Newspaper articles in recent months have highlighted the interaction between air quality, energy, water quality and toxic issues and transportation. The MTBE controversy is one such example. The adoption of the 1997 Air Quality Management Plan by the South Coast Air Quality Management District and new standards issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to tighten ambient air quality standards for ozone and particulates will increase pressure on mobile sources to bear the burden of cleaner air and other environmental issues related to transportation. .

This course offers an interdisciplinary perspective on this major health and public policy concern focusing on the linkage between transportation and environmental issues. While more emphasis will be placed on air quality, other environmental issues will be addressed. Land use issues will not be a focus of this course. This subject is addressed in other courses offered by the department. The course has a seminar format and makes extensive use of case studies. I hope to have several speakers active in this area visit the class. The course will address the following perspectives:

Urban Planning - integration of mobile source emission issues and urban planning.

Environmental Sciences - chemistry of mobile source pollution and modeling of mobile source emissions, basic issues in transportation and water quality.

Engineering -vehicle technology, energy consumption

Law and Public Administration - legal, regulatory and institutional aspects of mobile source emissions.

Economics - micro- and macroeconomic impacts of mobile source emission strategies.

Public Policy - numerous public policy issues: state versus federal government, intraregional disputes, vehicle manufacturers versus regulators, one transportation mode versus another, etc.

 

Week 1: The Smog Problem in Southern California -- Discussion of the chemistry of air pollution and its measurement in Southern California focusing on the contribution of mobile sources. Introduction to 1997 Air Quality Management Plan for the South Coast Air Basin. Read Sperling, Chapter 1, pp. 1-14.

Week 2: Institutional Aspects of Mobile Source Air Pollution -- Federal and California legislative and regulatory response to mobile source air pollution. Focus on the 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments and 1998 U.S. Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act.

Week 3: Modeling Future Emissions and the Contribution of Mobile Sources -- How emissions are modeled to show attainment of federal ambient air quality standards by the 2010 deadline. How mobile source emissions are modeled using transportation data.

Week 4: Command and Control Strategies -- Attempts to legislate solutions using land use and transportation planning strategies that promote behavioral change to reduce mobile source emissions.

Week 5: Market Based Measures -- Attempts to use economic solutions to produce desirable behavioral changes and market shifts to reduce mobile source emissions

Weeks 6-7: Technological Solutions for On-Road and Off-Road Vehicles -- Low and zero emission vehicles (electric, hydrogen fueled), remote sensing of vehicles, inspection/maintenance of vehicles, clean fuels, strategies impacting heavy duty vehicles:-- buses, trucks, locomotives; intelligent transportation systems; and advanced communications. Read remainder of Sperling book, Chapters 2-8.

Week 8: Transportation and Energy Consumption - Focus on relationship between transportation and energy consumption, policy initiatives and responses.

Week 9: Transportation and Water Quality - focus on relationship between increasing travel and water quality problems such as runoff and contamination by motor vehicle fuels.

Week 10: Concluding Policy Issues - how to optimize mobility and environmental concerns.

Readings - In the bookstore will be a required textbook: Daniel Sperling, Future Drive - Electric Vehicles and Sustainable Transportation, 1995, Island Press. I will obtain copies of the 1997 Air Quality Management Plan for the South Coast Air Basin for you. Extensive handouts will be provided as reading material.

An in-depth research paper will be required on an issue related to transportation and environmental concerns. Contents of the paper will be discussed during the first class session.

Mid-term exam

Dr. James Ortner is Manager, Transit Technical Services for the Orange County Transportation Authority. His responsibilities include developing and implementing an alternative fuels bus program, procuring new technology including a new electronic farebox system and preparing analysis and policy on the interaction of transportation and air quality issues. He also manages the Low Emission Locomotive Development Program for the Southern California Regional Rail Authority. Dr. Ortner is an appointed member of the California Air Resources Board Research Screening Committee and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the USC School of Urban Planning and Development.