TRB - Division A (A): Planning and Environment Group (D): Social, Economic, and Cultural Issues (D): Transportation and Sustainability (40)
TRB - Division A (A): Planning and Environment Group (D): Social, Economic, and Cultural Issues (D): Transportation and Sustainability (40)
Committee on Transportation and Sustainability (ADD40)
Mission and Scope [Return to home page]
Mission:
The mission of the Committee on Sustainable Transportation is to advance the understanding of how transportation and sustainability relate and how transportation can contribute to achieving sustainability for economic growth, social equity and a healthy environment. The Committee will identify research needed to advance our evolving knowledge of the effects of transportation systems on sustainability, and opportinties to improve the sustainability of transport systems. It will solicit, review and publish research, and conduct meetings, conferences and symposia that are aimed at integrating sustainable development principles into transportation policy and practice. In purusing its mission, the Committee will give special attention to coordinating with other committees with related missions.
Scope:
The Committee on Sustainable Transportation (CST) differs from other committees addressing air quality, energy, and so on by its treatment of transportation as a system. The committee addresses the integration and tradeoffs of larger societal goals of economic, environmental, and equity goals, as they relate to the core mission of transportation to serve the mobility and access needs of both passenger and freight. It is the integration and interaction of these objectives, and the processes, policies, methods and tools available to facilitate this integration that is the focus of CST inquiry.
The CST promotes research that has the potential to greatly increase transportation’s total net value to society. One important focus will be the development abd dissemination of tools and methods for defining and measuring sustainability in a variety of settings and circumstances. Since the transportation system is a complex mix of public and private entities, the CST addressesbarriers and opportunities to the creation and performance of public/private partnerships to improve the sustainable performance of transportation systems.
Other examples of relevant areas of inquiry include the transfer and enhancement of broad sustainability concepts and practices from elsewhere, such as Integrated Transportation Strategiesfrom Europe; mobility and access implications of managing transportation systems for climate protection and energy efficiency, relationship of technological and institutional transformations for increased sustainability (such as new mobility systems and new institutions to reduce greenhouse gases), and exploration and measurement of social capital concepts as they relate to sustainable transportation.