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Growing Cooler

Sep 20, 2007

Energy, Transportation, and Land Use Reforms Must Work Together

Meeting the growing demand for conveniently located homes in walkable neighborhoods could significantly reduce the growth in the number of miles Americans drive, shrinking the nation’s carbon footprint while giving people more housing choices, according to a team of urban planning researchers.

In “Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change,” a report published today by the Urban Land Institute, researchers conclude that development patterns are not only a key contributor to climate change, but an essential factor in combating it.

“The number of miles driven in Virginia has been rising faster than our population growth, and is a direct result of our spread out development, major highway expansion, subsidies for exurban office parks, and the failure to offer more communities where walking, bicycling and transit are convenient options,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

“The report makes clear that clean cars and greener buildings are part of the solution but will not be enough to tackle the climate change problem,” said Michael Town, executive director of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club.  “We can do more to reduce the amount we have to drive through investments in transit, carpooling, and pedestrian and bicycle facilities in support of more compact development.”

The report shows that Virginia ranks in the top half of the states in terms of growth in vehicle miles traveled, and the DC Metropolitan Region ranks 24th among large metro areas in growth in daily VMT per capita.  In comparison to the 22 miles driven per day per person in the DC region, Richmond area residents average over 26 miles per day according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.  The recently released Virginia Energy Plan shows that transportation is the sector accounting for the largest share of energy consumption, and one key reason is that while Virginia’s population grew 33% between 1980 and 2000, vehicle miles traveled grew 99%.

“Virginia’s Energy Plan is particularly timely.  It acknowledges the problems highlighted in this ground-breaking ULI report, but points to the solutions Virginia needs to adopt,” said Chris Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council. “Integrating energy, economic development, housing, land conservation and land use and transportation toward a goal of location efficiency will be essential.”  The Virginia Energy Plan acknowledges the interconnections:

“Land use and transportation are integrally linked. The typical suburban sprawl that characterizes much of Virginia’s urban crescent increases the demand for new roads and highways. This style of development intensifies automobile use and discourages the use of less polluting alternatives such as public transit, bicycling, or walking.” (p. 107)

“Policies aimed at changing land-use patterns would reduce energy use and the need for new electric and natural gas infrastructure, including power plants, transmission lines, and pipelines. Long-term land–use changes aimed at creating denser, mixed-use settlements offer considerable energy-saving opportunities. Focusing developers’ attention on pedestrian and bicycle accommodations and public transit is also important.” (p. 108)

“Redevelopment of urban brownfield properties and inner-city districts can have the same positive impacts on energy and the environment while also creating jobs, revitalizing neighborhoods, increasing property- and sales tax revenues, decreasing sprawl, and reducing health risks to the community.” (p. 109)

“There is good news in Virginia, found in the boom in loft condos in Richmond, the revitalization of Norfolk and Portsmouth, the ongoing rebirth of Charlottesville, Staunton, Culpepper and Fredericksburg, and Manassas, and in new communities like Warwick Village in Newport News, East Beach in Norfolk, and Rocketts Landing in Richmond,” said Joe Lerch, senior Virginia land planner with the Virginia Office of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.  “These are places that offer the opportunity to drive less, create less traffic, and lower our individual emissions, but we need more places of this type, with good connections to transit and mix of housing affordability.”

Virginia has a wealth of older neighborhoods which have attracted high demand and are the models for new communities.  These include Richmond’s Fan, Fredericksburg, Old Town and Del Ray in Alexandria, Ghent in Norfolk, Staunton, Lexington and too many other historic towns to mention.  Danville, Martinsville and other southside communities are increasingly finding that downtown revitalization and pedestrian-friendly streets are important for economic development.

“In Northern Virginia, Arlington is a national model for transit-oriented development and traffic reduction and Fairfax has made TOD its top development priority,” said Schwartz.  The Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor has added 30 million square feet of development with no local traffic increase with 50% of corridor residents walking, biking or taking transit to work.  Some 35% of peak hour commuters in the region use transit, and the share of transit and carpooling trips in key corridors through Arlington to DC reaches 50% or more.

“Governor Kaine and county leaders including those in Fairfax and Arlington are taking positive steps to address global climate change. What this report shows is that Virginia must make smarter growth and fundamental change in our transportation investment priorities an integral part of the solution,” said Miller.

Virginia must:

• Continue to increase funding for public transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, build the Purple Line in Northern Virginia and invest in light rail, bus rapid transit, trolley and efficient local bus service in each of the state’s metro regions.
• Commit to transit-oriented development at Metrorail, commuter rail stations and future transit stations, offering incentives to ensure a mix of jobs, housing, schools, and recreation, and designs that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
• Invest in the revitalization of the cities, towns, and declining suburban commercial corridors using mixed-use redevelopment, while creating strong disincentives for low-density, car-oriented development and expanding land conservation programs.
• Make freight rail and intercity passenger rail a priority.
• Not build infrastructure which has the major effect of, and/or whose goals include, increasing vehicle miles traveled, such as the Western Bypass (Tri-County Parkway/Battlefield Bypass), Route 460, Southeastern Expressway, and 8-lane I-81.

The ULI report warns that if sprawling development continues to fuel growth in driving, the projected 59 percent increase in the total miles driven between 2005 and 2030 will overwhelm expected gains from vehicle efficiency and low-carbon fuels.  Even with those technological improvements, vehicle emissions of carbon dioxide would be 41 percent above today’s levels, well over the goal of reducing CO2 emissions to 1990 levels by 2050, according to the report.

The paper recommends changes to make green neighborhoods more available and more affordable.  It also calls for including smart-growth strategies as a fundamental tenet in climate change plans at the local, state, and federal level.  With such changes, the report predicts that some 85 million tons of CO2 annually could be saved, by 2030. 

The study is a collaboration among leading urban planning researchers at the University of Maryland, the University of Utah, Fehr and Peers Associates, the Center for Clean Air Policy, and the Urban Land Institute.
 
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The full ULI report can be found at: www.support.smartgrowthamerica.org/growing_cooler