Achieving Greenhouse Gas Reductions from Passenger Vehicles

Transportation Association of Canada’s (TAC’s) New Vision for Urban Transportation calls for land use that reduces travel demand and supports transportation alternatives, travel choices that reduce dependence on single occupant automobiles and user pay financing methods that dedicate revenues to transportation system improvements. Vancouver has supported these directions in its transportation and land use plans, which strive to build compact and complete communities that support transit, walking and cycling and other alternatives to driving alone. Recent data has shown successes in implementing these plans – while significant population growth has occurred, auto driver mode shares have decreasing slightly, and transit, walking and cycling modes have shown substantial increases. In 2003, the City approved another measure that will further support these initiatives, with a new development cost levy that includes transportation alternative projects. During 2004, the City developed a Community Climate Change Action Plan, for reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by Vancouver residents and businesses, in order to comply with the Kyoto Protocol. This plan responds to the call by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) for municipalities to support the federal government’s ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. In Vancouver, buildings and vehicles were found to contribute to the majority of the community’s greenhouse gas emissions (industry accounted for only about 7% of the total emissions). Passenger vehicles are the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Vancouver. Two main strategies are planned to tackle the challenge of reducing these emissions: (1) increased use of transportation alternatives, for savings of 90,000 tons per year; and (2) improved vehicle and fuel efficiency, for savings of 160,000 tons per year. Together, these savings will meet over 60% of the City’s overall greenhouse gas emission reduction target. The remaining contributions for meeting the City’s Kyoto Protocol goals will come from other sectors such as residential and commercial buildings efficiency improvements, alternative energy systems, etc. Although the vehicle emission measures proposed in Vancouver’s Community Climate Change Action Plan are intended to address greenhouse gases, they will also offer a number of significant co-benefits, ranging from reductions in other air contaminants to helping to improve community health.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9781551872064
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Association of Canada (TAC)

  401-1111 Prince of Wales Drive
  Ottawa, Ontario  Canada 
• Conference:
  • 2005 Annual Conference of the Transportation Association of Canada
  • Location: Calgary , Canada
  • Date: 2005-9-18 to 2005-9-21
• Publication Date: 2005

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; Photos; Tables;
• Pagination: 11p
• Monograph Title: Transportation – Investing in Our Future

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternate fuels; Alternatives analysis; Bicycling; Energy conservation; Exhaust gases; Greenhouse gases; Land use planning; Mode choice; Passenger vehicles; Public transit; Revenues; Single occupant vehicles; Travel demand; User charges; Walking
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Finance; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01041518
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9781551872064
• Files: TRIS, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 30 2007 1:31PM