Cutting tailpipe emissions is a nationwide priority. The Portland region's commitment to emissions reductions has been long evident in its progressive history of land use planning.
In a way, that's made life easier for other cities trying to curb tailpipe emissions, which can look to the Portland region's plans as an example.
Climate Futures series
As Metro's planning staff looks at ways to address a state mandate to reduce tailpipe emissions in the Portland region, Metro News has been digging into some of the 144 ideas under study. Our goal is to paint a picture of what the Portland region could look like if any of those scenarios are adopted.
Please note that Metro planning staff is not responsible for this content. Comments on the content should be directed to Metro News at 503-813-7583 or [email protected].
"Portland has been very helpful as a resource and a model for us," said Gordon Garry, the director of research and analysis with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.
Garry and others in Sacramento, as well as all other metropolitan planning organizations in California, are working under the California Legislature's 2008 Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act. That act mandates regional greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets for passenger vehicles to be met by each of California's 18 metropolitan areas through land use, housing and transportation planning.
"Mostly what I talked to the California MPOs (metropolitan planning organizations) about recently were their tools," said Mike Hoglund, the recently retired research director at Metro "We're all moving into this place-making tool. It's multi-goal oriented. How are you going to make a nice place? What else matters? How do you design in parks and shopping opportunities and making walkable communities? They're doing what we're doing."
Under California's 2008 act, each California metropolitan area is required to prepare a sustainable communities strategy as an element of their next regional transportation plan, demonstrating how that metropolitan area will meet its regional targets.
Once each metropolitan area adopts its communities strategy, the regions will encourage infill projects, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This provision streamlines the state-mandated environmental review process for proposed housing/mixed use development projects in transit priority areas – land close to frequently used light rail and transit lines.
"It's typically very cumbersome" to go through the environmental review, Garry said. "But with SB 375 (the 2008 act), after adoption of the region's SCS (sustainable communities strategy), any project proposed to a city by developers can take an easier path through the review process. The aim here is to promote development, primarily housing, along these transit corridors – to build in smarter."
Only about five metropolitan areas have officially adopted a sustainable communities strategy, the earliest being San Diego in 2011.
"It's still too early to tell how successful this streamlined process will be," Garry said. "Governments, environmental groups, different agencies statewide are watching how this will play out. We're very happy with how the process has come along, but there's still a lot of work to go to make these plans visible on the ground."
Similar to California's metropolitan planning organizations and the 2008 act, Metro is directed by the Oregon Legislature to design alternative land use and transportation strategies to reduce emissions from light duty vehicles.
To address this, Metro developed the Climate Smart Communities Scenarios Project, which studies how people get around the region and is in the process of researching emissions reductions strategies. Metro plans to decide on a comprehensive transportation and land-use strategy to address emissions reductions by the end of 2014.
Outside of land use and transportation strategies, cities trying to meet emissions targets can benefit from private enterprise endeavors. Georgia Power and Southern Company in Atlanta collaborates to offer its employees alternative commuting options through their SmartRide program, including carpool, vanpool, transit, telework, flex time, alternative work locations and shuttles.
The program offers 49 vanpools, with 463 vanpool riders. Through this spring, SmartRide had eliminated more than 1.1 million in single occupant vehicle miles through use of the vanpool.
The companies also have 10 Smart Rider loaner cars and 318 employees who took advantage of their transit pass program.
A similar, government-operated effort to reduce car trips in the Portland region is Drive Less Save More. The program is aimed at reducing vehicle miles traveled through education and outreach events that highlight alternative driving behaviors, such as trip-chaining, ridesharing, and commute challenges. A tool within the program, Drive Less Connect, is utilized primarily for commuting rideshare by area businesses.
"We've tried the vanpool and haven't had as much success with it as other cities," said Caleb Winter, a transportation planner with Metro. "That requires dedicating an entire highway lane, generally, to make it efficient enough to be worth peoples' time, and people here don't want to give up a lane, or build a new one. We've tried to orient more energy toward transit than roads."