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Where we live, work, and play, and how we access daily services, all impact our greenhouse gas emissions. Road transportation accounts for 40% of Seattle’s greenhouse gas emissions. We need your help to choose the most important transportation and land use actions to take in the next three years.
Review the Transportation + Land Use recommendations below.
Share your comments on this portion of the report at the bottom of this page.
Vote for the top actions the City should take in the next three years related to Transportation + Land Use.
If you have specific questions, contact climateactionplan@seattle.gov
Tyler C. Folsom, PhD, PE says
This is a good plan for the 20th century. It may be irrelevant by 2050. Transportation in 37 years may be as different from today as today’s computers are different from those 37 years ago. Google expects its self-driving cars to be available in 5 years. Automation means that buses will be replaced by self-driving taxis, which can emit zero carbon. There will be little distinction between public and private transport. Follow the links on the enviroteach web site to some of my recent papers. The main effect of automation is making a motorcycle as safe as an SUV. If we concentrate on moving people in the city, instead of moving vehicles, much less carbon is used. At a minimum we can expect Cooperative Automatic Cruise Control, which can make modest contributions to reducing highway GHG.
Dick Burkhart says
Lots of good things in this plan, but its focus seems to be short term. For example we can expect fossil fuel prices to be so high by 2050 that our carbon intensive, car-oriented economy will be disappearing into the history books.
The global economy will be relocalizing, well paying jobs will be fewer, infrastructure will seem extremely expensive, car traffic will be sparse by today’s standards even with electric vehicles, car sharing will be the norm with demand for public transit very high and far more local walking and biking, demand for housing near employment sites will soar, some suburban areas will decay or be abandoned, some high end industries like airplanes will take a big hit, etc.
We need to dramatically expand investment in light rail now, such as a route around Lake Washington that would include Lake City, Northgate, Ballard, Downtown, and West Seattle.