Ed. note: This is a continuing series of posts breaking down the six objectives in our Route to Reform Blueprint. While we’re trying to explain the Blueprint in simpler terms, it’s a document full of complicated policies geared at Congress and these posts are fairly detailed.

On Wednesday, we looked at the second of our six National Transportation Objectives and two corresponding performance targets. This second objective describes our goal of building a transportation system that protects our communities from pollution, preserves our environment, and helps us protect our climate.

As a refresher:

As we’ve noted in our previous post, transportation comprises 30 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions. Simply put, to address climate change and global warming, we’re going to have to cut carbon emissions from the transportation sector across the board.

We can begin by creating cleaner fuels and using more efficient cars, buses, and trains. In this respect, this week’s announcement by the Obama administration of increased efficiency standards is an important step. But if we expect to reach the widely accepted goal of an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050, we can’t just drive cars that don’t emit as much pollution or get better mileage. We need a transportation policy that helps us drive less, that provides better and cleaner options, that makes it easy for us to walk to the store, and that allows us to live closer to our schools and jobs.

Reducing emissions and pollution from our transportation system is also an important step in making Americans healthier. Today, low-income people are subject to an undue share of the negative effects of our transportation policy; oftentimes, the less money you make the more at-risk you are for asthma and numerous other ailments tied to the quality of our air and water. Transportation for America not only is making environmental protection a goal of our Blueprint, but is also calling for policies that promote environmental justice and help protect at-risk populations.

While the programs throughout the entire Blueprint are geared towards meeting this objective of climate stability and environmental protection, we’re including a few examples of our policies and priorities here to give you a general sense of how we plan to achieve this goal.

Climate and transportation legislation must work together.

As we’ve pointed out, environmental protection and transportation are inextricably tied together. For that reason, Transportation for America believes that revenues raised by cap-and-trade revenue should be reinvested in the kinds of transportation options that will lower emissions from the transportation sector. Our Energy Security for Clean Communities Program calls for the allocation of 10 percent of climate legislation revenue to fund clean transportation investments.

Under this program, 10 percent of climate auction revenues would be allocated to states and regions for the development of plans and strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled and carbon emissions. For example, if a region determines during their planning process that congestion pricing could help lower their area’s total vehicle miles traveled, they can use money from this program to help fund its implementation. (p.30 in the Blueprint)

Congress must reaffirm its commitment to clean air and clean water.

Congress established CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement) program in 1991 to steer transportation funds to eligible projects that could help specific areas reduce congestion and improve air quality. T4 America believe this program is an essential, and we propose that it be elevated and expanded to allow CMAQ funds to be used in four additional areas: vehicle efficiency, low carbon fuels, VMT reduction (as illustrated in the previous paragraph), and system efficiency improvements. (p.30)

To make our communities more sustainable, we need to link transportation to land use, housing, and other local issues.

T4′s Sustainability Challenge Grants program will provide targeted grants to visionary communities to develop the innovative solutions needed to encourage shifts to cleaner modes, link local planning objectives, and create more sustainable towns and cities. By creating a flexible program that allows funds to be used for these interdisciplinary issues, we believe the next transportation bill can help us take a big step forward in developing broader solutions to issues of transportation, land-use, urban planning, sustainability, and economic growth. (p.42)

Focusing on the best projects to meet the targets, rather than on specific modes

Our current one-size-fits-all system means that transportation problems in rural areas, small towns, or large metropolitan areas often get treated with the same single-minded solutions. To address the vastly different and locally sensitive needs of our communities, Transportation for America is recommending the the creation of Multimodal Access Programs (MAP). This represents a fundamental change in policy in shifting from a modal (roads vs. rails vs. trails etc.) focus, to one where states and regions can choose the solution that will best help them meet the national objectives and performance targets. (p. 33-34)

Funds in this program could be spent on highway, bridge, transit, bicycle, pedestrian and rail projects; but rather than focusing blindly on a specific mode of investment, this program is structured so that states and regions will have to demonstrate that they’re using a diverse package of investments to meet the national performance targets. It would put all the different modes of transportation on an equal footing under one program — and ask states and regions to focus on improving overall access and mobility — rather than pitting them against each other in a zero-sum battle on a tilted playing field.

As we said earlier, these are just a few examples of programs tied to these objectives and targets, and they don’t provide a full picture of how we’ll achieve our climate and environmental protection objective goals. You can read the full Blueprint for more — start on page 65 to get a clear introduction to our performance targets and the rationale behind them — and stay tuned as we continue this series next week.

As we’ve discussed here before, our Blueprint has six overarching national objectives, which we believe should provide a vision for the future and a guide for our federal transportation policy. One of the biggest criticisms leveled at our country’s transportation spending is that there are no clear goals for what the money should accomplish. Therefore, T4 America is looking to define a clear purpose for our system — and these six objectives are like the rudder to steer the ship.

To ensure that we can meet these objectives and measure our progress, we created 10 performance targets — clear, quantifiable goals for the next 20 years that are tied directly to the six national objectives. (You can see the two that most directly link in with this objective at the top of this post.)

Our country needs a transportation system that keeps our air clean, helps us fight climate change, and protects all Americans — no matter who they are or where they live — from dangerous environmental pollution. Unfortunately, our existing policies — which subsidize sprawling development and foster dependence on automobiles — have made protecting our environment and our communities an increasingly challenging task.

Thirty percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States comes from transportation, which produces more CO2 than any other country’s entire economy, save China. And while policymakers in Congress have mandated increased fuel efficiency for automakers in order to help reduce emissions, the sheer growth in the number of miles Americans drive — and lack of other viable transportation options — threatens to overwhelm these benefits.

As we described in our previous post on public health and safety, pollution from automobiles and other sources can have devastating effects on people’s health, particularly in the poorer or impoverished communities that often bear the brunt of these negative impacts.

In order to guide our transportation program and help create a safer, cleaner, and healthier system, Transportation for America believes in that we should strive to meet these two performance measures:

1. Reduce transportation-generated carbon dioxide levels by 40%.
2. Achieve zero percent exposure to at-risk levels of air pollution.

To achieve these goals, we’re going to need some real reforms, direct accountability, and a strong commitment to a 21st transportation system. This commitment must include the construction of the second half of our transportation network — including public transportation, bike and pedestrians paths, and high-speed rail — a stronger linkage between transportation and land use policies, and repairs and maintenance on our existing infrastructure to help Americans save time, money and fuel. Investing in the transportation systems that emit less pollution while moving people more efficiently will help us reach these ambitious targets.

To get a better idea of how we plan to enact these reforms, check back later this week when we dive into the specific policies and proposals that T4 America is supporting — and see how an improved transportation system can protect our environment, fight climate change, and foster healthy, clean, pollution-free communities.