Rocky Mountain Institute Proposal

Reducing Emissions through Land Use and Transportation Reform

Project Lead:

Ben Holland, Senior Associate

Executive Summary:
To sufficiently mitigate carbon emissions, we must change the way we design and rebuild our cities. In the U.S., we have spent the past 100 years reversing millennia of best practices in city design in favor of the personal vehicle. As a result, transportation emissions are on the rise, communities are disconnected from one another, and households struggle to access the most basic of needs like food, employment, and shelter.

According to the IPCC, we must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030. This equates to every energy sector reducing emissions by 50%. For the transportation sector, RMI estimates that, even under the most optimistic electric vehicle adoption scenarios (e.g. 50 Million EVs), the U.S. must reduce vehicle miles traveled by 30%. This project will serve as a key step in forming a new program dedicated to furthering a low carbon, “urbanist” strategy that transforms practices and policies within our intertwined land use and transportation system. This will require extensive work to identify critical interventions, policies, and research gaps related to land use and climate. It will also require analysis to quantify the potential impacts of transforming city design.

Project work will likely include the following:

• Interviewing organizations and individuals working in land use, transportation, and equity
• Assessing relevant federal, state, and local policies; identifying gaps and opportunities for achieving VMT reduction
• Using UrbanFootprint and other geospatial tools to model land use scenarios and quantify the impacts in 5-10 cities

Key words:
Transportation, urban resilience, city planning, emissions reduction, policy, land use

Links:
View full proposal
Watch partner video (coming soon)
Access networking event Zoom link