As part of a nice discussion we just had, Mike Barrett suggested I post a link to a presentation I did for the state global warming task force, transportation group. There is a common belief that technology is the answer to carbon emissions from transportation, and that's not completely wrong. It's just that even under the most optimistic scenarios, technology won't get us far enough, because vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) have grown so much and continue to rise. In other words, even if emissions per mile decline from emissions standards and lower-carbon fuels, we can't keep increasing miles driven and expect to make a dent. So there needs to be an effort to stabilize and reduce VMT.
Of course, reducing VMT also has directly beneficial effects on the biking and walking environment, though that's not the focus of these slides. The presentation is pretty self-explanatory, except for the fifth slide, which is unnecessarily confusing (sorry about that). The "change in VMT per capita" is the change required to meet carbon emissions goals assuming the technology improvements shown. Here's the link: http://dnr.wi.gov/environmentprotect/gtfgw/documents/MWGTRAN20070914.pdf Eric Sundquist
_______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
