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From page 125... ... 125 A significant body of practical knowledge and opinion has developed in the last few years on sustainability performance measures as well as assessment/rating systems. These measures and rating systems address one or more of the three sustainability bottom lines described throughout this report. Read the entire page →
From page 126... ... 126 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies regular use, and the data sources for these systems were difficult to identify. However by 2012, more than a dozen sustainability rating and performance measurement systems existed and were being used by various state, local, and regional transportation agencies. Read the entire page →
From page 127... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 127 methodology to implement a more sustainable transportation system. One of the tasks included reviewing sustainable transportation studies and initiatives in North America and Europe. Read the entire page →
From page 128... ... 128 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies Criteria Description System Planning Integrated Planning: Economic Development and Land Use Integrate statewide and metropolitan long-range transportation plans (LRTPs) with statewide, regional, and/or local land use plans and economic development forecasts and goals. Read the entire page →
From page 129... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 129 Criteria Description Tracking Environmental Commitments Ensure that environmental commitments made by the project are completed and documented in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations, and issued permits. Habitat Restoration Avoid, minimize, and compensate the loss and alteration of natural (stream and terrestrial) Read the entire page →
From page 130... ... 130 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies Criteria Description Construction Waste Management Utilize a management plan for road construction waste materials to minimize the amount of construction-related waste destined for landfill. Operation and Maintenance Internal Sustainability Plan Focus on sustainability improvements within the agency's internal operations that affect all three principles of the TBL. Read the entire page →
From page 131... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 131 settings and performance requirements, so that third-party rating may lack utility or credibility with project delivery practitioners. Self-scoring systems are useful for more detailed and tailored assessments under location-specific conditions, agency operating structures, and performance requirements. Read the entire page →
From page 132... ... 132 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies preservation of society's assets, wherein present actions should not significantly diminish the quality of life or welfare of future generations. In general, this is a difficult concept for rating systems to capture, because the concept may involve comparing proposed actions or investments with no-action alternatives and possibly other alternatives. Read the entire page →
From page 133... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 133 outside of traditional mobility, safety, cost/benefit, and environment; and more comprehensive consideration of long-term generational equity effects. Needs for further development of rating systems include the four major areas listed in Table 39. Read the entire page →
From page 134... ... 134 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies transportation investments to performance outcomes. Models exist in transportation to reasonably predict project effects on operational performance outcomes like improved travel times, throughput capacities, accident rate improvements, etc. Read the entire page →
From page 135... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 135 the potential futures for the investment. The firm then estimates the different costs that will be associated with each scenario. Read the entire page →
From page 136... ... 136 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies 8.2.4 Estimating Intergenerational Cost, Benefits, and TBL Value "TBL sustainability" addresses concern for long-term or intergenerational costs and benefits. In formal welfare economics, benefits are measured as consumption or, in more sophisticated analyses, as Hicksian income. Read the entire page →
From page 137... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 137 investments. As a result, this rate changes to reflect current economic circumstances and beliefs about the future. Read the entire page →
From page 138... ... 138 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies highway development will have an intrinsic or process value to an ecologist, while it might have an instrumental value to an economist equivalent to the degree that it helps some contribution to human welfare (e.g., water quality improvement, fish and wildlife availability, flood control) Read the entire page →
From page 139... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 139 requires a careful valuation of these impacts, which, as noted previously, can be controversial. However, systems such as HDR's SROI methodology does attempt to do this. Read the entire page →
From page 140... ... 140 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies platform (ASP) to link macroeconomic changes, regional economics and land use, transport, and the environment. Read the entire page →
From page 141... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 141 impacts normally considered) Read the entire page →
From page 142... ... 142 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies Table 42. Development needs -- ROI models. Read the entire page →
From page 143... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 143 than $25 million. The requirement was annulled under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) Read the entire page →
From page 144... ... 144 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies optimizing an entire system as a whole and considering all resulting costs and benefits that could make the entire system less efficient and optimal (and more expensive) Read the entire page →
From page 145... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 145 While LCA is an appealing technique, it has a number of problems in application to TBL assessment: • First, it is extremely expensive to conduct. Identifying and describing the impacts of different supply changes can be extremely costly. Read the entire page →
From page 146... ... 146 Sustainability as an Organizing Principle for Transportation Agencies the other requires that a small, disadvantaged group experiences all the cost. This would not be considered in an LCA analysis. Read the entire page →
From page 147... ... Sustainability Tools and Methods: Key Directions for Development 147 (2012) Read the entire page →

From page 125...

... 125 A significant body of practical knowledge and opinion has developed in the last few years on sustainability performance measures as well as assessment/rating systems. These measures and rating systems address one or more of the three sustainability bottom lines described throughout this report.