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Transportation Toolkit

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Avoid, Shift, Improve Framework

The avoid, shift, improve (ASI) framework enables development stakeholders to holistically design low-emission transport strategies by assessing opportunities to avoid the need for travel, shift to less carbon-intensive modes, and improve on conventional technologies, infrastructure, and policies.

Avoid Trips and Reduce Travel Demand

Avoid trips taken and reduce travel demand by integrating land use planning, transport infrastructure planning, and transport demand management policies. This integration of planning and policies can result in convenient access to jobs, goods, and services while decreasing road vehicle usage and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Specific strategies to consider in avoiding travel include:

• Mixed high-density spatial planning – Increasing residential density reduces sprawl and, in combination with conveniently accessible facilities and services, can reduce the need to travel
• Telecommuting – Cost-effective solution to reduce pressure on transport systems, eliminate time and stress involved with commuting on congested roadways, and increase access to professionals in remote locations

Shift to Lower-Emission Transport Modes

Changing how people travel and how freight is moved to more environmentally friendly modes of transport, such as non-motorized transport, mass transit, and car sharing, can reduce overall fuel use and emissions per capita.

• Non-Motorized Transport - Pedestrian transport is an efficient way to use road space and thus reduces vehicle congestion on roadways, supports the local economy, enhances access to jobs, education and services for the poor, improves health through exercise, and boosts social cohesion. Bicycle travel is historically a common form of transport in many countries. This prevalence is giving way to motorized transport as car ownership expands and more street space is allocated for motorized transport. Bicycle programs ensure allocation of street space for bicycles, safety enhancements, interconnection with other transport modes, and many of the benefits associated with increased pedestrian transport.
• Mass Transit - Bus transit systems are the most common form of mass transit, proving viable in urban and rural areas, and so play a fundamental role in meeting both basic transport demands and low emissions transport objectives by connecting with all forms of transit - motorized & non-motorized. Train or rail-based transit systems can be the most efficient form of passenger transport if population density is sufficiently high. Rail transport for freight can also be more time- and cost-efficient than road-based freight transit. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems share similar advantages to passenger train systems by employing high-occupancy buses for high density areas along dedicated routes and stations, however at a lower infrastructure and operational cost.
• Carpooling - Sharing rides in private vehicles for daily commuting and errands reduces per capita emissions. Strategies to incentivize ridesharing include: high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, road pricing, parking discounts, website forums and applications for smart phones.

Improve Technologies

Under the ASI framework, the conventional interpretation of transportation technology is broadened beyond traditional improvements to vehicles and fuels. Improvements made to technologies under this framework include the: vehicle level, system level, and institutional level.

• Vehicle Level - Low-emission vehicle technology improvements cover conventional petroleum-based systems (such as hybrid-electric and dual-fuel vehicles); non-petroleum fuel vehicles (such as natural gas, hydrogen fuel cell, and battery electric vehicles); and vehicle component improvements (such as start-stop devices, idle reduction devices, and regenerative braking systems). Low-emission fuel technology improvements include low-sulfur conventional petroleum fuels; alternative fuels (such as ethanol, biodiesel, natural gas, and propane; hydrogen fuel-cell systems; and electric rechargeable battery systems.
• System Level - Low-emission infrastructure technology improvements include reserving or reclaiming space for non-motorized transport modes (such as pedestrian and bicycle routes, bicycle sharing, etc.) and mass transit modes (such as BRT, bus, train, ferry, etc.), as well as park and ride networks, vehicle parking distribution, car sharing networks, and real-time parking/traffic information systems. Low-emission urban planning improvement examples include zoning for mixed-use and denser development along multimodal transport routes, and transit-oriented development.
• Institutional Level - Low-emission improvements to policies include integrating land-use planning and zoning with transport planning and development; economic and fiscal instruments (such as fuel/private vehicle taxation, congestion pricing, parking tariffs, low-emission vehicle tax incentives, alternative fuel production subsidies, etc.); and public awareness campaigns. Low-emission technology improvements using tools and software cover development scenario modeling (e.g. Land Use-Transport Integration - LUTI - models), mobile device applications (mass transit, road, and parking system real-time status tools, and car sharing tools), and website forums to organize and publicize non-motorized transport commuter options and events.

Avoid
Cut the need for travel

Shift
Change to low-carbon modes

Improve
Enhance infrastructure & policies

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