SB 375 Evaluation and VMT Strategy Assessment and Analysis of GHG Emissions Reduction

Project description
Your paper should be a maximum of 3 single spaced pages.
Figures and charts do not count toward the 3 pages, and may be included in the text or as an appendix. Bibliography does not count towards the 3 pages.
Part 1: SB 375 Evaluation (~1 page)
In 2008, the California legislature passed and Governor Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 375. SB 375 aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicle travel. In the first part of your paper, describe how SB 375 works and why it is a landmark law. Provide a brief assessment of the law, addressing the following questions:
Is SB 375 a good policy for reducing VMT and GHGs? (You will want to define good.)
Are there any weaknesses in the legislation, with respect to reducing GHGs from passenger
travel? If so, how could the law (and its implementation) be improved?
Part 2: VMT Strategy Assessment and Analysis of GHG Emissions Reduction (~2 pages)
Imagine you are a city or transportation planner for the City of Davis or for UC Davis. In order to meet the GHG reduction targets of SB 375, you are considering the implementation of different strategies to reduce VMT. Narrow your list to two strategies, and explain broadly why you chose those two. Include a discussion of how each strategy is expected to reduce VMT, and emissions from transportation. You have enough funding to choose one strategy to implement in the City or on Campus, in order to reduce VMT and thereby GHG emissions.
Pick one of your two and compare it in some detail to the 2nd strategyfocusing on expected reductions in VMT and GHG emissions. Use information from the resources provided below, or from other reputable sources to provide an estimate of the expected VMT and greenhouse gas emissions reduction that you expect from the implementation of your strategy in the City or on campus.
Keep in mind that the effectiveness of each strategy for reducing VMT and related emissions depends on the specifics of the situation. Some may not be useful for your community because of the scale, the possible economic impacts, current transportation trends or other factors.

Below is a list of strategies you may consider. You may choose from these strategies, those discussed in class, or identify strategies planned or implemented in other locations.
o Variable or increased parking costs; cordon pricing
o Parking preference for carpooling
o Street design to alter traffic flows
o Increased transit services or transit discounts
o Improved or increased bicycle infrastructure, including parking o Mixed use or in-fill development
o Transit Oriented Development
o Ridesharing programs like ZimRide or Uber and Lyft
o Bikeshare program to address the last mile problem
o Employer rebate programs for people who dont drive
A successful paper will tie together parts 1 and 2, creating an integrated discussion of SB 375, strategies to reduce GHG emissions and the expected emissions reductions. Try to be as quantitative as possible in evaluating strategies.
Recommended Resources
Background on SB 375 and cap-and-trade
California Air Resources Board (2010), Regional Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions Targets for
SB 375 Proposed Regional Targets.
CARB cap-and-trade fact sheet: http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/2011/cap_trade_overview.pdf
Information on VMT/GHG reduction
National Research Council (2009), Driving and the Built Environment.
Bedsworth et al. (2011), Driving Change: Reducing vehicle miles traveled in California, Public
Policy Institute of California.
Cambridge Systematics, Inc. (2009), Moving Cooler: An analysis of transportation strategies for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Urban Land Institute.
Rodier, Caroline (2009), Review of International Modeling Literature: Transit, land use, and auto
pricing strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, Transportation
Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2132, p. 1-12.
Salon, Deborah, Marlon G. Boarnet, Susan Handy, Steven Spears, and Gil Tal (2012). How do local
actions affect VMT? A critical review of the empirical evidence. Transportation Research Part D
17, p. 495-508.
Lane, Clayton (2006). PhillyCarShare: First-Year Social and Mobility Impacts of Carsharing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1927, pp. 158166.
UC Davis Campus Travel Survey Reports from 2008-09 to 2013-14 school years at: http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/campus-travel-surveys/
Lovejoy, Kristin, Gian-Claudia Sciara, Deborah Salon, Susan Handy, and Patricia Mokhtarian (2014). Measuring the Impacts of Local Land-Use Policies on Vehicle Miles of Travel: The Case of the First Big-Box Store in Davis, California. Journal of Transport and Land Use. Volume 6, No. 1 2013 pp 25-39.

Cervero, Robert and Michael Duncan (2006). Which Reduces Vehicle Travel More: Jobs-Housing Balance or Retail-Housing Mixing? Journal of the American Planning Association. Volume 72, Issue 4, 2006, pp 475-490.
Cervero Robert, Murakami Jin (2010). “Effects of built environments on vehicle miles traveled: evidence from 370 US urbanized areas” Environment and Planning A 42(2) 400 418.
Buehler, Ralph (2012). Determinants of bicycle commuting in the Washington, DC region: The role of bicycle parking, cyclist showers, and free car parking at work. Transportation Research Part D. Volume 17, Issue 7, October 2012, Pages 525531.
Notes on Content, Style, and Sources:
Do not rely heavily on one source of information. It is important to synthesize information from multiple sources in order to make your own compelling arguments. Avoid summarizing.
All papers should be single spaced (with extra space between paragraphs), with 11 or 12 point Times New Roman font (or similar font of equivalent size), and in MS Word. References, tables, and figures do not count against page limits (within reason). Maximum is 3 pages. Bibliography does not count towards the page limit.
Your paper should include a short introductory paragraph that gives a preview to your readers of the topics and findings of your paper. The introduction should convey to a reader what the paper will be about, without them having read the assignment. Your paper should also include a conclusion paragraph that recaps the main contents of your paper. For this paper, you should try to avoid using first person language such as I, me, or my.
You should reference all data, information, assertions, and insights that come from other sources in the body of your text (parenthetical references, endnotes, footnotes, etc.). Please use the (author, year), i.e. (Sperling, 2012) system in the text, and provide a reference list at the end of the paper with the full citations (author, title, publisher, year, pages). Inadequate documentation of sources is either plagiarism or poor scholarship. Use proper referencing format (any commonly used format is fine as long as you are consistent and complete).