![]() This is far from clean or efficient, with mounting impacts on stormwater, heat islands, greenspace consumption, and personal and government budgets, among other policy topics. Maintenance costs rise, and the new traffic may spur additional widening, with new infrastructure, maintenance and environmental costs, and more induced traffic. “Providing clean, efficient access to destinations.” Projects that induce VMT create new traffic and congestion – on the new facility itself, nearby roadways, or both.The traffic itself and the infrastructure needed to accommodate it can make other modes less viable, e.g., adding additional wait times and travel distances for pedestrians, including those using transit, or adding to the “level of traffic stress,” which discourages active travel. “Promoting the development of a multimodal transportation system,” and “Promotion of public health through active transportation.” Higher VMT makes it harder for people to travel by walking, biking, and transit.As with greenhouse gas, the more we drive, the more we emit other pollutants. Even ZEVs fueled with 100 percent clean energy continue to emit particulates from tire and brake wear. “Reducing … traffic-related air pollution.” Motor vehicles emit criteria pollutants as well as greenhouse gas.SB 743 uses this term for the broad category of issues: “the environmental impacts of traffic.”Īs noted, climate pollution is one such environmental impact, but the legislation’s findings and intent sections list many more: Even many decades from now, after vehicle conversion takes place, the climate pollution from roadway infrastructure will continue to make VMT a climate concern. Zero-emission vehicles accounted for just under 3 percent of light-duty vehicles in California at the end of 2021, and the truck fleet has barely begun to convert. Yet it will be decades before combustion engine vehicles, including those still being built and sold, are retired. State climate action also extends to the related issues of vehicles and fuels, with phaseouts of many combustion engine vehicles planned. However, as the 2022 scoping plan states, “We are not on track to achieve the VMT reduction called for in the 2017 Scoping Plan and will need to double down….” SB 743 reinforces the earlier plan-based approaches by addressing VMT from individual projects. VMT is a top target in the climate scoping plans prepared by the California Air Resource Board per AB 32 (2006) and in regional Sustainable Communities The rationale is straightforward: Transportation is by far the top-emitting sector for climate pollution in California, and the more traffic there is, the more emissions there are. The bill prominently cites “reduction of greenhouse gas emissions” as a goal, as do subsequent agency implementation materials. The motivation for all this work, and the ongoing efforts to apply the rules and guidelines, is closely linked to the state’s climate policy. Following OPR, Caltrans’ policy and implementation guidance to this effect, focusing on the State Highway System, was published in 2020. In shorthand, California moved from LOS to VMT in CEQA reviews. Instead of considering auto speeds, as measured by the level of service (LOS) on roadways, transportation impacts would henceforth be assessed based on the amount of additional traffic, or VMT, that projects would induce. Subsequent rulemaking and technical guidance from the Office of Planning and Research focused on a new methodology that accounts for vehicle miles traveled (VMT). New methodologies under the California Environmental Quality Act are needed for evaluating transportation impacts that are better able to promote the state’s goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and traffic-related air pollution, promoting the development of a multimodal transportation system, and providing clean, efficient access to destinations.” The bill stated that “Transportation analyses under the California Environmental Quality Act … typically study changes in automobile delay. In drafting SB 743, the legislature found that the old method for assessing transportation impacts, both for land use developments and transportation projects, was outdated and counterproductive, for example, in the way it burdened infill development. On this 10-year anniversary, it is worth stepping back from the detailed implementation work to recall the motivation for both the law and the ongoing work to implement it. Much progress has been made since the legislation was enacted, but much about SB 743 still seems new. SB 743, which changed the way California governments assess transportation impacts during environmental reviews, turns ten this year.
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