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11.383J Transportation Policy and Environmental Limits

 

TRANSPORTATION POLICY AND ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS

 

Civil and Environment Engineering 1.253J

Urban Studies and Planning 11.383J

 

Fall 1998, Friday 2-5 PM

Room 1-277

 

Joseph F. Coughlin Fred Salvucci

Center for Transportation Studies, 1-235 Center for Transportation Studies, 1-230

Email: coughlin@mit.edu Phone: 3-4978 Email: jmalik@mit.edu Phone: 3-5378

Office Hours: 11-1 PM Friday & by appointment

Course Purpose

This course examines transportation policy making and its relationship to environmental politics. Students will develop an understanding of the transportation policy process, principal issues, institutions and stakeholders as they are related to balancing transport and environmental policy. The course theme focuses on the tension between traditional transportation policy values of individual mobility, system efficiency and economic growth with those of environmentalism and how policy decisions are made in this uncertain and politicized context.

Because of its enormous impact, the automobile's relationship to the environment will be the primary (although not the only) focus of the course. Readings, lectures, and active discussion around specific case studies will explore transport and environmental problems and examine the efficacy and political feasibility of available market, behavioral and technological alternatives, e.g., congestion pricing and taxation, car pooling and transit, ITS and new generation vehicles.

Course Requirements

Each class meeting will be divided into two parts ­ beginning with a lecture and concluding with a group discussion. Lectures will present information not covered in the readings. Class discussion, during the second half of the session, will integrate the two sets of materials.

Students are expected to attend all classes and meaningfully contribute to group discussions. Students are required to complete two policy papers and take a final exam.

Each paper will be 15 pages and count as 30 percent of the class grade. The papers will provide analysis and policy guidance to a senior transportation or environment official regarding a specific policy problem. The case will be provided in class. Papers must reflect an understanding and an integration of the readings, lectures and class discussions. Grades will be based on technical command of the material and concepts, their integration, analysis of the case, and the quality of written presentation and argument.

The final exam is 30 percent of the class grade. Attendance and the quality of class participation will be another 10 percent and will be taken into account in borderline cases. Students are expected to read the New York Times and the Boston Globe daily to keep informed on current transportation and environmental issues.

Course Materials

The following books are required and should be purchased at the MIT Coop Bookstore. The course will also require a class reader of Harvard University Kennedy School of Government (KSG) case studies and articles. The reader may be purchased at Gnomon Copy, 245 Massachusetts Avenue. Books and the reader are on reserve at the Barker and Rotch Libraries.

1. Douglas, Mary and Aaron Wildavsky. 1983. Risk and Culture. Berkeley: University of

California Press.

2. Gordon, Deborah. 1991. Steering a New Course: Transportation, Energy and the

Environment. Washington, DC: Island Press

3. Nivola, Pietro and Robert Crandall. 1995. The Extra Mile: Rethinking Energy Policy

for Automotive Transportation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

4. Rajan, Sudhir. 1996. The Enigma of Automobility. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh

Press.

5. Transportation Research Board Special Report #251. 1997. Toward a Sustainable

Future: Addressing the Long-Term Effects of Motor Vehicle Transportation on

Climate and Ecology. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

The following books are recommended and are on reserve at Barker and Rotch Libraries:

1. Gore, Al. 1993. Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. New York:

Plume Press.

2. The World Commission on Environment and Development. 1989. Our Common

Future. New York: Oxford University Press.

Assignments and Topics

Week 1. September 11: Introduction and Overview

No assignment

Week 2. September 18: The Role of Government in Managing a Sustainable Transportation System: The Tragedy of the Concrete Commons

Reading: Gordon, "American Transportation in the 20th Century," p. 5-18.

TRB Report, "Sustainability and Transportation," p. 15-36.

Douglas and Wildavsky, "Risks are Selected," p.29-49.

Hardin, G. December 1968. "The Tragedy of the Commons," in Science, p. 1243-1258 (reader).

Discussion: How are common or pooled resources, such as transport infrastructure and the environment, governed in a free market?

Week 3. September 25: Managed Conflict: Transportation and Environmental Politics

POLICY PROBLEM 1 Assigned

Reading: Weiner, E. 1992. "History of Urban Transportation Planning," p. 46-74. (reader)

Kraft, M and N. Vig, "Environmental Policy from 1970s to the 1990s," p. 1-30 in Kraft and Kraft. (reader)

Paehlke, R. 1997. "Environmental Values and Public Policy," p. 75-92. In Kraft and Vig. (reader)

Douglas and Wildavsky, "Scientists Disagree," p. 49-67.

Discussion: Is transport-environmental policy innovation possible or is progress a process of 'muddling through'?

Week 4. October 2: Noise, NIMBY and NOPE: Airport Expansion and its Alternatives

Reading: Fredenberg, N. and C. Steinsapir. 1992. " Not in Our Backyards: The Grassroots Environmental Movement," p. 27-37. (reader)

Feitelson, E., et. al., 1996. "The Impact of Airport Noise on Willingness to Pay for Residences," in Transportation Research D, Vol.1, p.1-14. (reader)

Discussion: KSG Case Study, Regulating Airport Noise (reader)

Week 5. October 9: The Cost of Environmental Quality: Litigation, Mitigation and Highway Construction

Reading: TRB, "Trends and Outlook in Motor Vehicle Transportation," p. 37-69; and, Carbon Dioxide Buildup and Motor Vehicle Transportation," p. 73-155.

Discussion: KSG Case Study: Boston's Central Artery Third Harbor Crossing Project (reader)

Week 6. October 16: Clean Air Politics: What to Regulate ­ Car or Driver?

Reading: Rajan, "Automobile Regulation and the Question of Justice," p. 33-64; "Individualism and the Risks of Automobility," p.65-90; and, "Regulating In-Use Motor Vehicle Pollution in California," p. 91-119.

Discussion: How does government determine who or what to target when implementing a policy solution ­ and, what difference does it make?

Week 7. October 23: Energy Policy: Legislating Standards and Mandating Technological Innovation

PAPER I DUE

POLICY PROBLEM II Assigned

Reading: Nivola, P. and R. Crandall, "The Policy Problem," p. 1- 21; "The CAFÉ Conundrum," p. 22-42

Gordon, "Ultra-Fuel-Efficient Vehicles," p. 115-126.

Douglas and Wildavsky, "Assessment is Biased," p. 67-82.

Discussion: KSG Case Study: Low Emission Vehicles: The Pursuit of a Regional Program. (reader)

Week 8. October 30: Taxing for Change:

Policy Alternative or Political Suicide

Reading: Nivola, P. and R. Crandall, "The Fuel Tax Option," p. 43-56; "What Other Countries Do," p. 57-83; and, "The American Experience," p. 84-124.

Gomez-Ibanez, J.A. July 1992. "The Political Economy of Highway Tolls and Congestion Pricing," in Transportation Quarterly, p. 343-360. (reader)

Discussion: Are tax instruments, such as congestion pricing, gas and parking taxes a feasible policy option to reduce carbon emissions and oil dependence?

Week 9. November 6: Public Participation and Competing Rationalities in Transport Planning, Policy and Design

Reading: Ehrenhalt, A. October 1997. "The Asphalt Rebellion: Communities Confront the Highway Building Machine," in Governing, p.20-26. (reader)

Hand-out to be provided in class.

Discussion: Guest discussants, Nancy Rutledge Connery and Michael Singer on integrating community and aesthetic values into transportation and infrastructure facility planning.

Week 10. November 13: Alternative Strategies: Land Use and Transit

Reading: Gordon, "Innovative Transportation Strategies,"p. 127- 140; 147 ­ 168.

Lowe, M. 1994. "Reinventing Transport," in State of the World, 1994, p. 81-98. (reader)

Gakenheimer, R., April 1993 "Land Use/Transportation Planning: New Possibilities for Developing and Developed Countries," in Transportation Quarterly, p. 311-322. (reader)

Discussion: KSG Case Study: Vancouver's Livable Region Plan (reader)

Week 11. November 20: Global Climate Change and Global Equity

Reading: Rosenbaum, W. 1998. "Climate Diplomacy: The Emerging Politics of Global Environmentalism" in Environmental Politics and Policy, Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, p.334-362. (reader)

Discussion: How do nations craft a global policy regime that balances transportation-related growth with the threat of climate change ­ while remaining responsive to the equity issues that separate developed and developing economies?

PAPER II DUE NOVEMBER 24 ­ 5 PM

Week 12. November 27: Thanksgiving Recess No Class

Week 13 December 4: Sustainable Transportation in the 21st Century

Reading: Nijkamp, P. 1994 No. 4. "Roads to Environmentally Sustainable Transport," in Transportation Research A, p. 261-271.

Schaefer, A. and D. Victor. October 1997. The Past and Future of Global Mobility," in Scientific American, p. 58-61.

Kypreos, S. A. Schaefer, and H. Jacoby, June 1998 Draft Working Paper, "Mobility in a CO2-Constrained World: Description of the Model System."

Discussion: What might the range of technically and politically viable mobility strategies include in a world with environmental limits?

 

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