Transportation and the Environment

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Transportation and the Environment

• Physical presence
• Energy use
• Pollution generation
• Environmental assessment process
• Environmental justice

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The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of
black sticky slime out of the ground where it had
been safely hidden out of harms way, turning it
into tar to cover the land with, all seemed to
outweigh the advantages of being able to get more
quickly from one place to anotherparticularly
when the place you arrived at had probably
become, as a result of this, very similar to the
place you had left i.e., covered with tar, full
of smoke and short of fish. --Douglas Adams,
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
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Environmental effects of transportation

• Physical presence, use of resources, or
  generation of waste
• Short-term or long-term
• Reversible or irreversible
• Direct, indirect, or induced
• Linear, nodal, or areal
• Local, regional, national, or global
• Often thought of as externalities

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Physical presence

• Direct taking of land for infrastructure
• Severance of large areas
• Indirect or induced impacts on nearby land
• Visual impacts
• Effects can diminish with time

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Energy use

• Renewable vs. non-renewable
• 25 of all energy goes to transportation
• And 95 of transportation energy is from oil
• Speed vs. energy tradeoff, plus economies of
  scale

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How much oil is left?

• Quantity of oil reserves
• Quality of reserves
• Pattern of use over time
• Spatial patterns of extraction and usage

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Emissions and pollution

• Air pollution
• Water pollution and runoff
• Noise and vibration

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Air pollution Major pollutants

• Lead (Pb)
• Particulate matter (PM)
• Nitrogen oxides (NOx)
• Sulfur dioxide (SOx )
• Carbon monoxide (CO)
• Photochemical oxidants (ozone)

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Lead (Pb)

• Source gasoline additive
• Affects kidneys, liver, brain slows children's
  mental development
• Phased out in US 1975-1986
• Saved 10 for every 1 invested in unleaded
• Still used in developing world

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Particulate matter (PM)

• Source incomplete burning of fuel (esp. diesel)
• Creates or aggravates respiratory problems
• Short transport distance closest to
  transportation infrastructure most affected
• Requirements for lower-emission public vehicles

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Nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons

• Source incomplete burning of fuel
• NO (nitric oxide) and NO2 (nitrogen dioxide)
• Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) hydrocarbons
• NO2 is the brown component of smog
• Respiratory problems

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NO2 sunlight (energy) NO O O O2 M
O3 O3 NO NO2 O2 NO2 O2 HCs
PAN Or O H2O 2OH OH HCs PAN
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Sulfur oxides

• Source sulfur in fossil fuels
• Respiratory problems
• Also forms acid rain
• Also destroys diesel catalytic converters
• New regulations reducing sulfur in fuel will
  allow more emissions reductions from diesel

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Carbon monoxide

• Source incomplete burning of fuel
• Reduces oxygen absorption by bloodstream
• Biggest problem in cold air
• 42 reduction via Clean Air Act and catalytic
  converters

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Photochemical oxidants

• Ozone (O3) and PAN (peroxyacetyl nitrate)
• Respiratory problems
• Ozone good at high altitudes UV absorption
• Worst pollutant in terms of attainment standards

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Ozone non-attainment days, 1993-2002
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Pollution and health in SoCal

• 2001 study of cancer and pollutants
• 8,000 excess cases in South Coast region
• 70 due to mobile sources, mainly diesel

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Water pollution

• Vehicle emissions
• Leaking oil, hydraulics, brake fluid
• Roadside vegetation control
• De-icing and salt
• Oil spills
• Externalities estimated at 0.2 per mile

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Hydrologic consequences

• Increased impermeable surfaces
• Reduced groundwater supplies
• Less flood protection
• Loss of wetlands due to construction
• Each vehicle requires 3,000 square feet

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Noise pollution

• Noise unwanted sound
• Impacts depend on the person
• Sleep interference
• Speech interference
• Effects on schoolchildren
• Doesnt restrict projects, just requires
  mitigation

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Measuring noise

• DNL (Day-Night Level)
• Average over 24 hours
• Weights 10 PM-6 AM more heavily
• CNEL (Community Noise Equivalent Level)
• Weights evenings, early mornings
• Time above percentage of time noise is above
  a threshold

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Assessing environmental impacts NEPA

• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
• Passed in 1969
• Requires Federal agencies to consider
  environmental impacts of projects they fund or
  carry out
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has to
  review all such documents

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Assessing environmental impacts NEPA

• Courts have interpreted NEPA to include indirect
  as well as direct effects
• Used by environmental and citizens groups to
  sue to stop projects

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The EIS process

• Step 1 Announce the project and suggest a scope
  for the review(Federal Register)
• Step 2 Develop a Draft EIS
• Define the purpose and need
• Propose alternatives
• Analyze the alternatives
• Step 3 Public review of the DEIS (60 days)
• Step 4 Final EIS

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What does an EIS include?

• Population and displacement, land use impacts
• Air quality, noise
• Hydrological issues
• Economic impacts
• Historical or cultural sites parks and
  recreation
• Vegetation, wildlife esp. endangered species
• Health risks
• Visual disruption
• The construction phase

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What is environmental justice?

• To avoid, minimize, or mitigate
  disproportionately high and adverse human health
  and environmental effects, including social and
  economic effects, on minority populations and
  low-income populations.

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What is environmental justice?

• To ensure the full and fair participation by all
  potentially affected communities in the
  transportation decision-making process.
• To prevent the denial of, reduction in, or
  significant delay in the receipt of benefits by
  minority and low-income populations.

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History of environmental justice

• 1930s, 1950s, 1970s concern over lead-based
  paint in urban housing
• 1987 United Church of Christ study
• More minorities located near waste and pollution
  sites, esp. African-American
• Environmental racism
• 1991 Environmental Justice Summit

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History of environmental justice

• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
  prohibits discrimination based on race, color,
  national origin
• 1994 Executive Order 12898 on Environmental
  Justice
• Requires all federal agencies to consider EJ
• Includes low-income and minority groups
• 1997 DOT policy on EJ

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Measuring environmental justice

• Where are the protected populations?
• Scale of analysis
• Buffer area
• Where are the negative effects?
• Air, noise, water pollution
• Aesthetic or visual pollution
• Community disruption

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Determining environmental justice

• Is there a disparate impact on a protected
  population?
• Is that impact caused by the proposed project?
• Is the impact significant enough to imply
  discrimination? (Disparity ? Discrimination)
• In other words, is risk distributed equally?

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Pollution and health revisited

• Cancer risks are not distributed equally
• 1/3 minorities live in a high-risk area, but
  only 1/7 whites
• Living near transportation worse than industrial
  or commercial land uses

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