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BSC2009 – Boulder Transportation – Will Toor

Mike Thomas Conference, Energy, Sustainability

Electrical energy counter with double index to...

  • Traditional road-building focus until 1990

  • Fiscal, political and physical reality intervened

  • Goal – Hold Traffic to 1994 levels, reduce SOV mode share to 25%

  • Why not just build more roads?

  • If Boulder pursued a road capacity building project:

    • $200 million on road capacity projects

    • improve system congestion from 60% in 20 years to 51% congested

    • would require removing existing buildings in many cases

    • evidence shows that the benefits are offset by changed behaviors.

  • Vehicle Technology

    • greatest short term potential in higher fuel economy – lower emission vehicle

    • biofuels not a definite benefit

    • plug in hybrids (PHEV) beneficial if on a clean energy grid

    • technology alone will not be enough

      • Land use transportation connection with compact development

      • shifting investments from conventional to transit and bicycle transportation.

  • Smart Grid City

    • Monitoring and remote information of all uses of energy in the grid

    • Renewable energy

    • programmable in-home systems to fully automate renewable energy use. (XCEL Energy)

    • PHEV capacity in a pilot project with Vehicle to Grid battery storage (V2G)

    • Beginning to see homeowners oversizing solar system anticipating PHEV availability.

  • Compact Land Use

    • Urban growth boundary surrounded by publicly owned open space.

  • Travel Choices

    • Transit Services

      • Designed to meet the needs of the customer

      • high frequency

      • supported by pass programs – lots of options.

      • extended hours of service

      • community characters

      • real time arrival information

      • focus on ridership, not coverage.

    • Create Demand for Transit

    • Bike System

    • Pedestrian System

    • Marketing and information

    • Land Use/Urban Design

    • Parking Pricing

    • Partnership with University of Colorado

    • But with very limited funds.

    • Resarch shows that VMT reductions nationwide could be as much as 30% by 2050 – without any other inputs for change.

Mike Thomas

Mike Thomas P.Eng. ENV SP, is the author of UrbanWorkbench.com and Director of Engineering at the City of Revelstoke in the Interior of British Columbia, Canada. If I post something here that you find helpful as you navigate the world of engineering, planning and building communities, that’s wonderful. But when push comes to shove: This is my personal blog. The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer.