Transportation's Role in Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions ...

Transportation’s Role in Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Volume 2
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may provide air quality benefits disproportionate to total emission reductions if the
reductions are concentrated in areas of high population exposure. Strategies that
involve infrastructure construction, especially those pertaining to highway and rail
bottleneck relief, may have localized environmental and community impacts that are
either positive or negative.
• Security – System efficiency strategies may benefit national security by reducing
dependence upon foreign oil. The reduction in oil use will be in direct proportion to
GHG reductions for each strategy. In addition, strategies that reduce roadway
congestion would improve the response times for emergency services (police, fire, and
medical), thereby supporting security. Traveler information technologies will improve
the ability to respond to emergencies, including disruptions from natural disasters,
terrorists, and criminal attacks. Some of the technologies used for traffic management,
such as observation cameras, may benefit security by providing a means of observing
roadways and providing information for law enforcement officials to aid them in
responding to crimes.
• Livability – The freight- and aviation-oriented strategies may support livability in
neighborhoods adjacent to ports, rail yards, airports, and intermodal terminals by
reducing truck operations on local roadways and by reducing noise and emissions
from trucks, ships, locomotives, aircraft, and airport equipment. Major capital
investment projects, such as bottleneck relief or rail infrastructure investment, could
potentially have negative localized impacts if takings are required. Otherwise, most of
these strategies are not anticipated to significantly affect livability.
• Economic Vitality – To the extent that these strategies reduce congestion or reduce
shipping costs, they will generally improve economic vitality by reducing business
and consumer costs and increasing business productivity. For example, research on
the trucking industry has shown that shippers and carriers value transit time in the
range of $25 to $200 per hour, depending on the product being carried. The cost of
unexpected delay can add another 20 percent to 250 percent (FHWA, 2005).
Effects on Infrastructure Funding
All system efficiency strategies will result in varying demands on infrastructure funding
sources depending upon their costs. Regulatory strategies such as anti-idling, speed
limits, and truck size and weight restrictions are inexpensive to implement; enforcement is
the primary cost. Technology for traffic operations, management, and traveler
information has modest to moderate costs, while infrastructure construction generally
entails high capital costs (in the tens to hundreds of millions per project).
Improvements in highway and truck system efficiency will lead to proportionate
reductions in motor fuel sales, and therefore reduced revenue for transportation programs
under the current finance structure. The Federal Highway Trust Fund was established in
1957 as a dedicated, user-funded source of revenue for the United States highway system,
and is the source of revenue for the Federal-aid Highway Program. Net receipts in