Street Lighting Efficiencies in LA

Street lighting efficiencies are something that is consistent with the City's values.

I got copied on this video that's worth sharing. There's no mention of climate change, but they do hit on Carbon. Important to watch how folks are messaging on this topic.

Trip to the Climate Leadership Academy

I travelled to DC (Arlington, VA) to the Climate Leadership Academy with the Institute of Sustainable Communities. The first part of the trip was of course getting to the hotel and the Rosslyn Marriott, which is on the Potomac.
The following picture is of the Custis Trail which is an extension of the Mt. Vernon Trail that connects Virginia to the Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial. Arring near 6 PM on a sweltering day, the activity on the trail was actually quite high. A lot of commuters leaving the District and travelling into VA.

Climate Efforts

A nice mention of Portland's work and quote from Mayor Adams. We're working on the street lighting elements and hope to be a leader in this area. There's a leap one needs to make to invest in green technology and to make the case that the reduced maintenance costs will serve the community in the long-term. Our study on LED lighting has been published and showed promise. Unfortunately, if the maintenance staff are concerned about reduced costs resulting in fewer jobs, there may be a negative connotation to the effort. The good news is there are maintenance needs elsewhere in street lighting, so there will be different jobs to do, like look after the conduit, deteriorating pole foundations, and the communication system that will be needed to control the LEDs to further reduce power demands.

There's also the need to find staff to maintain electric vehicle charging stations.

Brew to Bikes Book Review

My initial post on this was over at my personal blog at : http://peterkoonce.blogspot.com/2011/01/reading-list.html.

Charles Heying and his cadre of coauthors wrote a nice book and I thought a few of the recommendations are worth commenting on. This raises a question about the future of old school media and the popularity of books as we increase the amount of electronic content in the world. The nice thing about reading a book is you get a significant amount of content from one source. A downside is that it doesn't force you to articulate your thoughts on a particular subject like commenting on a blog would. Media like Bikeportland.org  is such a site where the comments can offer significant insight. The newest radio shows on Oregon Public Broadcasting offer an online format for collecting thoughts and the host brings those into the show to offer perspectives that the generalist host would otherwise have.

Back to one of the recommendations worth noting in the book...

Recommendation #2: Don't let economists design your economic development strategy. Here's the excerpt:

For one, they are trained to use data that comes from sources that were design in an industrial economy, like gross domestic product. They focus things like growth and jobs and old school terminology. "things like environmental impacts are described as externalities, as if the economy operates in some abstract world and its connection to the physical world is tangential, even accidental. Pollution and resource depletion seem to come as a surprise to economists, something akin to collateral damage.

There are some socialist leanings in this book, but having read the book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" among other titles, I appreciate some of these critiques.

Reading the first review on Amazon, it was funny to see that the commenter was from Austin, TX a City where the "Keep (insert City name here) Weird" slogan started. Essentially, I see that sort of a movement as a keep it local concept, an effort to preserve the uniqueness of a community. I don't believe Weird is the right moniker, but it's something that one can hang your hat on (whether it be of a cowboy or bicycle messenger variety).

Another mention of Portland's Signals in the Press

This time a retweet of the old fashioned kind from ITS America, which teamed with Transportation 4 America to highlight a few Signals related pieces that should warrant some attention throughout the Signals world. Press Releases : News and Events

At Beckman Center In Irvine for a Workshop

U.S. DOT is asking the question: How do we measure and evaluate livability and environment-related goals?
I find it ironic that we are in Irvine, CA to discuss this, where every street seems to be at least 6 lanes and there was limited public transit opportunities to speak of. In this picture, there appears to be a bicycle path adjacent to the six lane, so at least they have that going for them.
We are at the Beckman Center, which is at the end of a cul de sac on the University of California-Irvine campus. It's a nice facility and the weather is great, but... it's not a great model for urban design.
I am pleased that USDOT is asking the questions and am looking forward to trying to provide answers in the future.

Sustainable Transportation System Management

My presentation at ITS America is posted to the ITSA FTP site ftp://itsaweb.itsa.org/AnnualMeeting2010_Presentations/Special%20Sessions/Sustainability%20Track/SS14-How%20Do%20You%20Measure%20%93Sustainability%94%96%20Performance%20Measures%20for%20Transportation%20and%20Climate%20Change/SS14_pkoonce.pdf. It was focused on how we would measure sustainability. The challenge is that we don't measure much, so we're not starting from a strong foundation and we're trying to capture something that is hard to get a handle on. This is particularly challenging in an arterial network.

We've got lots of work to do.

GHG and Transportation Webinar

I participated in this webinar for AASHTO related to traffic operations improvements that would address GHG. I shared it with the Portland State University class as an introduction to Ecodriving.

I did see an Ecodriving booth in Rotterdam when I was there. I was thinking the first step would be to start education with the City employees if we wanted to target reducing our contribution, which is a study the City is currently undertaking.

Governor's Advisory Group On Global Warming

Taken directly from page 88 of the report from the Oregon Strategy for

Greenhouse Gas Reductions

TRAN-12: Set up traffic flow engineering “Best Practices.”

Specific Recommended Actions:

• Improve signal timing by leveraging The Climate Trust, Federal Highway Administration and City of Portland initiatives.

• Enforce speed limits.

• Apply Intelligent Transportation System solutions.

• Identify, prioritize and reduce recurring traffic congestion and optimize highway speeds to the preferred range.

• Analyze potential projects using value pricing (i.e., congestion pricing).

Truck and auto travel is most energy efficient when vehicles travel in the 40 to 50 mph range without frequent stops and starts. Traffic flow can be optimized through targeted infrastructure investments, traffic signal re-timing, value pricing, and investments in alternatives to the automobile. Projects that improve traffic flow through road widening or traffic management strategies will reduce fuel use in the short-term if vehicles operate at more efficient speeds with less braking and accelerating. However, increasing or improving road capacity may attract more

drivers, thereby increasing vehicle miles traveled and eroding GHG benefits.

Intelligent transportation systems encompass a broad range of wireless and wireline communications-based information, control and electronics technologies. When integrated into the transportation system infrastructure and in vehicles themselves, these technologies help monitor and manage traffic flow, reduce congestion, provide alternate routes to travelers, enhance productivity, and save lives, time and money.

GHG and Transportation

Getting over an illness, I am trying catch up and am busy preparing a webinar addressing GHG in Transportation Operations.

A few links I wanted to include:

Metro's recent inventory of GHG

AASHTO Climate Change Webinars recorded:

Benefits of Signal Timing

Portland Climate Action Plan

Portland's Green Dividend

State Bill Introduces GHG assessment requirement

I couldn't help but post this interesting article on legislation in the Oregon Senate. “This bill deals with one important piece of the climate puzzle – transportation,” said Senator Alan Bates (D-Ashland), who carried the bill on the floor. “We must design our cities more efficiently, everything from timing our traffic signals to...

I need to write Mr. Bates a thank you note for promoting our efforts.

The link was edited and the text is at the bottom of the page.

Transit Signal Priority in Boulder

I worked on this project and wasn't able to take the project to implementation unfortunately. This is disappointing one of the key frustrations was that so much of the work in consulting didn't lead to building something or making it better. I found myself trying to make the perfect decision. Hopefully, the new team on the job can build a project that meets the needs of Boulder County.

I blame the missed opportunity on the old cost benefit analysis which stifles the ability of engineers to make decisions. At times, we ask for these analyses when we want to make sure we're doing the right things, yet we don't ask for these to study some of things we already do. Taking into account the environment is a significant challenge and there's a lot of guess work that's going to be necessary in the short-term to make good decisions for our world.

Columbia River Crossing Debate

 
A lot of debate has centered on the CRC. I appreciate that it has raised the consciousness of both sides.

The Oregonian had a front page article on this and it was scathing.

A new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River has so far cost taxpayers $65 million, without a spade of dirt turned. By this time next year, the tab will hit $100 million -- burning though cash at a rate of more than $1 million a month.

The result: mainly an environmental impact statement and thousands of pages of reports.

And although large initial outlays for design and engineering work are standard, the project remains stuck on square one decisions amid disagreement over the scale and look of the Columbia River Crossing project.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded

I am reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why we Need a Green Revolution and How it Can Renew America. The book promises an outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy. The recent chapter that I read speaks to Petropolitics which makes the link between the price of fuel and the freedom associated with the country involved. His argument speaks to those who are concerned about the state of America in the global future.

The Role of Transportation in a Sustainable Future

The Role of Transportation in a Sustainable Future
The scientific community believes that greenhouse gases emissions, especially carbon dioxide, needs to be reduced by 50 to 80 percent by 2050 to stabilize the climate and avert economic and environmental cataclysm (IPCC, 2007). Transportation is responsible for about one-third of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States; passenger automobiles and light trucks alone contribute 21 percent. The built environment, transportation plus the building sector, accounts for more than half of the nation’s emissions. Increasing fuel efficiency and decreasing the carbon content of fuels can reduce vehicles’ greenhouse gas emissions, but the emissions reductions from technological fixes will be overtaken by the continuing growth in vehicle miles traveled (VMT). It’s clear that in order to reach our climate goals, we will have to reverse the upward trend in vehicle miles traveled.
A new culture of innovation is needed in transportation within our communities, as traditional solutions alone will not suffice. The suburban development patterns that have been aided by outdated policies must be changed to encourage better choices and more effective integration of land use, transit, cycling, and walking. Effective transit has the potential to serve our communities as we saw this summer as people found transit as an alternative to the high prices of gas. Yet public transit, carpooling, biking, and walking are unattractive in many cities because of the built environment we have created in the past forty years. In order to improve our communities and reduce carbon emissions, we have to find a way to improve public transit thereby changing the way our communities travel.
Is ITE and the Transit Community Prepared to Address this Issue?
The tools that ITE has been developing are starting to address these issues. The Context Sensitive Solutions Handbook is an example of a document that can be used to improve our communities given the realities of today’s challenges. The soon to be released Signal Timing Manual describes the importance of establishing policies prior to changing traffic signals and encourages the consideration of all modes. The use of these tools however lags because the dialogue within engineering circles remains largely focused on the old paradigm and the transportation policies of 1960s. We continue to consider moving cars as opposed to people in our communities, we favor single land uses as opposed to mixed ones, and we use tools that only consider automobiles as opposed to all users.
The Trip Generation and Parking Generation Manual are two documents that exacerbate the auto-dominated design of our communities and their use by many engineers fails to address the modes that are most important to our future. The Trip Generation Manual has a section on shared trips that considers multi-purpose trips within a single mixed-use development, but this is still very automobile focused and barely mentions transit. Further, concurrency requirements imposed in some jurisdictions limit development based on the projected capacity of available infrastructure, including roadway capacity. For example, developers might be required to pay for roadway expansion if a project is projected to increase traffic when road Level-of-Service degrades from C to D (Litman, 2005). This action discourages infill development and fosters dispersed, automobile-dependent sprawl. Revised concurrency requirements take into account the reduced per capita traffic generation, shorter trips and improved travel options in urban areas, and so allow more infill development (Wallace, January 2005).
Alternatives to concurrency models include use of a multimodal level of service concept or accepting congestion in exchange for transit improvements. If congestion increases, people change destinations, routes, travel time and modes to avoid delays. The competitiveness between travel alternatives has a significant effect on the use of various alternatives: For the alternatives that are inferior, travelers will choose the most attractive travel alternatives. The actual number of motorists who shift from driving to transit may be relatively small, just a few percent of total travelers on the corridor, but that is enough to reduce roadway congestion delays.
We must develop resources that address the new direction our communities will need to address the issue of climate change. Resources and handbooks are not enough to address the issue and may not be as important as steps that are necessary to result in a culture shift within the engineering community. This culture shift would be based on new values and a vision for the future. A vision which replaces the mindset that traffic delays must be mitigated, but rather seen as an opportunity to apply new techniques to improve transit, thereby helping transform travel behavior in the future.
Workshops to Cultivate Cooperation between Transit and Engineering
To meet these needs, the Institute of Transportation Engineers is excited about the opportunity to host five workshops to discuss model actions to shift our industry’s focus toward more sustainable transportation solutions. To attract discretionary riders (travelers who have the option of driving), public transit must be fast, comfortable, convenient and affordable. Engineers have an important role to helping transit agencies achieve this goal. A brief comparison of light rail transit and mixed flow bus service indicate the deep divide in investment and quality of transit. Light rail transit provides a travel time advantage that tends to attract discretionary riders. When transit is faster than driving, a portion of travelers shift mode until the congestion declines to the point that transit is no longer faster).
Transportation problems can be viewed as individual problems with technical solutions or opportunities to affect behavior. Traffic and parking congestion require building more roads and parking facilities, but these solutions improve the competitiveness of auto traffic as it compares to transit or non-motorized traffic options. To make the change our communities need, we need to focus on moving people and goods rather than vehicles. In dense cities, transit saves valuable space and energy compared to private automobiles and must be improved to maintain our mobility. Cities must also invest in bicycling and walking to further increase the opportunities for people to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Transportation systems are a critical element of a strong economy, but can also contribute directly to building community and enhancing quality of life. As engineers, we have a responsibility to act as stewards of the natural environment, undertaking to help our communities make sustainable choices with regard to personal movement and consumption.

Other worthwhile facts to communicate the message:
According to the American Public Transportation Association, public transportation reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 6.9 million metrics tons annually, yet only 2 percent of the trips taken in the U.S are via this mode.
Eighty-two per cent of Manhattan residents travel to work by public transit, by bicycle, or on foot.Transit accounts for only 2 percent of passenger miles traveled in the U.S.
A study published in the City Journal stated that in almost every metropolitan area, carbon emissions are significantly lower for people who live in central cities than for people who live in suburbs (Glaeser, 2009, Winter). It goes on to suggest that land-use regulations bind most tightly in the places (existing cities) where environmental concerns should lead us to have the most growth.
An average U.S. urban dweller uses 24 times more energy annually for private transport as a Chinese urban resident, and around five times as much as a resident of a European city of equal economic prosperity. (Kenworthy, 2004)

Blumenauer addresses WTS Meeting in Portland

The link above outlines some of what Earl described at the WTS meeting yesterday. I have some detailed notes that I will place here, but I didn't want to lose this link, because his speech echoed what is written in this response.

Greening the Games

Building off that last post, I almost forgot something I noticed on Friday as we were walking in Downtown Boise. The City is preparing for the Special Olympics World Winter Games and as a part of that event, they are asking that athletes and fans leave "no record on our environment". With the help of partners likeWal-Mart, Idaho welcomes international athletes to eat locally, ride green and recycle. Once again, I don't want to be too cynical, but I am really curious about what Wal-Mart is doing to make a difference in their stores. Green must be the new black in the marketing circles. It is interesting to see the condo development advertisement going up behind this, which is part of greening the City. Perhaps they can put a Wal-Mart in the ground floor of the building and give the City a supermarket for the residents they hope to attract.

Marketing the Environment

  At the Annual Transportation Research Board meeting, I couldn't help notice the marketing associated with the environment. That and the Obama inauguration were the two big topics, could it be that they are related? Regardless, the first of the pictures is a campaign by Chevron entitled Will you Join Us? and centers on saving energy by biking, using less energy (unplugging computers?), going solar, etc. Is it just me that finds it strange to have big oil pushing this concept?
That being said, they are paying to advertise on transit, which helps WMATA pay for service and consultants, so I have to say thanks to Chevron, but I do so with a bit of a cynical perspective just wondering whether their intent is environmental or self-serving. There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that suggested that consumers (I consider my clients consumers of my services) are willing to pay for companies that they feel support the green cause.
  On the other hand, I saw these two banners in the subway that was designed to provoke the question, there's no such thing as clean coal. Here they have Chewbaca (or is this Bigfoot) holding a piece of coal. The alien is probably a clearer image, yet with the X Files still fresh in my mind I am not sure if they're not real.
 

I-5 Columbia River Crossing Project Article in Willamette Week

It is great that Portland has such an integrated transportation/environment to media system. It seems like every three weeks there is a huge article on the issues. It is great to see that the concept of induced traffic is alive and well. Although I don't agree with the concept like I used to. I think it is more like a system. Increased road capacity leads to land use patterns that utilize that capacity, i.e. people buy homes that are to their liking (reasonable commute, land for the kids to play, "safer" communities, newer parks, nice schools that leave the poor neighbors behind, lower taxes because they don't pay for the infrastructure like museums/libraries/Convention Center if owned by the City/etc, further from their work because the commute isn't that bad, and then later when it gets bad the community asks for improvements so that they don't have to move.

So at the end, you have travel that increases not because of the additional capacity persay, but rather becuase of the land use that follows the roadway capacity. The challenge is you need a certain amount of capacity to address freight and other important societal needs. I am not sure what the right answer is, I guess it would have to be improve the bridge, but make sure there is high speed transit and auto capacity (properly priced), and of course bicycle facilities.


Anyway, here's the excerpt: In fact, if you build it, however, they will drive…more.

There’s a concept transportation planners call “induced travel,” which means more road capacity results in more traffic.

While the precise relationship between capacity and demand remains under debate, CRC figures show if a new bridge were built without tolls, the number of people crossing the Columbia would increase dramatically, versus the no-build option. Figures show that without tolls, a new bridge would carry 225,000 passengers a day by 2030, while the current bridges, if left in place, would carry only 184,000. The difference of 41,000 is the “induced travel” generated by the newly built capacity.

If, as the task force proposes, the new I-5 bridge is tolled, and an adjacent light-rail, bicycle and pedestrian bridge is built, that combination would reduce traffic by 47,000 car trips, leaving only a small net reduction—6,000 trips from the no-build scenario (see chart below).

Wilamette Week Article for Earth Day

I liked the concepts in this article. It challenged Portland's position as a Green leader and described 7 concepts for moving us forward, including raising the bottle bill and forgoing streetcars for faster buses ala Curitiba. Good ideas on the eve of Earth Day.

http://wweek.com/editorial/3423/10806/