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November 9, 2009 Section 4: Transportation and Land Use 4. Transportation and Land Use Land-use planning and transportation planning are now being more commonly integrated due to arising concern about how land use decisions affect transportation systems and provide people with access to jobs, goods, services, and other means to improve quality of life. Together these concepts take on the values of Smart Growth, a community planning concept that encourages dense development, promotes walkable neighborhoods, preserves open space and provides a variety of transportation choices. Dense developments tend to have lower transportation related emissions because public transportation, walking and bicycling are favorable options compared to personal automobiles. To achieve deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, land use and transportation in the coming decades must be very different than today. In California, increasing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) has been influenced by the following factors: • Lack of affordability in urban core housing causes people to live far away from where they work • Lack of viable public transportation options • Low cost of gasoline • Sprawl development patterns that do not emphasize density, mixed-use zoning, or transit oriented development (TOD). • Streetscapes that do not promote pedestrian or bicycle access. In order to reduce greenhouse emissions related to community development, the State of California signed Senate Bill 375 in 2008. The bill will enable a shift from "Suburban Sprawl," which is a type of development that spreads into neighboring rural areas where property is usually cheaper and population density is low. These types of neighborhoods rely heavily on personal automobiles and Source: pollutionissues.com usually do not have reliable alternative methods of transportation such as public transit. In California, passenger vehicles are the single-largest source of GHG emissions (approximately 27 percent)'S and many of them can be attributed to commuters who drive from suburban areas into cities. The senate bill seeks to provide 15 California Energy Commission. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (1990 - 2004). http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/inventory/index. html ~ ,~ 5ttN ~F~~ Page 25 *~~'f