What is Sustainable Transportation?

Sustainable transportation is one component of the broader concept of sustainable development, which has commonly been defined as:

"Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs."

(World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)

Sustainable transportation systems are those which, for example, aim to reduce emissions, fossil fuel consumption, the consumption of agricultural land, park land and wildlife habitat. Most fundamentally, this means an emphasis on reducing the role of the private automobile as the prime mode of transportation and shifting travel toward other sustainable modes such as public transit cycling and walking. Transportation infrastructure has a strong impact on urban land use patterns, and congestion, both of which result in profound environmental impacts. Hence, advances in the transportation planning process and in the efficiency of transportation systems through technologies such as ITS are key components of the development of sustainable transportation infrastructure.

Research Activities

Much of the research activity in the Transportation Planning and Engineering Group at University of Toronto is related in some way to the sustainability of transportation systems. Some of the most relevant examples are as follows:

Sustainability of Urban Transportation
Professors Soberman and Miller have recently published a study of the Impacts of Full Cost Pricing on the Sustainability of Urban Transportation, which addressees Canada's Kyoto Commitments (Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 1999).

Urban Transportation Emissions and Energy Use
Professor Miller's work currently focuses on developing "integrated" models of urban land use and transportation (the ILUTE modelling system), with an emphasis on understanding the impacts of a broad range of policies on urban transportation emissions and energy use. (The applications of such models potentially include other aspects of urban infrastructure such as water and sewage, groundwater, residential and industrial energy use, etc.) The ILUTE research team includes a large number of civil engineers, geographers and economists located at Toronto, McMaster, Calgary and Laval.

Economics of Sustainable Infrastructure
Professor Kennedy’s research program aims to develop an economic framework for analyzing the planning and design of civil infrastructure, which is consistent with the principles of urban sustainability and global sustainable development. In forming a holistic view of the role of infrastructure in society, the work builds upon methods of life cycle analysis and ecological footprinting, and draws upon perspectives of urban economics, macroeconomics, urban planning and business. The research primarily focuses on city infrastructure.

It is hoped that the work might eventually contribute towards a means of designing and pricing civil infrastructure in a manner which lessens environmental problems such as urban sprawl, emission of greenhouse gases, air and water pollution. There is a need to look at the costs and benefits of a piece of infrastructure beyond the boundaries of its physical location and beyond the finances of the investing party. Once the infrastructure can be understood within the context of the workings of a whole city, this understanding has to be brought back into the civil engineering design.

Part of the research involves collection and analysis of historical data on the financing and impacts, both economic and environmental, of major Civil Engineering projects in Canadian cities, e.g. Highway 407 in Toronto.