sustainability

The Colorado Energy Smart Transportation Initiative: A Framework for Considering Energy in Transportation (SSTI and Colorado DOT, 2012)

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The mission of Colorado’s Energy Smart Transportation Initiative was to develop a framework for considering energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in transportation decision-making. With SSTI assistance, a collaborative team composed of federal and state agencies, MPOs, and rural planning partners came together to leverage resources and promote efficiency and effectiveness among agencies by exploring ways to develop “energy smart transportation” strategies. This report includes strategies developed to incorporate energy efficiency and GHG emissions in transportation planning, increase energy efficiency and reduce GHG emissions from transportation, advance environmentally friendly alternative vehicle and fuel technologies, and increase efficiency through truck fleet enhancements, improved traveler information, and other methods.

The BRT Standard (Institute for Transportation & Development Policy, 2012)

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The BRT Standard is an effort by leading technical experts to come to a common understanding of what constitutes internationally recognized best practice in Bus Rapid Transit system design. The best BRT systems are ones that combine efficiency and sustainability with passenger comfort and convenience.

NCHRP Report 708: A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies (2011)

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This guidebook provides state departments of transportation (DOTs) and other transportation agencies with a practical and easy-to-use approach to identify and apply sustainability-related performance measures, some number of which may already be integrated into agency business practices, to produce a new lens through which decision makers can view their agency’s performance. It describes the underlying principles of sustainability as it relates to transportation, possible goals that can be used to address those principles, and performance measures that can be used to address those goals. Aspects of sustainability-related performance measures, including data sources and examples of use, are discussed. A reference compendium of performance measures has also been provided.

SSTI Review of PennDOT's Smart Transportation (SSTI, 2011)

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Smart Transportation is Pennsylvania DOT’s integrated response to the crisis of crumbling infrastructure, limited revenues to address it, and the need to better align transportation with community revitalization and sound land use policy. PennDOT was the first state program reviewed in detail by SSTI, and remains one of our prime examples of a thoughtful DOT wrestling with the challenges of fiscal austerity, sustainability, and system preservation. The review was done at the request of PennDOT to assess the effectiveness of its Smart Transportation program in integrating land use and transportation in its decision-making and to identify areas of opportunity to advance the Smart Transportation agenda.

SSTI Review of Washington State DOT’s Sustainability Efforts (SSTI, 2011)

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This review was performed at the request of Washington State DOT (WSDOT) to assess its sustainability efforts. SSTI convened a panel of experts that included people who have led transformative initiatives as heads of state DOTs. The panel combined practical and academic thinking. The expert panel reviewed background materials on WSDOT’s efforts and then interviewed stakeholders with varying perspectives on WSDOT’s work, including WSDOT staff; personnel from other state, federal, and local entities; and representatives from the not-for-profit sector. Intended as a peer review rather than an audit, the expert panel members brought their knowledge of transportation policy and trends to bear in assessing where WSDOT has succeeded and how its sustainability efforts could be strengthened.