Concepts & Issues
What are the "Three Pillars of Sustainability"?
Social, Economic, Environmental
(People, Profit, Planet)
Motor vehicle accidents are attributable to three groups of factors. What are they?
1. Human
2- Environmental
3- Design
Mention 2 types of vehicles that are cleaner than gasoline and diesel vehicles
1.Electric vehicles
2.Hybrid Vehicles
3.Solar Vehicles
Our petroleum reserves are diminishing. What other alternative fuels that I can use to overcome this issue? mention 2.
1.Methanol
2.Ethanol
3.Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
4.Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG, or propane)
5.Biodiesel fuel
6.Solar energy
7.Hydrogen
What are the 2 main types of transportation emissions?
1- GHG
2- Air Pollutants
What is sustainable Transportation defined as?
“A sustainable transport system is one that provides transport and mobility with renewable fuels while minimizing emissions detrimental to the local and global environment, and preventing needless fatalities, injuries, and congestion”
What are the 5 main causes of congestion?
1.Recurring congestion - daily commute to work
2.Traffic incident, which may involve anything from a vehicle stalling in the traffic stream to a major accident involving loss of life.
3.Work zones – lane closure for maintenance or rehabilitation or speed restrictions for highway worker safety.
4.Weather-related – low visibility due to rain, storm or fog.
5.Special events – ranging from sports events to concerts.
How can I reduce pedestrian crashes?
sidewalks
Crosswalks
Street Lighting
Reduce Speed Limit
Our transportation system is not sustainable due to many reasons. What are the two main factors that are common among all of them?
1- VMT
2- Speed
What does GHG consist of?
CO2
Methane (CH4)
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC)
Why weren't wind-driven ships sustainable?
Required a lot of wood by cutting down huge amounts of trees at rates too fast to allow for their replacement.
England cut down most of its oak plank timber, and it began importing this timber from it's colonies in America.
Mention 3 indicators to measure Congestion
1.Roadway LOS (Volume to Capacity Ratio by segment)
2.Intersection LOS (Delay per vehicle)
3.Congestion Index (VMT, Travel Time Savings/Reliability)
4.Mobility Index (veh occupancy, PMT, ped/bike activity, transit ridership)
Mention 3 ways to reduce congestion
Adaptive Signal Control
Congestion Pricing
Car Sharing
Mass Transit
As an individual’, what can you do to make your transportation system sustainable? Mention 3 things.
1.Use seat belts for safety
2.Monitor my speed
3.Drive in a defensive manner
4.Use the local transit facility
5.Car pooling
6.Purchase energy-efficient vehicle
7.Use bicycle or walk
List the 6 CRITERIA air pollutants.
Carbon monoxide (CO)
Nitrogen oxide / dioxide (NOx)
Particulate matter (PM)
Ozone (O3)
Sulfer Oxide (SOx)
Lead (Pb)
The 19th century witnessed the invention of the steam engine into boats and ships. However, this change didn’t help the overall problem of sustainability, What are the 2 main reasons for that?
1- shortages in wood supply since the ships continued to be manufactured from wood
2- and the new steam engines used wood as a fuel.
How can I measure safety? List 3
1.Crash Severity (Injuries rate)
2.Crash Frequency (Trends, Safety in numbers)
3.Crash Causation (Environment, Human Behavior, Design)
4.Vehicular Crash Rates (exposure measures – MVMT, MEV)
5.Pedestrian Crash Rates (PMC)
6.Bicyclist/Micro-mobility Crash Rates (BMT)
There are several alternative intersection designs that help improve the intersection capacity. How?
They eliminate left turns at the intersections by allocating them upstream or downstream the intersection
What are the 5 main goals of sustainability you are trying to achieve?
1.Improve Mobility (Reduce Congestion) 2.Improve Safety (Reduce Crashes) 3.Improve Air Quality (Reduce Pollutants) 4.Improve Climate Conditions (Reduce GHG) 5.Improve Alternative Fuels (Reduce Petrol use)
GHG causes global atmospheric impacts.Mention 2 impacts.
1- Global Warming
2- Rise in sea levels due to melting of the polar ice caps and glaciers
What things make our transportation system unsustainable? List 5
1.Global Atmospheric Impacts
2.Local Air Quality Impacts
3.Diminishing Petroleum Reserves
4.Crash Fatalities and Injuries
5.Congestion
6.Noise
7.Level of Mobility
8.Biological Impacts
9.Equity
10.Land Consumption
List 4 indicators to measure pollution
1.CO2/mile (million metric tons-MMT)
2.NOx, PM, CO (rates/mile, particle per million-PPM)
3.Fuel Consumption (amount of fuel used, miles per gallon-mpg)
4.Health Impacts (Correlation with Health)
5.Noise Pollution
How will connected and autonomous vehicles help in achieving sustainability?
Speed Harmonization
Eliminate Human Errors
Increase capacity
As a decision maker in your agency. What policies you can introduce to support sustainability?
1.Reduce speed limits
2.Improve public transit operations
3.Set air quality standards
4.Limit free parking in the central part of the locality
What is the difference between greenhouse gasses and air pollutants? Mention 3 differences
GHG are global in nature. They trap heat in the atmosphere. Once they are released their effect is long term like global warming effects and rise of sea levels.
Air pollutants effect is local and short term. it matters where they are concentrated as those are called “Toxic Hotspots”. Their effect is direct & cause serious heath effects such as respiratory diseases, cancer and sometimes death.