Sustainable Transportation可持续交通.doc

Sustainable Transportation One of a number of discussion papers produced by the IPENZ Presidential Task Committee on Sustainability during 2003 and 2004. Andrew Macbeth, MWH New Zealand Ltd. andrew.g.macbeth@ 11 March 2004 Summary Sustainable transportation is an appropriate goal for New Zealand and its engineering community. Sustainability means meeting today’s needs without compromising the needs of future generations. This will have implications for the way we travel and the shape of our communities in New Zealand. An increased focus on managing demand for motor vehicle transportation will be necessary, as opposed to traditional approaches to predict future trip demand based on historical growth trends and to then attempt to provide road capacity. Currently, transportation generates about 40% of our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, or 15% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Transportation emissions are also the fastest growing source of GHG emissions in New Zealand. A number of recent policy initiatives confirm that it is the government’s intention that we as a nation become more sustainable in transportation. These initiatives include the New Zealand Transport Strategy (2002), the Land Transport Management Act (2003) and the signing of the Kyoto Protocol (2002). Most western countries and their engineering communities have begun developing sustainable transportation policies and initiatives, including in particular Australia, many in western Europe and Canada. There a number of ways in which engineers and the engineering community can move New Zealand towards sustainability in transportation. A checklist is included at the end of this paper as an aid for transportation practitioners and engineers in general towards achieving this goal. This paper is a working draft and comments for improvements are welcomed. Definitions of Sustainable Transportation Sustainable development has been defined by the Brundtland Commission as “Development that meets