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<br />December 21, 2009 Section 4: Transportation and Land Use <br />4. Transportation and Land Use <br />Land-use planning and transportation planning are now being more commonly integrated due to <br />a rising concern about how land use decisions affect transportation systems and provide people <br />with access to jobs, goods, services, and other means to improve quality of life. Together these <br />concepts take on the values of Smart Growth, a community planning concept that encourages <br />dense development, promotes walkable neighborhoods, preserves open space and provides a <br />variety of transportation choices. Dense developments tend to have lower transportation related <br />emissions because public transportation, walking and bicycling are favorable options compared <br />to personal automobiles. <br />To achieve deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, land use and transportation in the <br />coming decades must be very different than today. In California, increasing vehicle miles <br />traveled (VMT) has been influenced by the following factors: <br />? <br /> Lack of affordability in urban core housing causes <br />people to live far away from where they work <br />? <br /> Lack of viable public transportation options <br />? <br /> Low cost of gasoline <br />? <br /> Sprawl development patterns that do not emphasize <br />density, mixed-use zoning, or transit oriented <br />development (TOD). <br />? <br /> Streetscapes that do not promote pedestrian or <br />bicycle access. <br />In order to reduce greenhouse emissions related to <br />community development, the State of California signed <br />Senate Bill 375 in 2008. The bill will enable a shift from <br />“Suburban Sprawl,” which is a type of development that <br />spreads into neighboring rural areas where property is <br />usually cheaper and population density is low. These types <br />of neighborhoods rely heavily on personal automobiles and <br />Source: pollutionissues.com <br />usually do not have reliable alternative methods of <br />transportation such as public transit. In California, passenger vehicles are the single-largest <br />16 <br />source of GHG emissions (approximately 27 percent) and many of them can be attributed to <br />commuters who drive from suburban areas into cities. The senate bill seeks to provide <br /> <br /> <br />16 <br /> California Energy Commission. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (1990 – 2004). <br />http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/inventory/index.html <br /> <br /> <br />Page 27 <br /> <br /> <br />