Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Is Only the Beginning: A Literature Review of the Co-Benefits of Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled
- Abstract
While state goals for reducing GHG emissions have been one motivation for the shift to VMT measures, reductions in VMT produce many other potential benefits, referred to as “cobenefits,” such as reductions in other air pollutant emissions, water pollution, wildlife mortality, and traffic congestion, as well as improvements in safety and health, and savings in public and private costs. Such benefits may provide additional justification for reducing VMT. In this paper, we review the literature to explore the presence and magnitude of potential co-benefits of reducing VMT, providing California-specific examples where available.
- Resource Type
- Position paper/statement
- Authors
- Kevin Fang Jamey Volker
- Resource URL
- https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NCST-White-Paper-VMT-CoBenefits-White-Paper-LP_EB_LI.PDF.pdf
- Publication
- National Center on Sustainable Transportation
- Date
- March 2017
- Health and Human Impacts
- Mental health Overview/general
- Climate and Environmental Impacts
- Overview/general Water
- Emission Sources
- Conventional energy Transportation Energy Conventional
- Fossil Fuel
- Overview/general
- GHG
- Overview/general
- Solutions
- Active transportation Behavior change
- Other
- Co-benefits/co-harms