Policy and Regulation System of Urban Transportation Sector on Climate Change and Air Quality issues in California and the US China Center for Energy and Transportation C-CET, Institute of Transportation Studies ITS, University of California, Davis February 2018 Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Federal Level Policies 3 2.1 Structure of Federal Transportation Agencies . 3 2.2 Federal Transportation Bils . 5 2.3 Federal Air Quality Policy . 8 2.4 Inteligent Transportation Systems for Transit 12 3 State Level Policies . 14 3.1 Introduction . 14 3.2 California – Major Environmental and Transportation Policies . 16 3.3 California’s Transportation and Environmental Agencies 18 3.4 cutive Orders 20 3.5 Legislative Bils . 21 3.6 California Transportation Plan 2040 CTP 2040 24 3.7 California State Rail Plan 2018 . 30 3.8 California Statewide Transit Strategic Plan CSTSP . 31 3.9 California Clean Air Act 41 3.10 Regional Transportation Plan Guidelines for MPOs . 43 3.11 SCAG RTP/SCS 2016 56 4 Local Level Policies 60 4.1 Introduction . 60 4.2 Los Angeles 50 years of air quality improvements 75 4.3 Portland Climate Action Champion . 89 5 Recomendations . 95 Deleted 44Deleted 57Deleted 61Deleted 61Deleted 76Deleted 90Deleted 961 1 Introduction There are increasing concerns around the globe about pollution and its impact on air quality and climate change. United States is curently the second largest contributor to worldwide Carbon dioxide emisions at 15. Transportation sector is one of the largest causes of air polution and emision in United States. It contributes 27 of the total Grenhouse gas emisions in 2015. Between 290 and 2015, GHG emisions in the transportation sector increased more in absolute terms than any other sector due in large part to increased demand for travel. Consequently, Federal government of the United States as wel as state governments have created legislation and standards for transportation sector to improve air quality and to combat climate change. For example, from vehicle side, in 2010 EPA and National Highway Trafic Safety Administration NHTSA establish a 35.5-mpg standard for new light-duty vehicles by 2016. The following year, EPA and NHTSA proposed aditional rules for a 54.5-mpg standard by 2025, and adopted aditional GHG and fuel economy standards for other types of vehicles. At State and Local government levels, twenty-thre states have adopted GHG reduction targets; 35 states have developed climate action plans. 500 mayors have signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agrement. Many state and local governments are implementing transportation strategies to reduce GHG, such as S.B. 375, California’s legislation on land use and transportation planning, etc. It is comonly agred that transportation air polution and GHG reduction can be achieved from five areas include Vehicles, Fuels, Vehicle Miles Traveled VMT, Operational Efficiency, and Construction, Maintenance, and Agency Operations. The previous eforts on combating air polution and GHG reduction were heavily focused on the first two areas. But growing atention has been shifted to VMT as growth in travel could present a chalenge to achieving environmental targets. If people travel more, especialy on private cars, higher VMT and higher GHG emissions are generated. VMT per capita are higher in the US than in Europe and Canada. Even if future per-capita VMT stays flat, total VMT in the US stil would grow at about 1 per Fig 1. Share of global CO2 emisions from fuel consumption 2015 Source Union of Concerned Scientists, 2015 Fig 2. Total U.S. GHG emisions by economic sector in 2015 Source EPA, 2018 2 year because of population growth, ofseting some of the technological improvements in vehicles and fuels. So, this report summarizes a number of legislations and plans on federal, state as wel as local level that aiming to improve the eficiency and quality of public transportation, with a focus on public transit, as wel as its interaction with biking/walking and integration with land use. The improvement of public transportation will help shift the travel from high emission private cars to cleaner transportation ways, thus reduce the emision from transportation sector. 3 2 Federal Level Policies 2.1 Structure of Federal Transportation Agencies Fig 3 Structure of Federal Transportation-related agencies in the United States 1. United States Environmental Protection Agency U.S. EPA The United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA or sometimes U.S. EPA is an agency of the federal government of the United States which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws pased by Congres. 2. Council on Environmental Quality CEQ The Council on Environmental Quality CEQ is a division of the cutive Office of the President that cordinates federal environmental efforts in the United States and works closely with agencies and other White House ofices on the development of environmental and energy policies and initiatives. 3. United States Department of Transportation USDOT The United States Department of Transportation USDOT or DOT is a federal Cabinet department of the U.S. government concerned with transportation. Its stated mision is to “serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, acesible and convenient transportation system that mets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future”. USDOT has 10 subdivisions caled administrations. Some of them are Federal Highway Administration FHWA The Federal Highway Administration FHWA is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in PresidentUS DOTUnited States Department of TransportationUS EPAEnvironmental Protection AgencyFRAFederal RailroadAdministrationFHWAFederal Highway AdministrationFTAFederal TransitAdministrationFAA, MARAD etcAmtrakNational Railroad Pasenger CorporationSTBSurface Transportation BoardCEQCouncil on Environmental Quality4 highway transportation. The agencys major activities are grouped into two “programs,“ the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program. Federal Railroad Administration FRA The purpose of FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail safety regulations, administer railroad asistance programs, conduct research and development in suport of improved railroad safety and national rail transportation policy, provide for the rehabilitation of Northeast Coridor rail pasenger service, and consolidate government suport of rail transportation activities. Federal Transit Administration FTA The Federal Transit Administration is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation U.S. DOT that provides financial and technical asistance to local public transportation systems. Public transportation includes buses, subways, light rail, comuter rail, monorail, pasenger fery boats, troleys, inclined railways, and people movers. The federal government, through the FTA, provides financial asistance to develop new transit systems and improve, maintain, and operate existing systems. The FTA overses grants to state and local transit providers, primarily through its ten regional ofices. These providers are responsible for managing their programs in acordance with federal requirements, and the FTA is responsible for ensuring that grantees folow federal mandates along with statutory and administrative requirements. 4. Surface Transportation Board STB The Surface Transportation Board STB of the United States is a federal, bipartisan, independent adjudicatory board. The STB has broad economic regulatory oversight of railroads, including rates, service, the construction, acquisition and abandonment of rail lines, carrier mergers and interchange of trafic among cariers. The STB also has oversight of pipeline carriers, intercity bus carriers, moving van companies, trucking companies involved in colective activities and water cariers engaged in non-contiguous domestic trade. 5. National Railroad Pasenger Corporation Amtrak The National Railroad Pasenger Corporation, doing busines as Amtrak, is a pasenger railroad service that provides medium- and long-distance intercity service in the contiguous United States and to thre Canadian cities. It receives a combination of state and federal subsidies but is managed as a for-profit organization. 5 2.2 Federal Transportation Bils 2.2.1 MAP-21 MAP-21, the Moving Ahead for Progres in the 21st Century Act was signed into law by President Obama on July 6, 2012. It was a short-term bil intended to be valid for 2 years. It attempted to trans the policy and programmatic framework for investments to guide the growth and evelopment of the country’s vital transportation infrastructure. MAP-21 created a streamlined, perance-based, and multimodal program to addres the many chalenges facing the U.S. transportation system. These chalenges include improving safety, maintaining infrastructure condition, reducing trafic congestion, improving efficiency of the system and freight movement, protecting the environment, and reducing delays in project delivery. The bil strived to re environmental review proces in an efort to sped up project development. More projects could be categoricaly excluded from review, and there would be a four-year review deadline enforced with financial penalties. Funding for bicycle and pedestrian transportation was reduced and consolidated into a broader program caled “Transportation Alternatives.“ Half of this funding would go to metropolitan planing organizations MPOs and the other half would go to states, which may chose to use the funds for other purposes. This change was heavily criticized by active transportation advocates as it could mean reduction in funding for active transportation modes. The bil also caled for a national freight policy to be developed. For perance-based uation of transportation projects, the bil proposed to focus on seven ational goal areas – safety, infrastructure condition, congestion, system reliability, freight movement and economic vitality, environmental sustainability, reduced project delays. Perance measures must be incorporated into long-range planing and short-term programing proceses. The bil directed United States Department of Transportation USDOT to establish measures in consultation with State DOTs, MPOs and other stakeholders. States, MPOs and transit operators were also instructed to set targets for each measure, incorporate in plans and programs and report progres. Long range plans, TIPs and STIPs must show the progres that is expected to be achieved by planned decisions and investments. USDOT would uate the apropriateness of state targets and the progress that the state is making in achieving perance targets. States and MPO plans would include perance reports that described the progres made toward achieving perance targets. 6 2.2.2 FAST Act On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation FAST Act into lawthe first federal law in over a decade to provide long-term funding certainty for surface transportation infrastructure planing and investment. The FAST Act authorized 305 bilion over fiscal years 2016 through 2020 for highways, highway and motor vehicle safety, public transportation, motor carier safety, hazardous materials safety, rail, and research, technology, and statistics programs. The FAST Act continued MAP-21 Act’s focus on safety, continued eforts to streamline project delivery and, for the first time, provided a dedicated source of federal funding for freight projects. The bil was funded without increasing user fees like gas tax. The bil atempted to facilitate commerce and the movement of goods by refocusing existing funding for a National Highway Freight Program and a Nationaly Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program. It also expanded funding available for bridges of the National Highway System. It converted the Surface Transportation Program STP to a block grant program, increasing flexibility for states and local governments, and roled the Transportation Alternatives Program into the STP Block Grant. This was sen by Active Transportation advocates as another major blow to development of active transportation modes. The bil also streamlined the environmental review and permiting proces to acelerate project approvals. It eliminated or consolidated at least six separate ofices within the Department of Transportation and established a National Surface Transportation and Inovative Finance Bureau to help states, local governments, and the private sector with project delivery. It Increased transparency by requiring the Department of Transportation to provide project-level ination to Congres and the public. The bil also atempted to promote the deployment of transportation technologies and congestion management tools and encourage instalation of vehicle-to-infrastructure equipment to improve congestion and safety. FAST Act strived for a multimodal transportation aproach to solving the transportation chalenges. Pursuant to this, the bil increased dedicated bus funding by 89 over the life of the bil and provided both stable ula funding and a competitive grant program to addres bus and bus facility needs. It reed public transportation procurement to make federal investment more cost efective and competitive. It also consolidated and refocused transit research activities to increase eficiency and acountability. Another important step was to establish a pilot program for comunities to expand transit through the use of public-private partnerships. The bil also provided flexibility for recipients to use federal funds to met their state of good repair neds and provided for the cordination of public transportation services with other federaly asisted transportation services to aid in the mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities. The bill also required a review of safety standards and protocols to uate the need to establish federal minimum safety standards in public transportation and required the results to be made public. 7 When it comes to rail transportation, FAST Act provided robust res for Amtrak, including reorganizing the way Amtrak operates into business lines. It gave states greater control over their routes, by creating a State-Suported Route Commite and consolidates rail grant programs for pasenger, freight, and other rail activities. It also atempted to speed up the environmental review process for rail projects and to create opportunities for the private sector through station and right-of-way development. The bil also established a Federal-State Partnership for State of God Repair grant program. It strengthened Northeast Coridor planning to make Amtrak more acc