Transportation in urban environments: common issues

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5289837

LaBelle, S J

The magnitude of transport's impact on the urban environment is in direct proportion to its importance in promoting vigorous urban areas. In spite of the substantial advances since the mid-1970's in decreasing the most noxious aspects of auto travel in cities, substantial problems remain in controlling both air pollutant and noise emissions from all the urban travel modes, and in limiting traffic-related fatalities. Governmental efforts to solve environmental impact problems have taken the same form in many developed nations, aimed at the same goal. That goal has been to bring the externalities of transportation into the system, so that the undesirable side-effects are addressed early and directly. However, regulatory processes to limit environmental impacts require continual modification in response to new data on both the nature of the impacts and the technology and usage patterns of urban travel. Cities in developing nations call upon the various urban transport modes in different proportions than do those in developed nations, but all cities face growth in personal motor vehicle traffic and truck traffic in the next decade. The growth in motorized traffic will begin to counter the effect of technological advances in vehicular emission control devices, requiring, perhaps, new strategies to maintain the environmental gains already achieved. The growing international agreement on the importance of environmental benefits underscores the need to move toward standardization of emission control technology for vehicles, and for continued information exchange on improvements in transport system management and pricing to promote environmental quality. Technology and management techniques for safety improvements can also be a part of the common issues for developed and developing cities.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA). Center for Transportation Research
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 5289837
• Report Number(s): CONF-8605178-1; ON: DE86014592
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CONTROL
MANAGEMENT
TRAFFIC CONTROL
TRANSPORTATION SECTOR
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
URBAN AREAS