Framework for Life Cycle Assessment of Complete Streets Projects

A multitude of goals have been stated for complete streets including non-motorized travel safety, reduced costs and environmental burdens, and creation of more livable communities, or in other words, the creation of livable, sustainable and economically vibrant communities. A number of performance measures have been proposed to address these goals. Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) quantifies the energy, resource use, and emissions to air, water and land for a product or a system using a systems approach. One gap that has been identified in current LCA impact indicators is lack of socioeconomic indicators to complement the existing environmental indicators. To address the gaps in performance metrics, this project developed a framework for LCA of complete streets projects, including the development of socio-economic impact indicators that also consider equity. The environmental impacts of complete streets were evaluated using LCA information for a range of complete street typologies. A parametric sensitivity analysis approach was performed to evaluate the impacts of different levels of mode choice and trip change. Another critical question addressed was what are different social goals (economic, health, safety, etc.) that should be considered and how to consider equity in performance metrics for social goals. This project lays the foundation for the creation of guidelines for social and environmental LCAs for complete streets.

• Record URL:
  • https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vw335dp
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/66868
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  Pavement Research Center, One Shields Avenue
  Davis, CA  United States  95616

  JCH Research

  ,    

  California Department of Transportation

  Division of Research and Innovation
  1227 O Street, MS-83
  Sacramento, CA  United States  94273-0001

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Harvey, John T
  • 0000-0002-8924-6212
  • Saboori, Arash
  • 0000-0003-0656-8396
  • Butt, Ali A
  • 0000-0002-4270-8993
  • Kendall, Alissa
  • 0000-0003-1964-9080
  • Ostovar, Maryam
  • 0000-0003-4006-9048
  • Hernandez, Jesus
  • 0000-0003-3112-0163
  • Haynes, Bruce
• Publication Date: 2018-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 200p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Complete streets; Decision making; Environmental impacts; Equity; Highway design; Life cycle analysis; Performance measurement; Social benefits
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Pavements; Planning and Forecasting; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01690028
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NCST-UCD-RR-18-39
• Contract Numbers: Caltrans 65A0527 Task Order 034.3
• Files: CALTRANS, BTRIS, UTC, NTL, TRIS, RITA, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Dec 27 2018 3:43PM