Developing a Comprehensive Sustainable Transportation Analysis Framework

As climate change has become understood and accepted by state, regional and local governments, there has been a growing impetus to set goals and targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and use of fossil fuels. Tools to prioritize and implement regional and local transportation sector emissions reduction policies have been unavailable to practitioners and policy makers. At the same time, the transportation industry is undergoing a paradigm shift from mobility to access, requiring new ways of defining and evaluating success. Furthermore, transportation agencies are under pressure to deliver projects in a safer, more equitable and cost effective manner. To fill this void, a grass roots group of transportation and sustainability professionals formed to develop a rating system and the planning tools needed to make measurable headway toward improving the performance of transportation in all these areas. Since 2009 the Sustainable Transportation Analysis and Rating System (STARS) has been under development and is being tested on both transportation projects and regional plans. This paper identifies characteristics of STARS that advance the state of the practice while highlighting challenges and gaps. STARS provides a suite of credits incorporating tools and guidance based upon triple bottom line principles. Backcasting is used to establish desired future outcomes, rather than the more traditional forecasting process. STARS uses performance measures to analyze all transport modes and strategies. A pilot project in Santa Cruz County, California is highlighted. Performance monitoring will determine whether the system changes practices and outcomes.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADD40 Transportation and Sustainability.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Dondero, George A
  • Rodgers, Kelly
  • Hurley, Peter T
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
• Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p
• Monograph Title: TRB 92nd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Performance measurement; Pilot studies; Ratings; Sustainable transportation
• Identifier Terms: Sustainable Transportation Analysis and Rating System (STARS)
• Uncontrolled Terms: Analytical framework; Backcasting
• Geographic Terms: Santa Cruz (California)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Transportation (General); I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01475726
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 13-0348
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 15 2013 9:48AM