During the summer of 2017, I was part of a Sustainable Community Systems: Netherlands program. The program focused on the principles, practice, and policy for sustainable planning and design of land use and transportation systems, with Canadian and international perspectives.
Within the first week of being exposed to the country, it became clear that Dutch urban infrastructure holds an abundance of sustainability design features. The video below outlines the country’s outstanding achievements in the following categories and how it compares to Vancouver and other places.
Sustainability is the biggest driver behind transportation planning policies in Metro Vancouver. Some of the guiding documents include: Transportation 2040, Greenest City 2020 Action Plan, Metro Vancouver 2040, and TransLink’s 10 Year Vision. What goals and methodologies do these documents lay out, and how do they really play out in Vancouver’s transportation engineering?
The primary goal of Vancouver’s sustainable transportation policies is to reduce carbon emissions to meet Greenest City 2020’s target of reducing community-based greenhouse gas emissions by 33% from 2007 levels by 2020. Currently, vehicles account for over 30% of greenhouse gas emissions in Vancouver. Transportation-specific targets to meet this goal are to increase the number of trips within the Lower Mainland by active transportation (bike, foot, or transit) to 50% by 2020 and 66% by 2050, and to reduce the average distance driver per resident by 20% from 2007 levels. On top of these, the Complete Streets Policy Framework creates guidelines for designing streets that integrate planning for all modes of travel as well as land use, urban design, green infrastructure, and public space. The Complete Streets Principles are shown below in Figure 1.
Figure 1 – Complete Streets Principles. (City of Vancouver, 2017).
In order to meet these goals, the City of Vancouver has primarily looked at promoting active transportation via improving greenways, bikeways, and transit. Some examples of projects currently being undertaken within the scope of the Transportation 2040 Plan include: the Arbutus Greenway, the 10th Avenue Corridor bikeway, the Commercial Drive Compete Street, and the Georgia Gateway West Complete Street.
The result? Although the overall carbon emissions goal is currently projected to fall short of the 2020 target, the transportation targets have met expectations. As of 2016, both of the Greenest City 2020 transportation targets have been met; 50% of trips are currently being taken by active transportation means, and the average distance driven per resident has been reduced by 32% from 2007 levels.
So what’s missing here? The narrow focus of Vancouver’s sustainability policies on reducing greenhouse gas emissions creates a glaring gap in other elements of sustainability, such as road ecology and green infrastructure. This is somewhat mitigated by Vancouver’s Complete Streets initiative, which includes elements of green infrastructure in street level design, but still lacks transparent guidelines and goals for creating green roads. Furthermore, there has been a lack of research on the specific effects of urban road networks on Vancouver’s ecology. Moving forward, it would be great to see Vancouver’s sustainable transportation goals be expanded to include more than just climate change mitigation strategies.
References
City of Vancouver. (2017). Complete Streets Policy Framework.
City of Vancouver. (2012). Transportation 2040.
City of Vancouver. (2017). Greenest City Action Plan. Retrieved from City of Vancouver: http://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver/greenest-city-action-plan.aspx
Government of Canada. (2017, November 3). The Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. Retrieved from Canada.ca: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/pan-canadian-framework.html
Metro Vancouver. (2017). Retrieved from Metro 2040: http://www.metrovancouver.org/metro2040
Province of British Columbia. (2017). Climate Action. Retrieved from Province of British Columbia: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/transportation-environment/climate-action
TransLink. (2017). 10-Year Vision for Metro Vancouver Transportation. Retrieved from TransLink: https://10yearvision.translink.ca/
Sustainable transportation allows people to travel while maintaining human and ecosystem health, is equitable between people through affordability and efficiency, offers flexibility and choices, and limits emissions and waste. Sustainable transportation of people and goods is an important environmental, economic, and health driver in Canada. Between 1991 and 2001, Canada saw an 11% increase in gas consumption, increased economic losses due to congestion, and an increase in obesity. These problems are addressed by the sustainable objectives of municipal and provincial governments. However, translating high level goals of reducing dependence on single occupancy vehicles into concrete plans to build and retrofit roads has proved to be difficult. The Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) recognizes this and has developed 12 guiding principles for sustainable transportation planning. These principles can help guide engineers and planners in making sustainable transportation decisions. For this post, I will focus on three of the 12 principles and provide examples of the principles in action.
Principle 2 Protect environmental health
Protecting environmental health is important to ecosystem and human health – if highways were built without regard for the environment, the surrounding ecosystems could be majorly impacted. In addition, not considering the impact of changing existing roads can change levels of congestion elsewhere, increasing emissions. Some goals for Principle 2 include:
Using environmental criteria (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions)
Use strategies that limit air pollution (e.g. anti-idling campaigns, reducing congestion)
Use strategies that limit the impact to water quality and the existing flora and fauna.
An example of a project that took protecting environmental health very seriously is the Banff Wildlife Crossings project, which used wildlife overpasses and underpasses to reduce the fragmentation that the Trans-Canada highway had caused.
Figure 1: Trans Canada Highway Wildlife Overpass in Banff National Park
Principle 5 Take a strategic approach
Using a high level strategic approach is important to sustainable transportation – without a vision and direction for what the municipality/province/country is trying to achieve, goals cannot be set. In addition, long-term strategic planning can result in projects being more affordable and improving transportation choices before demand overwhelms a system. Some goals for Principle 5 include:
Set vision and goals that are linked to sustainable transportation
Consider future land use and its impact to transportation (i.e. will high density zoning occur?)
Use quantifiable targets and objectives
An example of a municipality that is working towards more sustainable transportation is the City of Vancouver, who adopted their Transportation 2040 Plan in October 2012. While the plan may have some shortcomings, it overall addresses the need for Vancouver to have a strategic transportation plan.
Figure 2: City of Vancouver Proposed Rapid Transit Lines
Principle 8 Manage transportation supply
The transportation system for a metropolitan area is complex, interconnected, and sensitive to internal and external changes. Managing the transportation network real-time and log-term requires a flexible inventory of supply in order to meet demand. Some goals for Principle 8 include:
Maximize the capacity of multimodal transportation methods (e.g. HOV/bus lanes)
Maintain a level of service to minimize congestion and idling
Use strategies that recognize recurrent and occasional congestion and what can be done to manage both
Figure 3: In a mobility pricing scenario, users who drive more pay more, encouraging people to carpool or use alternative transportation methods
With these three principles, combined with others, engineers and planners can make our transportation systems more sustainable. A sustainable transportation network is one that is equitable, minimizes impact to human and ecosystem health, offers flexible modes of transportation, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
The traditional design of streets is created of an impervious surface can make large amount of runoff when it rains. As the water runs along the surface it can pick up pollutants that then enter the water system. The water system can either be two separate systems: one for stormwater and the other for sanitary water or it can be a combination of the two. Either way some of these systems can’t handle the large peaks of runoff which a rain storm can produce. These volumes cause overflowing of basins and catchments which can leads to high volumes being released into the environment which can be very harmful. One of the ways to manage these high volumes and contaminant release is implementing green streets. Green Streets are a good example of how sustainable site planning can be implemented to create many benefits to a system that is already in place but can at some times be harmful to the environment. There are many sustainable benefits to Green Street which can be seen in the following list:
Improving water quality, air quality, temperature, aesthetics and safety
Reduce the peak flows that impact the underground storm water infrastructure
Smaller and fewer pipes and less maintenance
Help prevent flooding
Improving, restoring and protecting water as a resource
Promote alternative surfaces
Promote renewable energy for street lights
Reducing heat that radiates from the hard surfaces
Promotes more appealing pedestrian use by being more walk-able, safe and attractive
Sense of place, higher livability
The following are some examples of what the infrastructure that might be included in a Green Street:
Porous pavement
Porous pavement could be made of pervious concrete, porous asphalt or permeable interlocking pavers. Implementing porous pavement infiltrate, treat and store runoff. It can be cost effective where land values are high and flooding and icing is a problem.
Adding more vegetation will result in more of the rainwater being absorbed into the soil rather than being put in the stormwater system. Absorbing the water filters contaminants out of the water stops the contaminants from being released into the environment as well as reduce the peak flow volumes.
Planter boxes are garden with vertical walls and either have open or closed bottoms. These can collect and absorb runoff from sidewalks, parking lots and streets. They are ideal for space-limited sites in dense areas.
Biowales are vegetated, mulched or xeriscaped channels that provide treatment and retention as they move stormwater from one place to another. The vegetated swales slow, infiltrate and filter the flow of stormwater. This system is well suited along the sides of streets and parking lots.
Implementing LED lights into the street lights will reduce the energy used to light the streets while also, providing a brighter environment at night. This can be an example of how implementing green streets can promote the use of renewable energy.
An Example of Implementations:
Philadelphia has multiple projects that were implement all over the city. One of them is the Queen Lane Water Treatment Project. They implemented vegetated curb extension that protrude into the street creating a new curb. This curb is made of a layer stone topped with soil and plants. The curb design allows the runoff to flowing into the vegetation area so the plants can store and filter the runoff. Excess runoff can flow into the existing inlet which leads to the treatment plant. As well there is a downspout planter which allows the runoff from roof gutters to flow through the plants, which has the similar benefits as the curb design discussed above.
The overarching goal of the Sonoma Mountain Village development is to provide a place for work and play within the community, while simultaneously promoting as much re-use as possible. Concepts such as, walking as the main mode of transportation, renewable energy, innovative use of building material, and natural heating/cooling systems will be explored.
Walking as the main mode of Transportation
The Sonoma Mountain Village development is designed in such a way where reliance on vehicles and busses are reduced or eliminated altogether. By building a core of places to shop and work within the centre of the development, the marketplace and theatre are more accessible than before. This approach can reduce the carbon footprint by approximately 90%.
Renewable Energy Source
Solar panels are used extensively at the Sonoma Mountain Village development. To provide a sense of scale, currently Sonoma Mountain Village provides 3 Megawatt (MW) of power, which is enough to sufficiently power approximately 1000 homes. Subsequently, the solar power extracted can be utilized to provide heating and cooling via a geo-exchange system. The natural temperature within the ground stays consistent around the year; heating is provided when the temperature of the home is cooler than the sub surface, and cooling is provided when the temperature of the home is warmer than the sub surface. The heating/cooling is then pumped into the building powered by solar energy; as a result, no burning of fossil fuels is required and thus further lowering carbon emissions.
Innovative Use of Building Material
Prior to construction at the Sonoma Mountain Village development, the main building material was required to be renewable, and had to have high constructability. Metal from cars could be recycled and remodeled into modular panels, and eventually the building that was created from these panels could be remolded for future use on another project. It takes approximately 8 recycled vehicles to build a single-detached family home.
Modular panels are also easier to transport, and because they are pre-fabricated in the factory, the actual construction process will be easier on site. Not only will construction be faster, but sediment and debris control on construction sites will be greatly reduced, which will reduce downstream contamination due to stormwater runoff.
By utilizing large existing buildings – such as the existing technology campus – the Sonoma Mountain Village already begins the project with sustainability in mind prior to construction. This will reduce a significant amount of waste from demolition, transportation of un-useable, and transportation of new material.
Taking an Ecosystem approach to examining the Cascadia Corridor between Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA
Source: Madrona Venture Group
Background: On Sept 20th 2016 the CBC reported on Madrona Venture Group’s suggestion that the I-5/Highway 99 link between Seattle and Vancouver ought to become a corridor for autonomous vehicles. The report, which can be found here, argues that dedicating space for self-driving cars and trucks on the busy highway would reduce congestion, offer a safer, more flexible travel experience, and cost far less than proposed high-speed rail.
On the same day, the Emerging Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference took place in Vancouver where Bill Gates and Satya Nadelaare of Microsoft attended alongside Washington Governor Jay Inslee and BC Premier Christy Clark. The purpose of the conference was to share ideas for creating a “hub of innovation” in the area. Human capital was a major point of discussion. Topics included cross border collaboration, Canada’s approach to immigration and refugees, and Microsoft’s special exemption from having to complete labour market assessments – making it much easier to hire internationally out of their Vancouver office.
Source: Jonathan Hayward, The Canadian Press
Learning Objectives:
Understand the arguments raised by the Madrona Venture Group in favour of an autonomous vehicle corridor. Be able to critique these with counter arguments, or raise concerns that have not yet been addressed in their initial report.
Consider the implications of a cross-border ecosystem and be able to discuss the affects that an international boundary might have on both the proposed system for self-driving cars and the existing but ever changing labour market system.
Establish a framework for discussing the Cascadia Corridor, inclusive of Seattle and Vancouver, as a very large ecosystem in the context of this course and sustainable engineering practice.
References:
Alberg, T., Mundie, C., Li, D., & Rakies, C (2016). Autonomous Vehicle Plan for the I-5 Seattle/Vancouver B.C. Corridor. Retrieved from Madrona Venture Group website: http://www.madrona.com/i-5/
CBC News. (2016, September 20). Driverless highway from Vancouver to Seattle proposed. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/
Omand, G. (2016, September 20). Bill Gates says Trudeau’s approach to immigration , refugees good for business. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/
The Canadian Press. (2016, September 20). Bill Gates in Vancouver for Emerging Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/
Figure 1: Trans Canada Highway Wildlife Overpass in Banff National Park
