PART 7C: OTHER
ELEMENTS
AIR QUALITY, CLIMATE CHANGE,
ENVIRONMENTAL MITIGATION,
FEDERAL ElEMENTS
RELATING
AIR QUALITY
TO TRANSPORTATION PLANNING
The
drafters of the original federal Clean Air Act believed its
passage would result in healthful air.
However, we have since learned that cleaning the air is more
complex and difficult than expected. As a result, Congress
passed the Clean
Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990.
According
to the standards established by the passage of the CAAA, the
over 212,000 residents living within the Housatonic Valley
Region suffer with dirty air.
And
since air pollution from automobiles is identified as a leading
cause for the Region's failure to meet healthful air quality
standards, state and regional transportation planning is formally
linked to air quality improvement.

Proper transportation planning
assists with improving air quality.
But which
proposed projects will pollute? To answer this question HVCEO
relies upon the Connecticut Department of Transportation's
annual "Air Quality Conformity Report" which determines
if the major projects listed in the "Build" scenario
for this Region conform with applicable Clean Air Act criteria.
But not
all proposed projects are evaluated for air quality impacts.
Smaller projects in this Region's Transportation Improvement Program have been
judged by Conn DOT to have (within the definitions of Appendix
A of the Interim Conformity Guidance) negligible impact on
trip distribution and highway capacity.
Technical
evidence as to the conformance of proposed federally funded
transportation improvements in this Region is reviewed at
least annually.
Based upon the technical evidence, the HVCEO board must endorse
resolutions on this subject. Levels of particulate matter
and ozone are primary in this regard.
CLIMATE CHANGE REDUCTION
Overview. Virtually all climate experts now agree that the
burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity and power
vehicles has led to increased atmospheric levels of heat trapping
gases, primarily carbon dioxide, that induce global warming.

In overview,
the United States represents only 5 percent of the world’s
population but consumes about 35 percent of its energy. Not
surprisingly, our country also generates about 24 percent
of global carbon dioxide emissions.
In addition,
the United States has the highest per capita carbon dioxide
emissions in the world. No wonder the term "reducing
your carbon footprint" has entered popular usage.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency the USA's
industrial sector uses 39 percent of total energy, followed
by the transportation sector at 27 percent. The residential
sector uses 19 percent, and the commercial sector at 15 percent,
for a total of 100 percent.
As the land use mix of the Housatonic Valley Region is somewhat
of a microcosm of the USA as a whole, in that it has urban,
suburban and rural areas with significant industry, housing
and an interstate roadway, the national percentages above
for total energy use can serve as estimates for energy expenditure
by sector in the Greater Danbury Area.
The United States also uses more energy per capita
for transportation than citizens of any other industrialized
country. Connecticut's Housatonic Valley Region, with
its relatively prosperous households and minimal public
transit, is certainly a prime contributor to that
sobering statistic.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists “the
characteristic climate of the Northeast has begun to change
dramatically. Between 1970 and 2000 alone, summer temperatures
rose about one degree Fahrenheit and winter temperatures rose
nearly 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
Spring
is arriving sooner, summers are growing hotter, and winters
are becoming warmer and less snowy.”
Again according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, carbon
dioxide concentrations have risen to their highest levels
in more than 650,000 years. This group predicts that in a
higher-emission scenario, as shown below, far less of the
Northeast will experience a typical snow season toward the
end of the century:

The
red line in the map shows the area of the Northeast that historically
had at least a dusting of snow on the ground for at least
30 days
in the average year. The white area shows the projected
retreat of this snow cover by the 21st century's end.
Transportation
Control Strategies. According to Connecticut DEP
“State efforts to address climate change consider the
substantial contribution of mobile sources (transportation)
to the state’s total annual emissions of the greenhouse
gas carbon dioxide. The Connecticut Global Warming Solutions
Act calls for a minimum of an 80% reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions from 2001 by 2050.
Success
in achieving this goal will require draconian measures directed
at stationary, area and mobile sources, of which mobile sources
will be a significant focus.
There are many mobile source options available that have not
yet been fully realized, but their implementation will require
a change in the transportation culture of Connecticut.”
HVCEO
as the federally designated regional transportation planning
agency for Greater Danbury will assist with development of
transportation related climate change prevention strategies.
The task
is to assist in reducing vehicle miles of travel in the Region
by 3% below anticipated 2020 levels through identification
of innovative transportation management, including:
---
Encouraging transit, bicycle and pedestrian components
for the strategic transportation network.
---
Participate in feasibility studies for congestion pricing
and using location
efficient mortgages to encourage shorter commutes.
--- Encouraging inclusion of climate modeling data in repair
and
replacement of transportation infrastructure.
---
Implement rail
service between Danbury and New Milford.
---
Encourage acquisition of vehicles meeting stringent
emissions standards and using cleaner fuels.
As
for this Region's Housatonic Area Regional Transit District
(HART) acquiring such vehicles, HART staff offers the following
11/2010 report:
The new HART buses purchased in 2008
all have advanced anti-pollution control technology including
particulate traps in compliance with EPA regulations. And
all new HART transit buses are equipped with bike racks to
promote that non-fuel mode.
Some may have noticed that those vehicles
in fixed route service have tailpipes that look like vacuum
cleaner attachments, this to help disperse the extreme heat
that is generated when particulates are burned off.
HART, like most systems operating in Connecticut,
uses ultra low sulfur diesel fuel for its fleet.
Small and large buses are now produced
as diesel-electric and gasoline-electric hybrids, but at a
significant cost premium; as much as $200,000 additional in
capital cost for a full sized bus. Public perception of hybrid
vehicles has been positive.
In some operating environments, hybrids
show savings in fuel and reduced maintenance costs on some
components such as brakes. Long term, these savings may be
balanced with battery replacement and disposal costs.
Particulate emissions are not significantly
different in hybrid versus traditional fossil-fueled buses
equipped with modern anti-pollution technology.
Regardless, there are more and more transit
properties moving to hybrid technology. This may drive an
industry-wide shift by bus manufacturers, like the recent
move from high floor to low floor bus designs.
It would therefore be worthwhile for HART
to purchase one or a few transit vehicles in diesel/electric
or gasoline/electric hybrid configuration to better understand
the operational and financial impacts of this technology.
HART is not considering use of compressed
natural gas or propane fuels. There are no public bus systems
in Connecticut currently operating on compressed natural gas
or propane. Compressed natural gas is not even an option in
the Housatonic Region due to the lack of fueling stations.
Both fuel types require a significant
capital investment for vehicle storage and maintenance owing
to the nature of these fuels and potential explosion hazards.
CT TRANSIT operates five hydrogen fuel
cell/hydrogen hybrids at its Hartford location. These vehicles,
purchased at a cost of over $2 million each, are fueled at
United Technologies and have United Technologies fuel cells.
Special infrastructure to house and maintain these vehicles
is required.
Land
Use Control Strategies. The book “Energy Planning
and Urban Form” by geographer Susan Owens found that
the single most important factor affecting the relationship
of urban form and energy requirements for transportation is
the physical separation of activities. This is determined
by both density and the degree to which mixing of land uses
is permitted.

Overview
of zoning patterns in southwestern
Connecticut, with the Housatonic Valley Region at left
Commercial
and industrial zones are combined as red. Orange, buff and
pale
yellow indicate descending intensities of residential zoning.
Before 1920 there
was little control of the mixing of land uses. Then from 1920
until 2000 uses
were forcefully separated by zoning. Since 2000 the trend
of some
modest remixing under controlled conditions has accelerated.
In other
words, the density allowed by local land use regulations,
coupled with the degree to which the intermixing of selected
land uses is permitted, are prime determinants of how much
energy their community uses.
---
Thus this HVCEO Regional Transportation Plan’s climate
change reduction policy is closely linked to the HVCEO Regional
Conservation and Development Policies Plan to promote
more mixing of land uses.
The municipal land use configuration endorsed by
a town or city plan and reflected in zoning has a
big impact on transportation patterns and resulting
energy use. According to a discussion of planning
in Connecticut's 2005 Climate Change Action Plan:
"Residential and commercial development in suburban and
exurban areas increases total vehicle miles of travel as distances
between homes and jobs increase.
Low density development cannot support public transportation,
so single occupancy vehicles are often the only practical
travel option. This scattering of development in growing areas
is often called sprawl."
--- Thus this HVCEO Regional Transportation Plan’s climate
change reduction policy is closely linked to the HVCEO Regional
Conservation and Development Policies
Plan to more forcefully concentrate development. See Concentration
Policy. See Concentration
Map.

--- HVCEO's overall comprehensive strategy
for curbing climate change, of which transportation
management is but one component, is found in the Curb
Global Warming section of the 2009 Regional Conservation
and Development Policies Plan.
---
Other climate change action plan ideas are available at the CT Climate Change site.
ENVIRONMENTAL
MITIGATION
The consistency of transportation planning with applicable
federal, state and local energy conservation programs, environmental
goals, and objectives is incorporated into the current Plan's
goals for establishing project priorities.
The regional
transportation plan must take into account potential environmental
impacts when adopting the plan. If impacts are found, then
consideration is given to how such impacts might be mitigated,
the project revised, or cancelled.
The HVCEO comprehensive plan is oriented towards
the conservation of energy. The growth
policy map of that plan interacts with the priority
setting process.
Over many
years, HVCEO has prepared corridor improvement plans supportive
of the recommendations in the overall Plan. The consistent
methodology for these supporting technical documents is a
projection of traffic conditions in each corridor such that
investments are efficient and properly scaled. The HVCEO transportation
planning program is able through this process to identify
corridors of rapid traffic volume change.
Distinct policy documents are maintained by HVCEO for inventory,
analysis, and recommendations on both bus and rail transit
issues. Transit has been fully integrated into transportation
policy and technical study activities.
HVCEO's
plans will include impact on environmental factors such as
wetlands, watercourses, historic districts, etc. Air and noise
analysis will be required for some projects in the design
stage.
Most environmental
mitigation is detailed in the project design phase and HVCEO
will encourage and support this activity.

Proposed roadway widenings near
wetlands require careful scrutiny and mitigation.
A
major FHWA funded project in this Region that is a good example
of intense environmental mitigation is the recently completed Brookfield
Route 7 Bypass. There had been significant concerns
as to impacts on wildlife, these concerns now fully addressed.
A mitigation plan approved by state and federal environmental
agencies was included.
The HVCEO transportation planning program will seek to identify
the mitigation needs of projects in order to fully restore
and maintain environmental functions.
Consultation
as necessary will be undertaken with environmental protection
agencies including the CT DEP, wildlife management authorities,
land management and historic preservation interests.
HVCEO maintains a geographic information system and Map
Center that supports its transportation planning.
Readily available data layers include watersheds, wetlands,
aquifers and rare and endangered species.
The HVCEO will encourage environmental mitigation by comparing
potential projects to environmental constraint maps, state
plan conservation and development categories, and historic
resource inventories.
FEDERAL
PLAN ELEMENTS
The
HVCEO Regional Transportation Plan has been organized into
easily usable sections in order to make it most accessible
to public interest groups and transportation project opponents
and advocates. Persons or organizations seeking to use it
usually receive the excerpt of most use, not the entire lengthy
document, although that is available.
The Plan
is also updated in stages, with different traffic corridors
and modal areas upgraded by technical studies each year. All
such studies are included on this list
of publications.
In updating
the Regional Transportation Plan it is important to meet plan
criteria required by federal law. Guidelines for regional
transportation planning require that minimum factors be considered
in developing regional transportation plans. These requirements
are incorporated throughout this document.
Many of
the requirements are topics already addressed by HVCEO for
many years, others are newer, more modern emphasis areas.
A summary
of the current HVCEO Plan's conformance to the mandatory federal
factors is as follows:
----
1. Emphasize preservation of,
and performance improvement for,
the existing transportation system.
Enhancing existing transportation facilities is a way to meet
transportation needs. For many years this goal has been well
integrated into the HVCEO Transportation Plan's projects and
priorities.
For example, major corridors such as Route 6, Route 7 South,
Route 7 North, Route 37 and Route 25 all have had HVCEO financed
traffic improvement plans to upgrade capacity on existing
roadways.
Also, HVCEO's long term support for the Route
7 Expressways North and South was revised in
favor of making more efficient use of the existing Route 7
roadway. Importantly, this factor is specifically incorporated
into the current Plan's goals for establishing project priorities.
Studies
that are part of the congestion management process will all
seek to make best use of existing resources before proposing
capacity expansions.
---
2. Promote efficient system
management and operation.
HVCEO participates with Conn DOT in identifying needs through
use of the management systems required by federal legislation.
This reference is for state maintained systems for highway
pavement on state roads, bridges, highway safety, traffic
congestion, for public transportation facilities and equipment,
and for intermodal transportation facilities and systems.
These data bases, under various names, are already well developed
by Conn DOT.
Conn DOT
makes such materials available to HVCEO where this material
is utilized. The areas where complementing and localized research
is most technically developed are traffic congestion and public
transportation facilities, equipment and routing.
Preservation
of rights-of-way for construction of future transportation
projects, including identification of unused rights-of-way
which may be needed for future transportation corridors and
identification of those corridors for which action is most
needed to prevent destruction or loss, is a regional transportation
planning function.
The use of life-cycle costs in the design and engineering
of bridges, tunnels, or pavement is also important. The HVCEO
does not itself undertake such detailed design and engineering
activities within its early stage planning studies. Rather,
it requires good professional practice, which demands that
management practices such as life cycle costing are employed,
when it approves design and engineering funds for projects
on the TIP.
HVCEO
will give consideration to future management and operations
within the planning process, and also to security considerations
within that process. All planning efforts will be designed
to take into account the costs of operation, maintenance and
preservation of the transportation system.
HVCEO reports annually to Conn DOT on upcoming congestion
management activities.
HVCEO
has been a participant in obtaining funds for the soon to
be constructed centralized traffic control system on the Danbury
Branch. This investment is to promote both efficiency and
safety.

Danbury Branch rail service will be
electronically managed from Grand Central Terminal.
This project
will replace the manual throwing of switches, and allow Branch
trains to be visible in the Grand Central Terminal control
room. Scheduling and performance will be improved. This electronic
technology is already in operation on the parallel Harlem
Line in New York State.
---
3. Enhance modal integration and
connectivity of the transportation system.
The goal is to continually improve integration across and
between modes, for freight and people. The need for connectivity
of roads within the metropolitan area with roads outside the
metropolitan area is included.
As an area with ten distinct municipalities, this factor is
addressed within each of the ten municipal segments of the
regional transportation plan. Functional classifications of
roadways coordinated interregionally by Conn DOT.
As Connecticut
is an urban state with a statewide roadway functional classification
process of long standing, there are at present no known connectivity
issues between this region and the remainder of Connecticut
and between this region and adjacent New York State.
The regional transportation plan makes use of policies and
technical materials from neighboring regional transportation
planning agencies COGCNV, GBRPA and SWRPA, as well as NWCCOG
to the north and NYMTC to the west in New York State. HVCEO
staff meets with NYMTC staff semi-annually.
--- 4. Carefully
evaluate major capital improvements.
Any such projects arising in the metropolitan transportation
plan will be evaluated by basic federally required criteria
including 1) alternatives analysis, 2) justification of project,
3) local financial commitment, 4) economic development potential,
and 5) reliability of ridership and cost forecasts.
HVCEO is committed to working with the full federal review
process and the National Environmental Policy Act, as will
be required for its I-84 and rail improvement policies.
---
5. Promote consistency of the transportation plan with
state and local planned growth and support economic vitality.
This action will support the economic vitality of the metropolitan
area, especially by enabling global competitiveness, productivity
and efficiency. As HVCEO participates in both a federally
defined planning program as well as state recognized land
use planning activities, these concerns are fully integrated
into the regional planning processes.
Traffic
volumes in the area are seasonally impacted by recreational
traffic and recreational traffic generators in and near the
Region, a fact which is considered in corridor technical and
other studies.
Overall, HVCEO will coordinate its transportation planning
with local and state plans for enhancing economic vitality.
State statutes in Connecticut require that local, regional
and state land use plans be compared and coordinated. This
coordination process by HVCEO will be integrated with HVCEO's
transportation planning, a natural part of traditional "comprehensive
planning."
--- 6. Continually
integrate freight
needs into the planning program.
These needs are incorporated into overall systems planning
and development. For example, traffic projections used at
HVCEO already consider the varieties of vehicle type, and
design standards consider the dimensions of freight vehicles.
HVCEO rail passenger service policies support coordination
and compatibility with freight needs and services. Technical
studies within the planning program recognize Routes 7, 25
and I-84 as major freight distribution routes.
--- 7. Participate
in coordinated public
transit human services transportation plan.
HVCEO will cooperate with Conn DOT and HART on this required
planning element.
--- 8. Increase accessibility
and mobility options.
This policy applies to both people
and freight and will remain a fundamental goal of HVCEO. HVCEO
will coordinate with Conn DOT in the development of management
systems as defined in Federal transportation legislation,
especially the “Congestion Management Process”
and development of related strategy documents.
--- 9. Increase transportation
system safety and security.
On-going planning regularly includes review of Conn DOT TASR
technical safety material and integration of it into municipal
transportation project planning. Project decisions will then
be based in part upon this data. However the actual safety
rate data is exempt from public disclosure.
HVCEO
also endorses the Conn DOT Strategic Highway Safety Plan.
This statewide plan is required by SAFETEA-LU so that highway
safety programs can be data driven to maximize the ability
to set priority and getting the most benefit from each highway
safety dollar.
This plan states that the key areas of emphasis for Connecticut
are: traffic records and information systems, roadway departure,
pedestrians and bicycles, work zones, driver behavior involving
alcohol, occupant protection and speeding, motorcycle safety,
issues with commercial vehicles, and incident management.

The location of each accident on a Connecticut
state road is
recorded, such that high accident rate segments can be identified.
Thus
safety, and not just capacity, will be fully integrated into
the program. All past traffic studies have safety concerns
fully integrated into the decision making and this will be
continued by staff.
HVCEO
has a significant history of use of highway safety data. Past
reports are available under Publications at www.hvceo.org These are shown by state route corridor,
and serve as basic corridor management plans.
Both HART
and Conn DOT consistently include security features for buildings,
vehicles, and property during their detailed project planning
phases. As for roadway safety, extensive use of Conn DOT safety
data is made in all roadway related decisions.
HVCEO
involves police department safety staffs in its roadway corridor
and other transportation studies.
As for
modern security concerns, in its various studies, the staff
will also address security issues of the highway system, including
crime and terrorism, etc. in conjunction with requests for
such assistance from Conn DOT or the CT Department of Emergency
Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) .
This may include attention to vulnerability to intentional
attack or natural disasters, and the associated evacuation
procedures. As for evacuation procedures, HVCEO already has
a formal arrangement for its transportation staff to assist
CT DEMHS in this regard.
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