01663350

Component

“Level of service” and the California Environmental Quality Act have had an uncomfortable, yet durable, marriage for nearly 50 years, persisting despite the fact that LOS measures driver comfort and convenience, not environmental impacts, and has contributed to California’s suburban sprawl. SB 743 and the Governor's Office of Planning and Research are on the verge of replacing LOS with a truer metric of transportation-related environmental impacts: “vehicle miles traveled.” But old habits die hard, and LOS and its impacts may not be so easily reversed. In this paper, the authors flesh out the history and impacts of using LOS in CEQA review, and find that LOS was imported into CEQA because it was familiar, and likely a means to a roadwork funding end. They also present a case study of how California’s proposed VMT analysis framework could affect environmental review of – and incentives for – land use development projects in the City of Los Angeles, using draft environmental impact reports from the past 11 years. The authors find evidence that the proposed VMT metric and screening thresholds would streamline some larger housing projects. But, at least in LA, streamlining for mixed-use residential projects that contain office components would likely be limited.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee A0020T Special Task Force on Climate Change and Energy. Alternate title: LOS Versus VMT in California’s Environmental Review: A Los Angeles Case Study

18-06562

English

11p

2018

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Maps; References; Tables

Case studies; Environmental impacts; Land use planning; Level of service; Urban sprawl; Vehicle miles of travel

Los Angeles (California)

Environment; Highways; Policy

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-06562

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 8 2018 11:42AM