Transportation, Land Use and Greenhouse Gases: A Bay Area Resource Guide DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

Forty percent of the Bay Area’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) — nearly 42 million metric tons a year — come from our cars, trucks, buses, trains, ships and planes. (See charts on page 5). While the Bay Area has begun a serious discussion on ways to reduce transportation GHGs (primarily CO2), we need better information to help us understand which strategies will yield the most cost-effective results. In addition, we must develop a clearer understanding of the important roles that each stakeholder — regional agencies, local governments, businesses, community groups and Bay Area residents — must play if we are to significantly reduce our transportation “carbon footprint.”

This is a work-in-progress. The goal of this guide is to spark discussion and generate new ideas in the Bay Area transportation community. To this end, we welcome and seek your input, additions, corrections and questions. With your participation, we hope that this guide will become a living document and community forum for the exchange of ideas on the best strategies for reducing GHGs from Bay Area transportation. Please send your input on this DRAFT to bruce@elmwoodconsulting.com by March 31, 2009.

This DRAFT guide was produced in February, 2009 for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The authors, Bruce Riordan and Chris Brittle, compiled the guide from numerous sources. Additional review and comment was provided by staff at the three other regional agencies — the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).