01122773

Component

With the pressure of rising energy prices comes an increased interest in sustainability and sustainable planning. Due to its numerous environmental, social and economic impacts, transportation has gained attention as a logical starting point for achieving sustainability. A comprehensive definition of sustainability is multidimensional and takes into account a variety of issues including environmental conservation, social equity and economic profitability. Because “what gets measured gets done” it is important for a community to track their progress towards or away from sustainability. This is done through the use of indicators of sustainable transportation. The work that focuses specifically on transportation and sustainability is relatively new and is still evolving. As such, there is no established set of indicators for assessing transportation for sustainability goals, nor are there guidelines for developing such indicators. Our research examines the various conceptualizations of sustainability, which we used to guide the development of a comprehensive definition of sustainable transportation. We then reviewed the different styles of existing transportation indicator frameworks and built on this work to propose a framework for developing sustainable transportation indices.

01120148

09-2829

English

15p

2009

Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (2) ; References (18)

Assessments; Economics; Environmental protection; Equity; Planning; Profitability; Sustainable development

Quantification; Transportation infrastructure

Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General); I15: Environment; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2009 Paper #09-2829

TRIS, TRB

Jan 30 2009 7:11PM