Conference Program

Concurrent Technical Sessions (7-12)
Monday, June 7, 2010 - 1:30pm - 2:45pm

7. High Speed Rail Environmental Impacts in Urban Areas
Moderator: Gui Shearin, PBS&J

The ability of high-speed rail to serve urban areas is attractive, but what are the potential environmental impacts to those areas? This session discusses evolving noise and visual impact issues and approaches from the project-level environmental review of California's high-speed rail program. Consideration is given to viewpoints from Context Sensitive Solutions and Environmental Justice.

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8. Green Transportation Initiatives - Part II
Moderator: Ed Wallingford, Virginia Department of Transportation

This session (Part II of Session 1)  will focus on case studies of the state and federal "green" transportation programs and explore implementation opportunities.

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9. Geospatial Tools and Applications to Enhance Environmental Analysis: Where Do We Go from Here?
Moderators: Marella Buncick, US Fish & Wildlife Service; Joseph Burns, US Fish and Wildlife Service

This session will summarize examples of new technology and data development that could be shared and co-developed.

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10. Public-Private Partnerships, Tolling and the NEPA Process
Moderator: Karen Hedlund, Federal Highway Administration

There has been much debate on the use of public private partnerships (PPPs) in transportation projects. Move beyond the debate over the role of PPPs to an approach focused on implementing a NEPA process involving PPPs and tolling alternatives. Intended as a practical guide for the NEPA practitioner, this panel will explore issues that are likely to arise during the NEPA process for PPP projects.

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11. Integrating Transportation, Land Use, and Pricing Policies - A National View - Part I
Moderator: June Carlson, CH2M Hill

Two sessions will explore why and how to create more integrated transportation, land use, and pricing policies. Mobility management, growth and pricing reforms can reduce climate change emissions while also providing co-benefits such as congestion reduction, facility cost savings, consumer savings, improved mobility for non-drivers, reduced traffic risk, and improved public fitness and health. Many local, regional, state and federal plans have mobility management and smart growth objectives, such as VMT reduction and urban infill targets, and are now struggling to determine how they should be achieved. Their implementation requires new planning methods and tools.

The first session will explore initiatives occurring at a national level, setting examples of how better policy integration can benefit transportation agencies and society overall.  It will includes discussion of general concepts of integrated planning, including a review of smart growth and mobility management strategies, integrated modeling, principles of efficient pricing, and least-cost funding.

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12. Reducing Traffic and Traffic Related Pollution Exposure
Moderator: Victoria Martinez, Federal Highway Administration

In this session the presenters will discuss two recent studies, one that evaluates populations exposed to traffic pollutants around major roads, the associations between exposure to air pollution from traffic and human health, and remaining data gaps; and the other study analyzes the relationship between air quality nonattainment designation and VMT between 1978 and the present based on observed data.

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