
This report, presented at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, critically evaluates the methods used to measure traffic congestion impacts, and applies a more comprehensive evaluation framework to various congestion reduction strategies. Current evaluation methods tend to exaggerate congestion costs and roadway expansion benefits, and underestimate the overall long-term impacts and benefits of pricing reforms, public transit improvements and land use policy reforms. The results indicate that more comprehensive evaluation can help identify more efficient and equitable congestion reduction solutions.

New Social Equity Agenda for Sustainable Transportation
By Todd Litman and Marc Brenman. This report, presented at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, discusses the importance of incorporating social equity and environmental justice objectives into transport policy and planning analysis. It recommends a more systematic and comprehensive analysis framework that considers how planning decisions affect transport system diversity and therefore the transport options available to non-drivers, plus various external costs that harm disadvantaged people. More comprehensive analysis can help identify more integrated, win-win solutions, which achieve a variety of social, economic and environmental objectives.