Climate Change

Transportation consultants and planners associated with the San Francisco Transportation Authority's (TA) ATG working group sent excited bursts of email to each other earlier this month about a new development coming from the state Office of Planning and Research (OPR), the body responsible for writing and amending the CEQA guidelines related to transportation and traffic.  The OPR had adopted much of the spirit of the working group's recommendations and proposed an amendment (PDF) to CEQA guidelines that de-emphasized LOS and indicated that it would be much better to use measures for vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reductions such as ATG.

One of the unintended consequences of San Francisco’s bicycle injunction, which Rob Anderson and fellow NIMBYs will likely rue for some time to come, is the arduous thought and labor that advocates and professional planners have invested in doing away with LOS all together.  

The idea that the speed and free-flow of cars is the proxy that is being used across the state of California to measure whether a project is [environmentally] impactful is in the long run undermining the very quality of life [we] are working to protect.

The plan proposes reducing carbon dioxide emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels, and relieving freeway congestion by 20 percent below 2006 levels. It outlines a carbon or vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) tax, parking surcharges, congestion tolls, encouraging new residential projects to be built close to jobs, transit, shopping and services; and various bicycle, pedestrian and transit projects.

The Municipal Transportation Agency's "Climate Action Plan," a 96-page draft [PDF] released Thursday, strikes some hopeful notes but will it produce results? It calls for a reduction of the agency's overall carbon footprint to meet the city's goal of reducing carbon 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Muni would like to achieve zero emissions by 2020 and thinks it can do it but so far there are no budget or implementation timetables.