Environment

Concurrent Air Quality Analysis Under the National Environmental Policy Act and Transportation/Air Quality Conformity

Susan Shaheen
Guensler, Randall
Mar, Francisca
1995

This paper addresses the direct and indirect relationships between the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the new conformity requirements. This paper concludes that NEPA and transportation/air quality conformity processes should be concurrent. The need for concurrent determinations is supported by five arguments: 1) the legislative history of conformity indicates that project conformity determinations be made during the NEPA process; 2) general NEPA requirements specify coordination between environmental processes; 3) the level of technical detail required for conformity analyses...

Identification and Prioritization of Environmentally Beneficial Intelligent Transportation Technologies: Modeling Effort

Young, Troy
Sperling, Daniel;
Susan Shaheen
1999

In 1996, California Partners in Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) commissioned a project team led by the Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California at Davis with the Claremont Graduate School to undertake a review of the environmental impacts of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The objectives of this project were to: 1) review previous qualitative and quantitative environmental assessments of ITS, from both field operational tests and modeling studies; 2) review the regulatory and policy contexts which encompass ITS; 3) develop a modeling framework suitable...

Shared-Use Vehicle Systems

Susan Shaheen
2002

In recent years, shared-use vehicle systems have garnered a great deal of interest and activity internationally as an innovative mobility solution. In general, shared-use vehicle systems consist of a fleet of vehicles that are used by several different individuals throughout the day. Shared-use vehicles off the convenience of the private automobile and more flexibility than public transportation alone. These systems are attractive since they offer the potential to lower a user’s transportation costs; reduce the need for parking spaces in a community; improve overall air quality; and...

California's Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate: Linking Clean-Fuel Cars, Carsharing, and Station Car Strategies

Susan Shaheen
Wright, John
Sperling, Daniel
2002

To reduce transportation emissions and energy consumption, policymakers typically employ one of two approaches—changing technology or changing behavior. These strategies include demand management tools, such as ridesharing and vehicle control technologies—cleaner fuels and fueleconomy. Despite the benefits of a combined policy approach, these strategies are normally employed separately. Nevertheless, they have been linked occasionally, for instance in the electric station car programs of the 1990s. Station cars are vehicles used by transit riders at the start or end of a trip. In 1990, the...

University of California, Davis Long-Range Development Plan: A Davis Smart Mobility Model

Susan Shaheen
Rodier, Caroline J.
Finson, Rachel S.
2003

The goal of the Smart Mobility Model project was to optimize individual mobility options through improved connectivity among modes, enhanced techniques to link landuse planning and transportation system design, advanced information technologies, and clean-fuel vehicles. The California PATH/Caltrans partnership with the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) was initiated after campus planners expressed interest in learning how innovative mobility services and technologies (such as carsharing and smart parking management) might help to alleviate the transportation impacts of a campus...

Uso de un Inoculante Termofílico en la Transformación de Residuos Sólidos Urbanos (RSU)

Daniel Rodriguez
Ruiz, A
Delgado, MM
Matiz, A
2007

El relleno sanitario Don Juanito en la ciudad de Villavicencio, Colombia, es uno de los más importantescentros de investigación en el manejo y aprovechamiento de la fracción orgánica de residuos sólidos.Actualmente se encuentra desarrollando un importante proyecto de aprovechamiento y transformaciónmediante el proceso de compostaje enriquecido con inoculantes microbianos termófilos. El inoculanteestá conformado por bacterias autóctonas con actividad amilolítica del orden de 114.5 UA y actividadproteolítica de 98.5 UP,...

A Comparative Case Study on Active Transport to and from School

Fesperman, CE
Evenson, KR
Daniel Rodriguez
Salvesen, D
2008

This study investigates active-transport-to-school initiatives through the Active Living by Design Community Action Model framework. The framework outlines five strategies that influence physical activity: preparation, promotion, programs, policies, and physical projects. A comparative case study was conducted to investigate active-transport-to-school initiatives at two North Carolina schools. A group of key stakeholders from each site was interviewed (N = 16), including principals, physical education teachers, public safety officers, city planners, regional transportation planners, city...

Relation of Modifiable Neighborhood Attributes to Walking

Daniel Rodriguez
Aytur, SA
Forsyth, A
Oakes, JM
Clifton, KJ
2008
There is a paucity of research examining associations between walking and environmental attributes that are more modifiable in the short term, such as car parking availability, access to transit, neighborhood traffic, walkways and trails, and sidewalks. Adults were recruited between April 2004 and September 2006 in the Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan area and in Montgomery County, Maryland using similar research designs in the two locations. Self-reported and objective environmental measures were calculated for participants' neighborhoods. Self-reported physical activity was collected...

Tradeoffs in Incremental Changes Towards Pedestrian-Friendly Environments: Physical Activity and Pollution Exposure

Nazelle, A De
Daniel Rodriguez
2009

A microsimulation of individuals’ activities is used in the context of a risk analysis framework to assess the impacts of hypothesized changes to the built environment on personal energy expenditure and on inhalation of air pollutants. Uncertainty is assessed using Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analyzes. We find both simulated individuals that augment and others that reduce their energy expenditure and inhalation dose of pollutants, with median increases displaying larger magnitudes than the decreases. Up to 75% of the population has significant increases in energy...

The Built Environment and Health: Impacts of Pedestrian-Friendly Designs on Air Pollution Exposure

Nazelle, A De
Daniel Rodriguez
Crawford-Brown, D
2009

In the wake of the growing popularity of pedestrian-oriented community designs, it is timely to assess potential risk trade-offs of such urban planning strategies. Pedestrian-friendly designs are currently being called for and implemented in the US to tackle in particular problems associated with insufficient physical activity in the population. Unintended consequences may emerge, however, especially due to potential increases in the inhalation of pollutants as the population walking or cycling in polluted environments increases. A risk assessment of such built environment...