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Review of Tools for Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Applicable to Small- and Medium-Sized Communities
Citation:
Flanders, N., R. Dodder, AND R. Baldauf. Review of Tools for Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Applicable to Small- and Medium-Sized Communities. Presented at Tools of the Trade, Charleston, SC, September 12 - 14, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
This is an abstract for a conference presentation meant to provide transportation planners and decision-makers in small- and medium-sized communities with a review of available tools for assessing and reducing transportation energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Description:
Considerable attention has already been given to ways of assessing and reducing transportation energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in large cities. This presentation provides a review of what tools, if any, may be used to assess and reduce transportation energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in small- and medium-sized communities. Select tools will be discussed both in terms of how they are useful and in terms of what barriers there are to using these tools in small communities with limited resources. Examples of barriers may include a lack of detailed survey data to use for inputs to a model or a need for staff time or expertise that might not be available. The assessment tools discussed include generic tools that were created to be applicable to a range of communities across the nation, tools that must be tailored to the individual communities where they are employed, and additional resources such as organizations and networks that may be turned to for data and expertise. These tools and resources are linked to the particular strategies for mitigating transportation energy use and greenhouse gas emissions that they are the most useful for assessing or aiding. Strategies for mitigating transportation energy use fall into the general categories of use of alternative fuel sources, including electrification, changing vehicle technologies and fleet turnover to new technologies, altering transportation infrastructure and the management of traffic on that infrastructure, and managing demand for motorized transportation (for example, motivating people to use travel modes other than personal automobiles). Strategies can include actions taken to reduce energy use and emissions from local government operations, but also actions taken to address energy use and GHG emissions for an entire community. The presentation will include informal audience surveys, gaging the particular transportation-energy-related priorities of and challenges faced by the agencies of any practitioners in attendance, which will be used to guide the discussion. To the extent feasible, we will also engage participants in a discussion of what strategies small- and medium-sized communities may or may not be considering, their awareness of and familiarity with tools that support assessment of those strategies, and any feedback on our classification of the tools that we have reviewed.