Ralph Buehler presents report for Brookings Institution about sustainable transportation in Germany and the United States

Ralph Buehler, assistant professor, Urban Affairs and Planning, has coauthored a report on policies/planning, travel behavior, and sustainable transportation in Germany and the United States, released by the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program during a recent event at the German Embassy in Washington, DC. There, Buehler presented the peer-reviewed report, “Making Transportation Sustainable: Insights from Germany,” which he authored with John Pucher, Rutgers University, and Dr. Uwe Kunert, German Institute of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, Germany.

Buehler’s presentation was followed by a panel discussion with transportation experts from Germany and the United States. The event was co-hosted by the German Embassy, the Brookings Institution, and the Transatlantic Climate Bridge.

Planners from the Federal Highway Administration, the Metropolitan Council of Governments, AARP, the League of American Bicyclists, researchers from area universities, and local city planners were among those in attendance.

Buehler discussed how worsening traffic congestion and increasing reliance on foreign oil are affecting America’s economic competitiveness and how excessive driving is contributing to high energy consumption, carbon emissions, and pollution. Further, he said that the existing gas tax cannot finance the massive investments needed to fix the U.S.’s deteriorating transportation system.

The report shows that increasing transportation sustainability in the United States requires policies that foster changes in travel behavior and suggests that Germany may provide a helpful example. Although car use has grown in both countries, Germany has been far more successful than the United States in creating a more balanced transportation system.

The report lists five lessons that German experience offers to the United States for improving transportation sustainability through changes in travel behavior:

• Get the Price Right in order to encourage the use of less polluting cars, driving at non-peak hours, and more use of public transportation.
• Integrate Transit, Cycling, and Walking as Viable Alternatives to the Car as a necessary measure to make any sort of car-restrictive measures publicly and politically feasible.
• Fully Coordinate and Integrate Planning for Land Use and Transportation to discourage car-dependent sprawl and promote transit-oriented development.
• Public Information and Education to Make Changes Feasible are essential in conveying the benefits of more sustainable policies and enforcing their results over the long term.
• Implement Policies in Stages with a Long-Term Perspective because it takes considerable time to gather the necessary public and political support and to develop appropriate measures.

To read the full text of “Making Transportation Sustainable: Insights from Germany,” go here.

Posted May 7, 2009