Well Measured: Developing Indicators For Comprehensive and Sustainable Transport Planning

Victoria Transport Policy Institute
1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA

www.vtpi.org info@vtpi.org
Phone & Fax 250-360-1560
“Efficiency - Equity - Clarity”
Well Measured
Developing Indicators for Comprehensive and Sustainable Transport
Planning
4 February 2008
By Todd Litman, Director

Victoria Transport Policy Institute
A world view showing Africa taken Dec. 7, 1972 as Apollo 17 left Earth orbit for the Moon.
(Courtesy of NASA).
Abstract
This paper provides guidance on the selection of indicators for comprehensive and
sustainable transportation planning. It discusses the concept of sustainability and the
role of indicators in planning, describes factors to consider when selecting indicators,
identifies potential problems with conventional indicators, describes examples of
indicators and indicator sets, and provides recommendations for selecting indicators for
use in a particular situation.
A version of this report was presented at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting:
Developing Indicators for Comprehensive and Sustainable Transport Planning
Paper 07-2706, 2007 TRB Annual Meeting (www.trb.org).
Todd Alexander Litman © 2005-2008

You are welcome and encouraged to copy, distribute, share and excerpt this document and its ideas, provided the
author is given attribution. Please send your corrections, comments and suggestions for improving it.
Well Measured: Developing Sustainable Transport Indicators
Contents
Introduction ...........................................................................................................3
Sustainable Transportation ...................................................................................4
Factors to Consider When Selecting Indicators ....................................................8
Vehicle Travel As A Sustainability Indicator................................................................ 13
Indicators By Category........................................................................................14
Economic Indicators.................................................................................................... 14
Social Indicators.......................................................................................................... 17
Environmental Indicators............................................................................................. 17
Accounting Indicators..........................................................................................19
Conventional Transport Indicators ......................................................................20
Examples of Sustainable Transportation Indicator Sets......................................21
Green Community Checklist ....................................................................................... 22
Ecological Footprint (www.footprintnetwork.org)......................................................... 22
Happy Planet Index (www.happyplanetindex.org) ...................................................... 23
USDOT Environmental Performance Measures ......................................................... 23
Sustainable Transportation Performance Indicators ................................................... 24
Environmentally Sustainable Transport ...................................................................... 24
Global Reporting Initiative (www.globalreporting.org)................................................. 25
Performance Indicators ............................................................................................... 25
Mobility For People With Special Needs and Disadvantages ..................................... 26
World Business Council Sustainable Mobility Indicators............................................. 27
Sustainability Checklist ............................................................................................... 28
TERM .......................................................................................................................... 29
SUMMA....................................................................................................................... 30
Aviation Sustainability Indicators................................................................................. 31
Lyons Regional Indicators........................................................................................... 32
Good Example Of Bad Indicators................................................................................ 33
Best Practices .....................................................................................................34
Example..............................................................................................................37
Conclusions ........................................................................................................39
References and Resources ................................................................................40
2
Introduction
There is growing interest in the concepts of sustainability, sustainable development and
sustainable transportation. Sustainability is generally evaluated using various indicators,
which are specific variables suitable for quantification (measurement). Such indicators are
useful for establishing baselines, identifying trends, predicting problems, assessing
options, setting performance targets, and evaluating a particular jurisdiction or
organization. Which indicators are selected can significantly influence analysis results. A
particular policy may seem beneficial and desirable when evaluated using one set of
indicators but harmful and undesirable when evaluated using others. It is therefore
important for everybody involved in sustainable transportation planning to understand the
assumptions and perspectives used to select and define sustainable transportation
indicators.
Key Definitions (based on Gudmundsson, 2001)

Baseline (or benchmark) – existing, projected or reference conditions if change is not implemented.
Goal – what you ultimately want to achieve.
Objective – a way to achieve a goal.
Target – A specified, realistic, measurable objective.
Indicator – a variable selected and defined to measure progress toward an objective.
Indicator data – values used in indicators.
Indicator framework – conceptual structure linking indicators to a theory, purpose or planning process.
Indicator set – a group of indicators selected to measure comprehensive progress toward goals.
Index – a group of indicators aggregated into a single value.
Indicator system – a process for defining indicators, collecting and analyzing data and applying results.
Indicator type – nature of data used by indicator (qualitative or quantitative, absolute or relative).
This paper explores concepts related to the definition of sustainable transportation and
the selection of indicators suitable for policy analysis and planning. It discusses various
definitions of sustainability and the role of indicators, describes factors to consider when
selecting indicators, identifies potential problems with conventional transport planning
indicators, describes examples of indicators and indicator sets, and provides
recommendations for selecting indicators for use in a particular situation.
3
Sustainable Transportation
There is growing interest in sustainability and its implications for transport planning
(Litman and Burwell, 2006). Sustainability reflects the fundamental human desire to
make the world better. Sustainability emphasizes the integrated nature of human
activities and therefore the need to coordinate decisions among different sectors, groups
and jurisdictions. Sustainability planning (also called comprehensive planning) 1 insures
that local, short-term decisions are consistent with strategic, global, long-term goals. This
contrasts with reductionist planning, in which problems are assigned to a profession or
organization with narrow responsibilities and goals, which can result in solutions to one
problem that exacerbate other problems facing society (Litman, 2003).
There is no universally accepted definition of sustainability, sustainable development or

sustainable transport (Beatley, 1995). Below are examples:
Sustainable development “meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (WCED, 1987)
“Sustainability is equity and harmony extended into the future, a careful journey without
an endpoint, a continuous striving for the harmonious co-evolution of environmental,
economic and socio-cultural goals.” (Mega and Pedersen, 1998)
“The common aim [of sustainable development] must be to expand resources and
improve the quality of life for as many people as heedless population growth forces upon
the Earth, and do it with minimal prosthetic dependence. (Wilson, 1998)
“…sustainability is not about threat analysis; sustainability is about systems analysis.

Specifically, it is about how environmental, economic, and social systems interact to their
mutual advantage or disadvantage at various space-based scales of operation.” (TRB,
1997)
Sustainability is: “the capacity for continuance into the long term future. Anything that
can go on being done on an indefinite basis is sustainable. Anything that cannot go on
being done indefinitely is unsustainable.” (Center for Sustainability, 2004).
Environmentally Sustainable Transportation (EST) is: Transportation that does not

endanger public health or ecosystems and meets needs for access consistent with (a) use
of renewable resources at below their rates of regeneration, and (b) use of non-
renewable resources at below the rates of development of renewable substitutes. (OECD
1998)
“The goal of sustainable transportation is to ensure that environment, social and

economic considerations are factored into decisions affecting transportation activity.”
(MOST, 1999)
1
Sustainability is a popular concept in some communities but not others, where it may be better to use the
term comprehensive planning. The distinction is more ideological then functional.
4
A sustainable transportation system is one that (ECMT, 2004; CST, 2005):

• Allows the basic access needs of individuals and societies to be met safely and in a manner
consistent with human and ecosystem health, and with equity within and between generations.
• Is affordable, operates efficiently, offers choice of transport mode, and supports a vibrant
economy.
• Limits emissions and waste within the planet’s ability to absorb them, minimizes consumption of
non-renewable resources, limits consumption of renewable resources to the sustainable yield level,
reuses and recycles its components, and minimizes the use of land and the production of noise.
This last definition is preferred by many experts, including the Transportation Research
Board’s Sustainable Transportation Indicators Subcommittee (ADD40[1]), the European
Council of Ministers of Transport, and the Canadian Centre for Sustainable
Transportation, because it is comprehensive, and clearly indicates that sustainable
transportation must balance a variety of economic, social and environmental goals.
Concern about sustainability can be considered a reaction to the tendency of decision-

making to focus on easy-to-measure goals and impacts while undervaluing those that are
more difficult to measure. Sustainable decision-making can therefore be described as
planning that considers goals and impacts regardless of how difficult they are to
measure. Interest in sustainability originally reflected concerns about long-term risks of
current resource consumption, reflecting the goals of intergenerational equity (being fair
to future generations). But if future equity and environmental quality are concerns, it
makes little sense to ignore equity and environmental impacts occurring during this
generation. Thus, sustainability ultimately reflects the goals of equity, ecological
integrity and human welfare regardless of time or location.
Sustainable economics maintains a distinction between growth (increased quantity) and

development (increased quality). It focuses on social welfare outcomes rather than simply
measuring material wealth, and questions common economic indicators such as Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), which measure only the quantity but not the quality of market
activities. Ecological economics (which is concerned with valuing ecological resources)
defines sustainability in terms of natural capital, the value of natural systems to provide
services such as clean air and water, and climatic stability (Jansson, et al, 1994).
Ecological economics attempts to account for non-market costs of economic activities
which tend to be ignored in traditional economics, and which are sometimes considered
positive economic events by indicators such as GDP (Daly and Cobb, 1989). For
example, GDP ignores the value of household gardening and fishing, but values food
purchased to replace household production lost to environmental degradation. Ecological
economists argue that consumption should not deplete natural capital faster than it can be
replaced by viable and durable human capital. This suggests, for example, that non-
renewable resources such as petroleum should not be depleted without sufficient
development of renewable energy sources.
5
Sustainable economics strives for sufficiency, as opposed to conventional economics

which generally assumes that continually increasing consumption is desirable.
Sustainability requires a conservation ethic, which strives to maximize resource
efficiency, for example, with efficient pricing of road use and parking facilities, in
contrast to the current consumption ethic, which strives to maximize the amount of
resource (including mobility) that people can consume, for example, by minimizing
motor vehicle ownership and operating costs.
Figure 1 Sustainable Development (Litman, 2006b)

Increased Happiness ==>
Efficient
Sustainability
Inefficient
Poverty Comfort Luxury Extravagance

Increased Material Wealth and Mobility ==>
Sustainability development maximizes the efficiency with which material wealth provides happiness,
resulting in high levels of happiness with modest levels of consumption. Similarly, sustainable
transportation maximizes the happiness produced per unit of mobility.
Sustainability requires limiting resource consumption to ecological constraints (such as

limiting land use to protect habitat and fossil fuel use to minimize climate change), so
sustainable development requires maximizing the efficiency with which wealth provides
social welfare (happiness), as indicated in Figure 1. Similarly, sustainable transportation
requires that we maximize the amount of happiness produced per unit of mobility.
Sustainability is sometimes defined narrowly, focusing on a few specific problems such

as resource depletion and pollution, but is increasingly defined broadly to include other
issues (Figure 2). Narrowly defined sustainability can overlook connections between
issues and opportunities for integrated solutions. For example, comprehensive analysis
helps identify strategies that achieve multiple planning objectives, and so are truly
optimal (“Win-Win Solutions,” VTPI, 2005). For example, comprehensive analysis
allows planners to identify the congestion reduction strategies that also help achieve
equity and environmental objectives, or at least avoid those that are socially and
environmentally harmful. These integrated solutions can be considered the most
sustainable.
6
Figure 2 Sustainability Issues
This figure illustrates various sustainability issues. 2
If sustainable transportation is defined only in terms of resource depletion and climate

change risks, more efficient and alternative fuel vehicles may be considered the best
solutions. But these strategies fail to help achieve other planning objectives such as
congestion reduction, facility cost savings, safety, improved mobility for non-drivers, or
more efficient land development; in fact, by reducing vehicle operating costs, it tends to
increase these problems (Litman, 2004a). When these additional impacts are considered,
other policies are considered more sustainable. Described differently, when defined
narrowly, sustainable planning is a specialized activity, but when defined more broadly it
can be integrated with other planning activities (Nicolas, Pochet and Poimboeuf, 2003).
Table 1 Comparing Benefits

Impacts Efficient Vehicles Alternative Pricing Smart Growth
and Alt. Fuels Modes Reforms Development
Energy and emissions reductions 3 3 3 3
Congestion reduction 3 3 3
Facility cost savings 3 3 3
Increased safety 3 3 3
Improved mobility for non-drivers 3 3 3
Increased public fitness and 3 3 3
health
More efficient development 3 3 3
2
Although this figure implies that each issue fits into a specific category, there is actually overlap. For example,
pollution is an environmental concern, affects human health (a social concern) and fishing (an economic
concern).
7
More efficient and alternative fuel vehicles help achieve a few planning objectives. Reducing total
vehicle travel helps achieve more objectives and so can be considered more sustainable.
Factors to Consider When Selecting Indicators

Indicators are things that we measure in order to evaluate progress toward goals and
objectives. For example, teachers track students’ participation and test scores to evaluate
their learning progress. Motorist track their vehicle’s fuel and oil consumption rates,
engine and brake noise to determine when it requires servicing.
Indicators should be carefully selected to provide useful information. In most situations,

no single indicator is adequate, so a set should be selected. An indicator set should reflect
various goals and objectives. For example, it is desirable that a sustainable transportation
indicator set reflect the impacts listed in Table 2, and possibly more. People using
indicators should understand their perspectives and limitations.
Table 2 Sustainable Transportation Impacts

Economic Social Environmental
Traffic congestion Equity / Fairness Air pollution
Infrastructure costs Impacts on mobility disadvantaged Climate change
Consumer costs Human health impacts Noise and water pollution
Mobility barriers Community cohesion Habitat loss
Accident damages Community livability Hydrologic impacts
DNRR Aesthetics DNRR
DNRR=Depletion of Non-Renewable Resources
These impacts can be defined in terms of goals, objectives, targets and thresholds. For
example, a planning process may involve establishing traffic congestion indicators
(defining how congestion will be measured), goals (the amount of congestion reduction
desired, including factors such as whether reductions are particularly important for
certain trips or vehicles, such as trucks and buses), objectives (shifts in travel time and
mode to reduce congestion) and targets (specific, feasible changes in congestion impacts
or travel behavior that should be achieved), and thresholds (levels beyond which
additional actions will be taken to reduce congestion).
Different types of indicators reflect different perspectives and assumptions. Some focus
on vehicle travel or mobility, but a better perspective considers accessibility (the ability
to reach activities and destinations), taking into account travel options and land use
patterns (Litman, 2003). For example, roadway level-of-service (LOS) primarily reflects
automobile travel congestion. It indicates little about the quality of other modes or land
use accessibility. A planning process that relies primarily on roadway LOS to evaluate
transport system performance implicitly assumes that automobile travel is the most
important mode and congestion is the most important problem. Two areas can have equal
roadway LOS ratings but very different overall transport system performance due to
differences in transport diversity and the distribution of destinations. Similarly,
measuring impacts per vehicle-mile, per passenger-mile, per capita or per unit of
8
economic activity reflect different perspectives and assumptions about what is important
and desirable.
Indicators can reflect various levels of analysis, as illustrated in Table 3. For example,
indicators may reflect the decision-making process (the quality of planning), responses
(travel patterns), physical impacts (emission and accident rates), effects this has on
people and the environment (injuries and deaths, and ecological damages), and their
economic impacts (costs to society due to crashes and environmental degradation). A
sustainability index can include indictors that reflect various levels of analysis but it is
important to take their relationships into account in evaluation to avoid double-counting.
For example, reductions in vehicle-mile emission rates can reduce ambient pollutants and
human health damages; it may be useful to track each of these factors, but it would be
wrong to add them up as if they reflect different types of impacts.
Table 3 Levels of Analysis

Level Examples
External Trends Changes in population, income, economic activity,
Ð political pressures, etc.
Decision-Making Planning process, pricing policies, stakeholder
Ð involvement, etc.
Options and Incentives Facility design and operations, transport services,
Ð prices, user information, etc.
Response (Physical Changes) Changes in mobility, mode choice, pollution emissions,
Ð crashes, land development patterns, etc.
Cumulative Impacts Changes in ambient pollution, traffic risk levels,
Ð overall accessibility, transportation costs, etc.
Human and Environmental Effects Changes in pollution exposure, health, traffic injuries
Ð and fatalities, ecological productivity, etc.
Economic Impacts Property damages, medical expenses, productivity
Ð losses, mitigation and compensation costs.
Performance Evaluation Ability to achieve specified targets.
This table shows how indicators can measure various levels of impacts, from the planning
process to travel behavior, impacts on people and the environment, and economic effects.
Quantitative data refers to numerically measured information. Qualitative data refers to

other types of information. Qualitative data can be quantified using lettered or numbered
rating systems such as Level-Of-Service (LOS). Similarly, the value people place on
convenience, comfort and livability can be quantified using various economic evaluation
techniques (Litman, 2004b). Quantitative data tends to be considered more objective and
easier to analyze, which can create a problem: easier to measure impacts tend to receive
more consideration than more difficult to measure impacts (which are often dismissed as
“intangibles”). For example, vehicle traffic speeds and delays are easy to measure, but
walkability, equity, and livability are more difficult to quantify, and so they often receive
9
less consideration than justified by their value to affected people. Sustainability

indicators therefore require quantifying impacts as much as possible.
Table 4 Quantitative and Qualitative Data

Quantitative Data Qualitative Data
Vehicle and person trips Survey data
Vehicle and person miles of travel User preferences
Traffic crashes and fatalities Convenience and comfort
Expenditures, revenues and costs Community livability
Property values Aesthetic factors
This table compares examples of quantitative and qualitative transportation data.
Many impacts are best evaluated using relative indicators, such as trends over time,
comparisons between different groups or jurisdictions, or units such as per capita or per
vehicle. For example, an increase in transportation energy consumption over time can be
considered unsustainable. Similarly, a community can evaluate its current level of
sustainability and its potential for achieving sustainability objectives by comparing its
indicators with those of peer cities (cities considered similar). Equity can be evaluated
based on the transport options and impacts of disadvantaged groups (people with low
incomes, disabilities or other disadvantages) compare with advantaged groups.
Communities and agencies can be evaluated by comparing their performance with peers.
Reference units (also called ratio indicators) are measurement units normalized to
facilitate comparisons, such as per-year, per-capita, per-mile, per-trip, per-vehicle-year
and per dollar (Litman, 2003; GRI, 2006). The selection of reference units can affect how
problems are defined and solutions prioritized. For example, measuring impacts such as
emissions, crashes and costs per vehicle-mile ignores the effects of changes in vehicle
mileage; for example, it does not consider increases in per capita vehicle travel as a
contributor to these problems, and ignores mobility management strategies as solutions.
Measuring these impacts per capita does account for changes in vehicle travel.
Comparisons can be structured in various ways to reflect different perspectives, such as
comparisons between different areas and groups, or trends over time. However, care is
needed when interpreting such comparisons. For example, differences in fatality rates
may reflect random variation (particularly if they involve small numbers, such as just a
few annual deaths), or confounding factors such as changes in demographics or traffic
conditions rather than the factor under consideration, such as transport policies.
Individual indicators should be selected based on their decision-making usefulness and

ease of collection. There is tension between convenience and comprehensiveness when
selecting indicators. A smaller set of indicators using easily available data is more
convenient to collect and analyze, but may overlook important impacts. A larger set can
be more comprehensive but have excessive data collection and analysis costs. By
defining indicators early in a planning process and working with other organizations it is
often possible to minimize data collection costs. For example, travel surveys can be
modified to collect demographic data (such as income, age, disability status, driving
10
ability, etc.) for equity evaluation, and land use modeling can incorporate more multi-
modal factors.
Transport and land use have interactive effects, and both affect sustainability. As a result,
“smart growth” policies, which create more accessible and multi-modal land use, tend to
support sustainability, while “sprawl” tends to reduce sustainability by increasing per
capita land impacts and motor vehicle travel (“Smart Growth,” VTPI, 2004).
It may be helpful to prioritize indicators and develop different sets for particular
situations. For example, it can be useful to identify some indicators that should always be
collected, others that are desirable if data collection costs are acceptable, and some
indicators to address specific planning objectives that may be important in certain cases.
When developing indicators for a particular sector, jurisdiction or organization it is
important to consider which impacts and objectives are within their responsibility.
Sustainability indicators can be integrated with other types of accounting statistics

(Federal Statistical Office Germany, 2005). Indicator sets should be derived as much as
possible from existing accounting data sets, while existing accounting data should be
extended towards sustainable development requirements.
Hart (1997) recommends asking the following questions about potential indicators:
• Is it relevant to the community's definition of sustainability? Sustainability in an urban or
suburban area can be quite different from sustainability in a rural town. How well does the
direction the indicator is pointing match the community's vision of sustainability?
• Is it understandable to the community at large? If it is understood only by experts, it will
only be used by experts.
• Is it developed, accepted, and used by the community? How much do people really think
about the indicator? We all know how much money we make every year. How many
people really know how much water they use in a day?
• Does it provide a long-term view of the community? Is there information about where the
community has been as well as where the community should be in 20, 30, or 50 years?
• Does it link the different areas of the community? The areas to link are: culture/social,
economy, education, environment, health, housing, quality of life, politics, population,
public safety, recreation, resource consumption/use, and transportation.
• Is it based on information that is reliable, accessible, timely and accurate?
• Does the indicator consider local impacts at the expense of global impacts, for example,
by encouraging negative impacts to be shifted to other locations?
The use of indicators is just one step in the overall planning process, which includes
consulting stakeholders, defining problems, establishing goals and objectives; identifying
and evaluating options, developing policies and plans, implementing programs,
establishing performance targets and measuring impacts (“Planning and Evaluation,”
VTPI, 2005).
11
12
Vehicle Travel As A Sustainability Indicator

Motor vehicle travel (measured as Vehicle Miles Traveled [VMT] or Vehicle Kilometers
Traveled [VKT], and Passenger Miles Traveled [PMT] or Passenger Kilometers Traveled
[PKT]) is sometimes used as a sustainability indicator, assuming that motorized travel is
unsustainable because it is resource intensive and environmentally harmful. But this is
controversial because motorized travel also provides economic and consumer benefits.
Some people argue that high levels of motorized travel can be sustainable with
technological improvements in vehicle and roadway designs (Dudson, 1998).
This issue can be viewed from an economic efficiency perspective. Current transport
markets are distorted in ways that result in economically excessive motor vehicle travel,
including various forms of road and parking underpricing, uncompensated environmental
impacts, biased transport planning practices (e.g., dedicated highway funding, modeling
that overlooks generated traffic effect, etc.), and land use planning practices that favor
lower-density, automobile-oriented development (e.g., restrictions on density and multi-
family housing, minimum parking supply, pricing that favors urban-fringe locations, etc.)
(“Market Principles,” VTPI, 2005). Some analysis indicates that more than a third of all
motor vehicle travel results from these distortions (Litman, 2005b).
To the degree that market distortions increase vehicle travel beyond what is economically
optimal (beyond what consumers would choose in an efficient market), the additional
vehicle travel can be considered unsustainable and policies that correct these distortions
increase sustainability. In this context, vehicle mileage and shifts to non-automobile
modes can be considered sustainability indicators. This may not apply in some situations,
such as in developing countries when vehicle ownership is growing from low to medium
levels, and where transportation markets are efficient.
Specific planning decisions can be evaluated according to whether they increase or

reduce market efficiency. For example, when evaluating potential congestion reduction
strategies, those that increase automobile traffic and sprawl (e.g., roadway expansion)
can be considered unsustainable, while those that correct underpricing (e.g. road and
parking pricing), increase transport system diversity (e.g., walking, cycling, rideshare and
transit improvements), and encourage more efficient travel behavior (e.g., commute trip
reduction programs) can be considered to increase sustainability. In situations where a
significant portion of vehicle travel is excessive (such as urban peak conditions) blunter
incentives may be justified, such as regulations that limit automobile travel and favor
alternative modes.
13
Indicators By Category
This section describes the selection of sustainable transportation indicators by category.
Economic Indicators
Economic development refers to a community’s progress toward economic objectives
such as increased income, wealth, employment, productivity and social welfare. Welfare
(as used by economists) refers to total human wellbeing and happiness. Economic
policies are generally intended to maximize welfare, although this is difficult to measure
directly. Instead, monetary income, wealth and productivity (such as Gross Domestic
Product [GDP]) are often used as economic indicators. But these indicators can be
criticized on several grounds (Cobb, Halstead and Rowe, 1999; Dixon, 2004).
• They only measure material wealth that is traded in a market, and so overlook other
factors that contribute to wellbeing such as health, self-reliance, love, community, pride,
environmental resources, freedom, etc.
• These indicators give a positive value to destructive activities that reduce people’s health
and self-reliance, and therefore increase their use of market goods (medical services,
purchased rather than home-grown or gathered foods and fuel).
• As they are typically used, these indicators do not reflect the distribution of wealth
(although they can be used to compare wealth between different groups).
Two communities can have similar economic productivity, and two people can have
similar wealth, yet one has greater wellbeing overall due to differences in how the wealth
is created, distributed and used. There are many possible traps by which increased wealth
can fail to increase welfare, for example, if a productive process harms the environment
and makes people sick, if wealth distribution is severely unequal, if wealth is spent
inefficiently, and if increased material wealth disrupts community cohesion, pride,
freedom or other nonmarket goods.
Put differently, people often have significant nonmarket wealth ignored by conventional
economic indicators, such clean air and water, health, public resources, self-reliance
skills, the ability to farm and gather food, and social networks that provide security,
education, entertainment, and other services. Market activities that degrade these free and
low-cost resources make people poorer, forcing them to earn and spend more money for
commercial replacements. Conventional economic indicators treat these shifts as entirely
positive. More accurate indicators account for both the losses and gains of such changes.
Material wealth provides declining marginal social welfare benefits, which means that
each additional unit of wealth provides less benefit than the last, because consumers
purchase the most rewarding goods first, so additional wealth allows increasing less
rewarding expenditures. For example, if a person only earns $10,000 annually, giving
them another $10,000 makes them far better off. But the same $10,000 increase in
income provides less benefit to somebody earning $50,000 annually, and less to
somebody earning $100,000, and even less to somebody earning $500,000.
14
However, people seldom recognize these diminishing benefits, because as they become
wealthier their financial expectations increase. As consumers become wealthier an
increasing portion of their expenditures reflect status (also called prestige or positional)
goods. Although such expenditures provide perceived benefits to individuals, they
provide little or no net benefit to society since as one consumer displays more wealth,
others must match it to maintain status. If you purchase a mansion, I feel obliged to
purchase an equal size home, even if we both end up with larger houses than we can
really use. In this way, a large increase in productivity and income may provide little gain
in social welfare, particularly if it is directed at already wealthy consumers.
Transportation activities reflect these patterns. In accessible communities people can

reach most destinations using low-cost modes such as walking, bicycle, wagon and
public transit, but increased automobile dependency tends to reduce the performance of
these modes (“Automobile Dependency,” VTPI, 2005). It makes nonmotorized travel
difficult and dangerous. Low-cost modes receive less consideration in planning and
investments. More dispersed land use patterns result in more trips beyond walking and
cycling distances. As private vehicles become common, other modes lose status and
consumers must own more costly vehicles to maintain prestige. As a result, motor vehicle
ownership and use may increase with little net gain in accessibility or social welfare.
Transportation can leverage other economic impacts (“Economic Development Impacts,”

VTPI, 2005). Vehicle and fuel expenditures tend to provide less business activity and
employment than most other consumer expenditures, since they are mostly imported and
capital rather than labor intensive. Such expenditures are particularly burdensome to the
economies of developing countries that import petroleum. Increased motor vehicle
ownership and use increase road and parking facility costs, reduce productivity due to
congestion, and harm certain industries, particularly those that require clean
environments such as tourism, agriculture and fisheries.
Sustainable transportation economic indicators should reflect both the benefits and costs
of motor vehicle use, and the possibility that more motorized mobility reflects a reduction
in overall accessibility and transport diversity, rather than a net gain in social welfare.
Increased mobility that provides little or negative net benefits to society can be
considered to reduce sustainability, while policies that increase the net benefits from each
unit of mobility can be considered to increase sustainability.
Table 5 lists possible economic indicators of sustainable transportation.
15
Table 5 Economic Indicators of Sustainable Transportation

Indicator Description Direction Data
Availability
User Overall transport system user satisfaction ratings. More is better 3
satisfaction
Commute Time Average door-to-door commute travel time. Less is better 1
Employment Number of job opportunities and commercial services within 30- More is better 3
Accessibility minute travel distance of residents.
Land Use Mix Average number of basic services (schools, shops and government More is better 3
offices) within walking distance of homes.
Electronic Portion of population with Internet service. More is better 2
communication
Vehicle travel Per capita motor vehicle-mileage, particularly in urban-peak Less is better 1
conditions.
Transport Variety and quality of transport options available in a community. More is better 3
diversity
Mode Split Portion of travel made by non-automobile modes: walking, More is better 2
cycling, rideshare, public transit and telework.
Congestion Per capita traffic congestion delay. Less is better. 2
delay
Travel costs Portion of household expenditures devoted to transport. Less is better. 2
Transport cost Transportation costs as a portion of total economic activity, and per Less is better. 2
efficiency unit of GDP.
Facility costs Per capita expenditures on roads, parking and traffic services. Less is better 1
Cost Efficiency Portion of road and parking costs borne directly by users. More is better 2
Freight Speed and affordability of freight and commercial transport. More is better 3
efficiency
Delivery Quantity and quality of delivery services (international/intercity More is better 2
services courier, and stores that offer delivery).
Commercial Quality of transport services for commercial users (businesses, Higher is 3
transport public agencies, tourists, convention attendees). better
Crash costs Per capita crash costs Less is better 2
Planning Comprehensiveness of the planning process: whether it considers More is better 2
Quality all significant impacts and uses best current evaluation practices.
Mobility Implementation of mobility management programs to address More is better 2
management problems and increase transport system efficiency.
Pricing reforms Implementation of pricing reforms such as congestion pricing, More is better 2
Parking Cash Out, tax reforms, etc.
Land use Applies smart growth land use planning practices, resulting in More is better 2
planning more accessible, multi-modal communities.
Data availability: 1 = usually available in standardized form; 2 = often available but not standardized; 3 =
limited, may require special data collection.
16
Social Indicators
Social impacts include equity, human health (which is also an economic impact if disease
imposes financial costs or reduces productivity), community livability (the quality of the
local environment as experienced by people in an area) and community cohesion (the
quality of interactions among people living in a community), impacts on historic and
cultural resources (such as historic sites and traditional community activities), and
aesthetics. Various methods can be used to quantify these impacts (Forkenbrock and
Weisbrod, 2001; Litman, 2004b; “TDM Evaluation,” VTPI, 2005).
Transportation equity can be evaluated with a variety of perspectives and impacts

(FHWA and FTA, 2002; Caubel, 2004; Litman, 2005a). It requires comparing differences
in transport options, service quality, impacts and between different groups, particularly
impacts on people who are economically, physically and socially disadvantaged.
Human health impacts of transportation include accident injuries, pollution illness, and
health problems from inadequate physical activity. Policies that improve walking and
cycling conditions and increase nonmotorized travel improve mobility for disadvantaged
people and increase fitness and so tend to support sustainable transportation. Community
livability and cohesion (Litman, 2006a) can be measured using field surveys to see how
transport facilities and activities impact the human environment, surveys of residents to
determine how these impacts affects interactions among neighbors, and economic
surveys to see how this affects property values and business activity. Historic and cultural
resources can be evaluated using surveys which ascertain the value people place on them.
Table 6 lists examples of possible social indicators of sustainable transportation.
Table 6 Social Indicators of Sustainable Transportation

Availability
User rating Overall satisfaction of transport system by disadvantaged users. More is better 3
Safety Per capita crash disabilities and fatalities. Less is better 1
Fitness Portion of population that walks and cycles sufficient for fitness More is better 3
and health (15 minutes or more daily).
Community Degree to which transport activities support community livability More is better 3
livability objectives (local environmental quality).
Cultural Degree to which cultural and historic values are reflected and More is better 3
preservation preserved in transport planning decisions.
Non-drivers Quality of transport services and access for non-drivers. More is better 3
Affordability Portion of budgets spent on transport by lower income households. Less is better 2
Disabilities Quality of transport facilities and services for disabled people. More is better 2
NMT transport Quality of walking and cycling conditions. More is better. 3
Children’s Portion of children’s travel to school and other local destinations More is better 2
travel by walking and cycling.
Inclusive Substantial involvement of affected people, with special efforts to More is better 2
planning insure that disadvantaged and vulnerable groups are involved
Environmental Indicators
17
Environmental impacts include various types of air pollution (including gases that
contribute to climate change), noise, water pollution, depletion of nonrenewable
resources, landscape degradation (including pavement or damage to ecologically
productive lands, habitat fragmentation, hydrologic disruptions due to pavement), heat
island effects (increased ambient temperature resulting from pavement), and wildlife
deaths from collisions. Various methods can be used to measure these impacts and
quantify their ecological and human costs (EEA, 2001; Litman, 2004b; FHWA, 2004).
Of course there is considerable uncertainty about many of these costing methodologies

and the resulting values. There are various ways of dealing with such uncertainty,
including improved analysis methodologies, use of cost ranges rather than point values,
and establishment of reference standards (such as acceptable levels of ambient air
pollution and noise levels).
Many existing estimates of environmental impacts are partial analyses. For example,
many monetized estimates of air pollution costs only include a portion of the types of
harmful emissions produced by motor vehicles, and many only consider human health
impacts, ignoring ecological, agricultural and aesthetic damages (Litman, 2004b).
Table 7 lists possible environmental indicators of sustainable transportation.
Table 7 Environmental Indicators of Sustainable Transportation

Availability
Environment
Climate change Per capita fossil fuel consumption, and emissions of CO2 and other Less is better 1
emissions climate change emissions.
Other air Per capita emissions of “conventional” air pollutants (CO, VOC, Less is better 2
pollution NOx, particulates, etc.)
Air pollution Frequency of air pollution standard violations. Less is better 1
Noise pollution Portion of population exposed to high levels of traffic noise. Less is better 2
Water pollution Per capita vehicle fluid losses. Less is better 3
Land use Per capita land devoted to transportation facilities. Less is better 3
impacts
Habitat Preservation of high-quality wildlife habitat (wetlands, old-growth More is better 3
protection forests, etc.)
Habitat Average size of roadless wildlife preserves. More is better 3
fragmentation
Resource Non-renewable resource consumption in the production and use of Less is better 2
efficiency vehicles and transport facilities.
In practice, it is often infeasible to apply all the indicators described above, due to data
collection and analysis costs. Later in this report these indicators are prioritized to
indicate those that are most important and should usually be applied.
18
Accounting Indicators
Sustainable indicator systems are generally separate from conventional statistics and
accounting systems commonly used by public and private organizations to evaluate the
value of assets and activities, such as censuses, national accounts and corporate reports.
Yet, both systems are based on the same principles and similar data. It may be possible to
integrate these systems to provide comprehensive indicators, so sustainability evaluation
systems incorporate economic accounting, and economic accounting systems incorporate
sustainability indicators (Federal Statistical Office Germany, 2005).
Integrating these different systems requires the following:

• Accountants and statisticians be consulted concerning the developing of sustainability
indicators so that, as much as possible, indicators are consistent with standard accounting
principles and practices. For example, resource consumption data, such as energy and
water use, can be collected and incorporated into annual reports in order to indicate the
resource efficiency of production (energy and water consumed per unit of output).
• As much as possible, nonmarket impacts (such as environmental assets and human health
damages) be monetized (measured in monetary units) so that they can be incorporated into
standard accounts. For example, corporate accounts can include an “environmental assets”
section, and the value of lost ecological services that results when land is paved can be
treated as depreciation, and the value of improved environmental quality that results when
a brownfield site is cleaned up can be treated as asset appreciation.
• Sustainability indicators include special analysis of long-term asset valuation and
profitability. For example, strategic plans can be evaluated in terms of their impacts on
corporate value a decade in the future.
There is a danger that efforts to integrate economic and sustainability indicators will end
up focusing on factors that are easier to measure (such as quantified economic impacts)
and overlook factors that are more difficult to measure (such as qualitative environmental
and social impacts) and so perpetuate current biases.
19
Conventional Transport Indicators

Conventional transport indicators mostly consider motor vehicles traffic conditions.
Below are examples (ITE, 1999; Homberger, et al., 2001).
• Roadway level-of-service (LOS), which is an indicator of vehicle traffic speeds and congestion
delay at a particular stretch of roadway or intersection. A higher rating is considered better.
• Average traffic speeds. Assumes higher is better.
• Average congestion delay, measured annually per capita. Lower is considered better.
• Parking convenience and price. Increased convenience and lower price is generally
considered better.
• Crash rates per vehicle-mile. Lower crash rates are considered better.
Because they focus on motor vehicle travel quality and ignore other impacts, these
indicators tend to justify policies and projects that increase motorized travel. For
example, they justify road and parking facility capacity expansion that tends to create
more automobile-oriented transport and land use systems, increasing per capita vehicle
travel and reducing the viability of walking, cycling and public transit. This tends to
contradict sustainability objectives by increasing per capita resource consumption, traffic
congestion, road and parking facility costs, traffic accidents, pollution emissions and land
consumption, and reducing travel options for non-drivers, exacerbating inequity
By evaluating impacts per vehicle-mile rather than per capita, they do not consider
increased vehicle mileage to be a risk factor and they ignore vehicle traffic reductions as
possible solution to transport problems (Litman, 2003). For example, from this
perspective an increase in per capita vehicle crashes is not a problem provided that there
is a comparable increase in vehicle mileage. Increased vehicle travel can even be
considered a traffic safety strategy if it occurs under relatively safe conditions, because
more safe miles reduce per-mile crash and casualty rates.
A variety of methods are now available for evaluating the quality of alternative transport
mode (walking, cycling, public transit, etc.), but they require additional data collection
and are not yet widely used (FDOT, 2002; “Evaluating Transport Options, VTPI, 2005).
20
Examples of Sustainable Transportation Indicator Sets

Below are examples of sustainability and sustainable transport indicator sets. For more examples
see Gudmundsson, 2001 and Mihyeon Jeon and Amekudzi, 2005.
Table 8 is an example of a Genuine Progress Indicator developed for Alberta, Canada,

reflecting overall sustainability. Other regions, goals and analysis perspectives may
require somewhat different indicators. These indicators can be applied to transport
planning, by selecting those that are affected by transport facilities and activities, and
using them to evaluate options.
Table 8 Sustainability Indicators (Pembina Institute, 2001)

Economy, GDP and Trade Time Use Energy
Economic growth (GDP) Paid work time Oil and gas reserve life
Economic diversity Household work
Trade Parenting and eldercare Agriculture
Free time Agricultural sustainability
Personal Consumption Volunteerism
Expenditures, Disposable Income Commuting time Forests
and Savings Timber sustainability
Disposable income Human Health and Wellness Forest fragmentation
Personal expenditures Life expectancy
Taxes Premature mortality Parks and Wilderness
Savings rate Infant mortality Parks and wilderness
Obesity
Money, Debt, Assets and Net Fish and Wildlife
Worth Suicide Fish and wildlife
Household Debt Suicide
Wetlands and Peatlands
Income Inequality, Wealth, Substance Abuse: Alcohol, Drugs Wetlands
Poverty and Living Wages and Tobacco Peatlands
Income distribution Drug use (youth)
Poverty Water Resource and Quality
Auto Crashes and Injuries Water quality
Public and Household Auto crashes
Infrastructure Energy Use Intensity and Air
Public infrastructure Family Breakdown Quality
Household infrastructure Divorce Energy use intensity
Air quality-related emissions
Employment Crime Greenhouse gas emissions
Weekly wage rate Crime
Unemployment rate Carbon Budget
Underemployment Gambling Carbon budget deficit
Problem gambling
Transportation Municipal and Hazardous Waste
Transportation expenditures Democracy Hazardous waste
Voter participation Landfill waste
Intellectual & Knowledge Capital Ecological Footprint

Educational attainment Ecological footprint
This table summarizes Genuine Progress Indicators used to evaluate sustainability.
21
Green Community Checklist

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 2003) proposes that a “green”
community strives to:
Environment
• Comply with environmental regulations.
• Practice waste minimization and pollution prevention.
• Conserve natural resources through sustainable land use.
Economic
• Promote diverse, locally-owned and operated sustainable businesses.
• Provide adequate affordable housing.
• Promote mixed-use residential areas which provide for open space.
• Promote economic equity.
Social
• Actively involve citizens from all sectors of the community through open, inclusive public
outreach.
• Ensure that public actions are sustainable, while incorporating local values and historical and
cultural considerations.
• Create and maintain safe, clean neighborhoods and recreational facilities for all.
• Provide adequate and efficient infrastructure (water, sewer, etc.) that minimizes human health
and environmental harm, and transportation systems that accommodate broad public access,
bike and pedestrian paths.
• Ensure equitable and effective educational and health-care systems.
Ecological Footprint (www.footprintnetwork.org)

The Ecological Footprint is a resource management tool that measures how much land
and water area a human population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to
absorb its wastes under prevailing technology. This includes, for example, the amount of
farmland needed to provide food and fibers, the amount of forest needed to provide wood
and paper, the amount of watershed needed to provide water, the amount of land needed
to produce energy, and the amount of land needed to absorb wastewater on a sustainable
basis for person’s consumption pattern.
Today, humanity's Ecological Footprint is over 23% larger than what the planet can
regenerate. In other words, it now takes more than one year and two months for the Earth
to regenerate what we use in a single year. We maintain this overshoot by liquidating the
planet's ecological resources. By measuring the Ecological Footprint of a population (an
individual, a city, a nation, or all of humanity) we can assess our overshoot, which helps
us manage our ecological assets more carefully. Ecological Footprints enable people to
take personal and collective actions in support of a world where humanity lives within
the means of one planet.
22
Happy Planet Index (www.happyplanetindex.org)

The Happy Plant Index (HPI) developed by Friends of the Earth is calculated by
multiplying indicators of Life Satisfaction times Life Expectancy and dividing by
Ecological Footprint (resource consumption). Developing nations tend to rate relatively
high by this index because they require fewer resources to achieve a given level of
happiness, indicating greater ecological efficiency.
USDOT Environmental Performance Measures

The US Departement of Transportation uses the following environmental performance
indicators (FHWA, 2002).
Emissions – Tons of mobile source emissions from on-road motor vehicles
Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Metric tons of carbon equivalent emissions from
transportation sources.
Energy – Transportation-related petroleum consumption per gross domestic product.
Wetlands Protection – Acres of wetlands replaced for every acre affected by Federal-aid
Highway projects.
Livable Communities/Transit Service – Percent urban population living within 1-mile of
transit stop with service of 15 mintues or less.
Airport Noise Exposure – Number of people in US exposed to significant aircraft noise
levels.
Maritime Oil Spills – Gallons of oil spilled per million gallons shipped by maratime
sources.
Fisheries Protection – Compliance with Federal fisheries regulations.
Toxic Materials – Tonns of hazardous liquid materials spilled per millon ton-miles
shipped; and gallons of hazardous liquid spilled per serious transportation incident.
Hazardous Waste – Percent DOT faciliteis categorized as No Further Remedial Action
Planned under Superfund Act.
Environmental Justice – Environmental justice cases that remain unresolved over one
year.
23
Sustainable Transportation Performance Indicators

The Sustainable Transportation Performance Indicators (STPI) project by the Centre for
Sustainable Transportation produced the indicators summarized in Table 9.
Table 9 Sustainable Transportation Performance Indicators (Gilbert, et al, 2003)

Framework Initial STPI Short-term Additions Long-Term Additions
1. Environmental Use of fossil fuel energy for all Air quality. Noise
and Health transport.
Consequences of Waste from road transport. Effects on human health.
transport. Greenhouse gas emissions for all
Discharges into water. Effects on ecosystem health.
transport.
Land use for transport.
Index of emissions of air pollutants
from road transport. Proximity of infrastructure to
sensitive areas and ecosystem
Index of incidence of road injuries
fragmentation.
and fatalities.
2. Transport activity Total motorized movement of people. Utilization of passenger vehicles. Urban and intercity person-
kilometers.
Total motorized movement of freight. Urban automobile vehicle-
kilometers. Freight modal participation.
Share of passenger travel not by land-
based public transport. Travel by non-motorized modes in Utilization of freight vehicles.
urban areas.
Movement of light-duty passenger
vehicles. Journey-to-work mode shares.
3. Land use, urban Urban land use per capita. Urban land use by class size and Share of urban population and
form and zone. employment served by transit.
accessibility
Employment density by urban size, Share of population and
class and zone. employment growth on already
urbanized lands.
Mixed use (percent walking to
work, ratio of jobs to employed Travel and modal split by urban
labour force. zone.
4. Supply of Length of paved roads. Length of sustainable Congestion index.
transport infrastructure.
infrastructure and
services. Transit seat-kilometers per capita.
5. Transport Index of relative household transport Percent of net government transport Transport related user charges.
expenditures and costs. expenditures spent on ground-based
pricing. Expenditures by businesses on
public transport.
Index of relative cost of urban transportation.
transport.
6. Technology Index of energy intensity of cars and Percent of alternative fuel vehicles Percent of passenger-kms and
adoption. trucks. in the fleet. tonne-kms fuelled by
renewable energy.
Index of emissions intensity of the
road-vehicle fleet. Percent of labour force
regularly telecommuting.
7. Implementation Number of sustainable transport Number of urban regions where
and monitoring. indicators regularly updated and planning and delivery of
widely reported. transport and related land use
matters have a single authority.
Public support for initiatives to
achieve sustainable transport.
Environmentally Sustainable Transport
24
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2001) developed
the following indicators of Environementally Sustainable Transport (EST).
• CO2 – Climate change is prevented by avoiding increased per-capita carbon-dioxide emissions.
• NOX – Ambient NO2, ozone levels and nitrogen deposition is greatly reduced.
• VOC – Damage from carcinogenic VOCs and ozone is greatly reduced.
• Particulates – Harmful ambient air levels are avoided by reducing emissions of fine
particulates (particularly those less than 10 microns in size).
• Noise – Ambient noise levels that present a health concern or serious nuisance (maximum 55-
70 decibels during the day and 45 decibels at night and indoors).
• Land use – Transport facility land consumption is reduced to the extent that local and
regional objectives for ecosystem protection are met.
The OECD concludes that environmentally sustainable transport will require:

• Significant reduction in car ownership and use, and shifts to more efficient vehicles.
• Reduced long-distance passenger and freight travel, particularly air travel, and increased non-
motorized short-distance travel.
• Energy-efficient, electric powered, high-speed rail.
• Energy-efficient, less polluting shipping.
• More accessible development patterns.
• Increased use of telecommunications to substitute for physical travel.
• More efficient production to reduce long-distance freight transport.
Global Reporting Initiative (www.globalreporting.org)

The Global Reporting Initiative provides guidance for organizations to use for disclosure
about their sustainability performance using a universally-applicable Sustainability
Reporting Framework that allows consistent, understandable and comparable results.
This effort supports a variety of reporting and accounting programs, including the UN
Global Compact (UNGC) and ISO 14000.
Performance Indicators
Transportation planners use various performance indicators for evaluating transportation
conditions, prioritizing improvements, and day-to-day operations. Meyers (2005)
describes and compares various performance indicators used by transportation planners
in three countries. These include indicators related to roadway conditions (congestion,
travel times, crashes), freight transport efficiency, pollution emissions, quality of various
modes (including walking, cycling and public transit) and user satisfaction.
25
Mobility For People With Special Needs and Disadvantages

Special consideration should be given to evaluating the ability of a transportation system
to serve people who face the greatest mobility constraints, such as wheelchair users and
people with very low incomes (Litman and Richert, 2005; Litman, 2005a). Special effort
may be made to identify these users in transportation surveys and ridership profiles,
evaluation of transportation system features in terms of their ability to accommodate
people with disabilities. The following are possible performance indicators.
1. Surveys of disadvantaged people to determine the degree to which they are constrained in
meeting their basic mobility needs (travel to medical services, school, work, basic shopping,
etc.) due to inadequate facilities and services.
2. Travel surveys that identify the degree of mobility by disadvantaged people, and how this
compares with the mobility of able-bodied and higher-income people.
3. The degree to which various transportation modes and services accommodate disadvantaged
people, including the ability of walking facilities and transit vehicles to accommodate
wheelchair users and users with other disabilities, and transportation service discounts and
subsidies for people with low incomes.
4. Degree to which disadvantaged people are considered in transportation planning through the
involvement of individuals and advocates in the planning process, special data collection, and
special programs.
5. The portion of pedestrian facilities that accommodate wheelchair users, and the number of
barriers within the system.
6. The frequency of failures, such as excessive waiting times, inaccurate user information and
passups of disadvantaged people by transportation services.
7. User surveys to determine the problems, barriers and costs disadvantaged people face using
transportation services.
8. The portion of time and financial budgets devoted to transportation by disadvantaged people.
9. Indicators of the physical risks facing people with disabilities using the transportation system,
such as the number of pedestrians with disabilities who are injured or killed by motor
vehicles, and the frequency of assault on transit users, particularly those with disabilities and
lower incomes (who are often forced to use transit services in less secure times and locations,
due to fewer transportation options).
26
World Business Council Sustainable Mobility Indicators

The table below summarizes sustainable mobility indicators developed for the World
Business Council’s Sustainable Mobility project.
Table 10 Sustainable Mobility Indicators (Eads, 2001)

User Concerns Societal Concerns Business Concerns
Ease of access to means of Impacts on the environment and on public Profitability (ability to earn at least
mobility health and safety a competitive return on
investment)
Financial outlay required of Greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 equivalent)
user Total market size
“Conventional” emissions – NOx, CO, SO2,
Average door-to-door time VOC, particulates Conditions determining market
required acceptance
Safety (number of deaths and serious
Reliability, measured as injuries) Required competences
variability in average door-to-
Security Private investment required
door time
Noise Necessity/possibility of “launching
Safety (chance of death or
aid” and payback conditions
serious injury befalling the Land use
user) Investment net of publicly-
Resource use (including recycling)
provided infrastructure
Security (chance of the user
Impacts on public revenues and
being subjected to robbery, Cash flow generation
expenditures
assault, etc.)
Potential cash flow from
“Launching aid”
operations
Publicly-provided infrastructure
Gap between likely actual and
Required operating subsidies required cash flow; potential for
public subsidies
Potential for reducing public expenditures
Policy barriers/incentives
Potential for generating government
revenues
Equity impacts
Eliminating overlaps resulted in the following set

• Ease of accessibility to means of mobility.
• Financial outlay required.
• Average required door-to-door time.
• Reliability (variability in required average door-to-door time).
• Safety (risk of death or serious injury befalling the user).
• Security (risk of the user being subjected to robbery, assault, etc.).
• Transport-related GHG emissions.
• Impact on environment, public health and safety (with associated sub-indicators).
• Impact on public revenues and expenditures (with associated sub-indicators).
• Equity implications (with associated sub-indicators).
• Prospective rate of return (with associated sub-indicators).
27
Sustainability Checklist
Below are sustainability indicators developed by Region 10 USEPA employees working on
sustainable planning implementation.
• Identify Non-sustainability: Determine if the project has identified those currently non-
sustainable practices and behaviors that are to be addressed by the project.
• Value Natural Capital: Determine if the project will succeed at placing value on natural
capital (soil and agricultural productivity, climate regulation, wetlands treatment of
contaminants, etc.).
• See Waste as Food: Ask if our activity is systems-focused in that it seeks to model
nature's patterns of waste as food where the goal is established of eliminating the practice
and concept of waste.
• Use Local Resources: Identify whether the project maximizes or has a plan to maximize
the efficient use of local resources (human, material, energy) rather than depending more
on the import of material goods and services for its success.
• Promote Social Equity: Determine if the project explicitly addresses a goal of fairly
sharing its benefits and burdens within the affected community.
• Practice Value-added Economics: Examine whether the project features maximum

value-added economic activity as a way of optimizing the efficient use of human and
natural resources within the community.
• Promote Ecosystem Health: Ask if the project demonstrates and promotes the goal of
enhanced ecosystem integrity for the specific bioregional project areas to be affected by
the proposal (watershed, riparian zone, wetlands, headwaters, grasslands, forest, and
maintenance of biodiversity).
• Enhance Meaningful Work: Identify if the project will provide both the quality and
quantity of employment opportunities needed to address a pre-existing situation of
underemployment with the affected community.
• Support Community Inclusiveness: Ask whether the project features or encourages the
participation of all members of the community directly or indirectly affected by the
proposed course of action. Is greater opportunity for equity promoted?
• Avoid Problem-Shifting: Look to see if the project minimizes the shifts of impacts from
one community to another (locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally) in areas
such as waste disposal, resource depletion, and economic dislocation.
• Reflect Intergenerational Equity: See if the project has a sufficiently long-term time
horizon that addresses the likelihood that the project can continue indefinitely without
violating any of the checklist items above.
28
TERM
The European Union’s Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (TERM)
identifies the sustainable transportation indicators summarized in Table 11.
Table 11 Proposed TERM Indicator List (EEA, 2002)

Group Indicators
Transport and Environment Performance
Transport final energy consumption and primary energy consumption, and share in total (fossil,
Environmental nuclear, renewable) by mode.
consequences of Transport emissions and share in total emissions for CO2, NOx, NM, VOCs, PM10, SOx, by mode.
transport Exceedances of air quality objectives.
Exposure to and annoyance by traffic noise.
Infrastructure influence on ecosystems and habitats (“fragmentation”) and proximity of transport
infrastructure to designated sites.
Land take by transport infrastructures.
Number of transport accidents, fatalities, injured, polluting accidents (land, air and maritime).
Passenger transport (by mode and purpose): Freight transport (by mode and group of goods):
Transport total passengers total tonnes
volume and total passenger-kilometers total tonne-kilometers
intensity passenger-kilometers per capita tonne-kilometers per capita
passenger-kilometers per GDP tonne-kilometers per GDP
Determinants of the Transport/environment System
Average passenger journey time and length per mode, purpose (commuting, shopping, leisure) and
Spatial planning territory (urban/rural).
and Accessibility Access to transport services e.g.: motor vehicles per household, portion of households located
within 500m of public transport.
Capacity of transport infrastructure networks, by mode and by type of infrastructure (e.g.
Transport supply motorway, national road, municipal road etc.).
Investments in transport infrastructure/capita and by mode.
Real passenger and freight transport price by mode.
Fuel price.
Price signals Taxes.
Subsidies.
Expenditure for personal mobility per person by income group.
Proportion of infrastructure and environmental costs (including congestion costs) covered by price.
Energy efficiency for passenger and freight transport (per pass-km and per tonne-km and by mode).
Emissions per pass-km and emissions per tonne-km for CO2, NOx, NM, VOCs, PM10, SOx by
Technology and mode.
utilization Occupancy rates of passenger vehicles.
efficiency Load factors for road freight transport (LDV, HDV).
Uptake of cleaner (unleaded petrol, electric, alternative fuels) and alternative fuelled vehicles.
Vehicle fleet size and average age.
Proportion of vehicle fleet meeting certain air and noise emission standards (by mode).
Number of Member States that implement an integrated transport strategy.
Management Number of Member States with national transport and environment monitoring system.
integration Uptake of strategic environmental assessment in the transport sector.
Uptake of environmental management systems by transport companies.
Public awareness and behaviour.
This table summarizes indicators used to evaluate transport sustainability in the TERM project.
29
SUMMA
SUMMA (SUstainable Mobility Measures and Assessment) is a European Commission
sponsored project to define and operationalize sustainable mobility, develop indicators,
assess the scale of sustainability problems associated with transport, and identify policy
measures to promote sustainable transport (www.SUMMA-EU.org). Table 12 shows the
scope of its analysis.
Table 12 SUMMA Outcomes of Interest

Economic Environmental Social
EC1: Accessibility EN1: Resource use SO1: Accessibility and affordability
Economic accessibility has two The use of materials, energy and The time and cost required to reach
aspects: (1) local access of goods other resources by the transport basic services. Lower income
and people to services, work, sector. individuals generally have poorer
industrial plants, etc., and (2) long accessibility to basic services than those
distance links among regions. well off.
EC2: Transport operating costs EN2: Direct ecological intrusion SO2: Safety and security
The costs to the user of the The impacts of transport on flora Safety implies freedom from danger.
transport system, both direct user and fauna that are not caused by Security concerns freedom from fear (of
costs (fuel, ticket prices, transport emissions or pollution, but rather crime or other undesired actions).
equipment), and indirect costs, such by transport infrastructure
as the costs of congestion. (building, using, and
maintaining).
EC3: Productivity/Efficiency EN3: Emissions to air SO3: Fitness and health
Providing conditions for an Emissions of pollutants, etc. into The trend to perform short trips by car
expanding, productive and efficient the air, which affect health and decreases fitness and increases the
economy, and therefore for more harm buildings. Also the emission threat to health (through increased
individual and public welfare. of greenhouse gasses, which pollution).
Inefficiencies increase the contributes to global warming.
resources needed to produce
benefits.
EC4: Costs to economy EN4: Emissions to soil and water SO4: Livability and amenity
All costs of transport (except for Emissions of pollutants to soil and Transport influences our quality of life.
the individual user), i.e. water, wastewater from It concerns an individual’s direct
infrastructure investments, manufacture and maintenance, surroundings and the impact transport
maintenance, public subsidies, final runoff from roads, discharges of has on it. It concerns not only
energy consumption and external oil and wastewater by ships, etc. measurable aspects (noise, pollution)
costs of transport. but also perceptions and attitudes.
EC5: Benefits to economy The EN5: Noise SO5: Equity
gross value added generated by the Transport is one of the most This concerns the fair distribution of
transport sector, national revenues significant sources of noise in costs and benefits among different
from taxes and traffic system urban areas. There is evidence groups in society, among income
charging, and economic growth that noise is related to human and classes, among regions, and among
induced by transport. animal health and wellbeing. generations.
EN6: Waste SO6: Social cohesion
Transport vehicles and The ongoing process of developing a
infrastructure create large community of shared values, challenges
amounts of waste during their life and opportunities based on trust, hope
cycle, which can partly be and reciprocity. It is related to social
recycled or reused, but is capital, which refers to features of
otherwise disposed of by social organisation such as networks,
incineration and in landfills. norms, and social trust that facilitate co-
operation for mutual benefit.
This table summarizes analysis used in the SUMMA project.
30
Aviation Sustainability Indicators

Aviation presents unique sustainable transportation challenges (Upham and Mills, 2003;
Grimley, 2006). Table 13 illustrates indicators developed for evaluating airport
environmental and operational sustainability. This is an example of sustainability
indicators developed for evaluating a particular transport sector or facility. Such
indicators can be converted into reference values, such as impacts per passenger-trip
(arrivals and departures), for tracking performance over time and comparing performance
with peer airports and other interregional travel modes. Threshold indicators are used to
evaluate performance with respect to established limits and targets.
Table 13 Indicators Of Airport Sustainability (Upham and Mills, 2003)

Indicators Absolute Measures Threshold-Related Measures
1. Number of surface access Number arriving at airport boundary - Movement number relative to
vehicles: cars, light goods (monthly, annually) hourly maxima
vehicles, heavy goods vehicles, Number departing airport boundary
buses, motorcycles, rail. (monthly, annually)
2. Aircraft Movements Arrivals (hourly, monthly, yearly). - Movement number relative to
Departures (hourly, monthly, yearly). hourly maximum
3. Static power consumption Fossil-fuelled electricity consumption. - Consumption relative to any
Fossil-fuelled gas consumption. relevant hourly maxima
Wind, solar or bio-generated electricity
consumption.
4. Gaseous pollutant emissions NOx, CO2, N2O, CO2, CO, NMVOC, - Ambient concentrations relative to
(from surface vehicles, static and PM10 (g) per source. statutory EU limits
power, aircraft) Ambient concentrations.
5. Aircraft noise emissions Day, evening and night LAeq (dB) and Land area and numbers of people
LA max (A-weighted long-term average within noise contours (LAeq 50 and
and peak sound level) upward increments) relative to limits.
6. Terminal passengers Number arriving at gates Arrivals and departures relative to
(Number departing gates) hourly maxima.
7. Surface access passengers Number arriving at airport boundary. Arrivals and departures relative to
Number departing airport boundary. hourly maxima.
8. Water consumption & waste Monthly volume consumed. - Volume consumed relative to
water emission Effluent concentrations. hourly maximum.
Ambient concentrations of water - Pollutant concentrations (effluent
pollutants. and ambient) relative to limits.
9. Solid waste Monthly volume arising. Set targets for absolute volumes and
Monthly volume recycled or re-used relate performance to these.
Monthly volume of hazardous waste.
10. Land take & biodiversity Area paved (m2, within airport Set target for absolute areas and
boundary and ownership, includes relate performance to these.
building footprints).
Area of high and medium biodiversity
(m2, within airport boundary and
ownership, includes building
footprints).
This table summarizes airport sustainability indicators. Threshold indicators indicate
performance relative to standards and stated limits.
31
Lyons Regional Indicators

Nicolas, Pochet and Poimboeuf (2003) describe how local travel survey data and other
available information is used to evaluate transport system sustainability in Lyons, France.
This region has 1.2 million inhabitants with a relatively centralized, urban development
pattern.
Indicators were organized to reflect economic, social and environmental impacts.

Economic indicators reflect transport cost-efficiency, that is, the economic costs per unit
of travel, including costs to residents, businesses, and governments. Social indicators
reflect the relative mobility and transportation cost burdens for people in different income
classes. Environmental indicators reflect various transport pollution emissions and land
requirements. These impacts were disaggregated by mode (automobile, public transit,
walking), geographic location (central, middle and outer urban areas) and household
demographics. Table 14 summarizes these indicators
Table 14 Lyons Indicators (Nicolas, Pochet and Poimboeuf, 2003)

Dimension Indicator Level of Analysis
Mobility
Service provided Daily number of trips Overall and by geographic location
Trip purposes
Average daily travel time
Organization of urban Mode split Overall and by travel mode
mobility Daily average distance traveled
Average travel speed
Economic
Cost for the community Annual transportation costs (total, per Overall and per mode
resident and per passenger-km)
• Households
• Businesses
• Local government
Social
Household vehicle ownership Overall, by income and geographic
Personal travel distance location
Household transportation expenditures
(total and as a portion of income)
Environmental
Air pollution - global Annual energy consumption and CO2 Overall, by mode, by location of
emissions (total and per resident) emission, and location of resident.
Air pollution - local CO, NOx, hydrocarbons and particulates Overall, by mode, by location of
(total and per resident) emission, and location of resident.
Space consumption Daily individual consumption of public Overall, by mode and place of
space for transport and parking. residence.
Space required for transport infrastructure.
Other Noise Overall, by mode and place of
Accident risk residence.
This table summarizes sustainable transportation indicators used in Lyons.
32
Good Example Of Bad Indicators

An organization recently sent the following sustainable transportation indicators set:
1. Air quality index ratings and frequency of air pollution standard violations.
2. Number of asthma cases.
3. Number of privately owned hybrid and Alterative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs).
4. City vehicles that are hybrid or AFV.
5. Number of hybrids or AFV taxis.
6. Policies to promote purchase and use of hybrid and AFVs, such as parking incentives, tax
incentives or permission to use HOV lanes.
7. Number of public transit users.
8. Trips by foot or bicycle per capita.
9. Number of conventional vehicles.
10. Carpooling/car sharing program in the city.
11. High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes: percentage of road network.
12. Subway or trolley lines or streetcars.
13. Per capita vehicle fuel consumption.
14. Availability of alternative fuel in the city.
15. Availability of transportation to assist disabled people (handydarts etc.)
16. Ratio of annual investment in public transport versus private transport infrastructure.
17. Ratio of public versus private transport energy use per passenger kilometer.
18. Number of school buses.
This is a good example of bad indicators. Why? Because it assumes that the only
sustainable transport objectives are energy conservation and air pollution emission
reductions, and promoting hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles is the main way to achieve
these objectives. It considers no other sustainability issues, and fails to define how the
indicators are to be interpreted (for example, is increased transit ridership good even if it
reflects poverty?). It lumps together policies (promoting hybrid and alternative fuel
vehicles) with outcomes (air quality levels and asthma cases).
Some of these indicators promote policies that can actually reduce sustainability. For
example, allowing hybrids to use HOV lanes can cause those lanes to become congested
so they no longer encourage transit and rideshare use, which may increase total energy
consumption, pollution emissions, and other transport problems. Similarly, “Number of
school buses” apparently assumes that more busing is better. While school busing may be
better than individual parents chauffeuring children, it is more sustainable for children to
walk to school; high rates of school busing may be an indication of poor land use
planning and bad walking conditions, both of which indicate unsustainable transport.
33
Best Practices
The following principles should be applied when selecting transportation performance
indicators (Hart, 1997; Marsden, Kelly and Snell, 2006):
• Comprehensive – Indicators should reflect various economic, social and environmental
impacts, and various transport activities (such as both personal and freight transport).
• Data quality – Data collection practices should reflect high standards to insure that
information is accurate and consistent.
• Comparable – Data collection should be standardized so the results are suitable for
comparison between various jurisdictions, times and groups. Indicators should be
clearly defined. For example, “Number of people with good access to food shopping”
should specify ‘good access’ and ‘food shopping.’
• Easy to understand – Indicators must useful to decision-makers and understandable to the
general public. The more information condensed into a single index the less meaning it
has for specific policy targets (for example, Ecological Footprint analysis incorporates
many factors) and the greater the likelihood of double counting.
• Accessible and Transparent – Indicators (and the data they are based on) and
analysis details should be available to all stakeholders.
• Cost effective – The suite of indicators should be cost effective to collect. The decision-
making worth of the indicators must outweigh the cost of collecting them.
• Net Effects – Indicators should differentiate between net (total) impacts and shifts of
impacts to different locations and times.
• Performance targets – select indicators that are suitable for establishing usable
performance targets.
Table 15 lists recommended indicator sets grouped into Most Important (should usually
be used), Helpful (should be used if possible) and Specialized (should be used to reflect
particular needs or objectives).
Much of the data required for these indicators may be available through existing sources,
such as censuses and consumer surveys, travel surveys and other reports. Some data can
be collected during regular planning activities. For example, travel surveys and traffic
counts can be modified to better account for alternative modes, and to allow comparisons
between different groups (e.g., surveys can include questions to categorize respondents).
Some indicators require special data that may require additional resources to collect.
Some of these indicators overlap. For example, there are several indicators of transport
diversity (quality and quantity of travel options, mode split, quality of nonmotorized
transport, amount of non-motorized transport, etc.), and cost-based pricing (the degree to
which prices reflect full costs) is considered an indicator of both economic efficiency and
equity/fairness. It may be most appropriate to use just one such indicator, or if several
similar indicators are used, give each a smaller weight.
34
Table 15 Recommended Indicator Sets

Personal mobility (annual Per capita traffic crash and Per capita energy
person-kilometers and trips) fatality rates. consumption, by fuel and
and vehicle travel (annual mode.
Quality of transport for
vehicle-kilometers), by mode
disadvantaged people (disabled, Energy consumption per
(nonmotorized, automobile and
Most Important low incomes, children, etc.). freight ton-mile.
public transport).
(Should usually Affordability (portion of Climate change emissions.
Freight mobility (annual tonne-
be used) household budgets devoted to
kilometers) by mode (truck, Air pollution emissions
transport).
rail, ship and air). (various types), by mode.
Overall transport system
Land use density (people and Air and noise pollution
satisfaction rating (based on
jobs per unit of land area). exposure and health impacts.
objective user surveys).
Average commute travel time Land paved for transport
Universal design (degree to
and reliability. facilities (roads, parking, ports
which the transport system
and airports).
Average freight transport speed accommodates people with
and reliability. disabilities and other special Stormwater management
needs). practices.
Per capita congestion costs.
Total transport expenditures
(vehicles, parking, roads and
transit services).
Quality (availability, speed, Portion of residents who walk or Community livability ratings.
reliability, safety and prestige)
bicycle sufficiently for health
Helpful Water pollution emissions.
of non-automobile modes (15 minutes or more daily).
(Should be used (walking, cycling, ridesharing Habitat preservation in
Portion of children walking or
if possible) and public transit). transport planning.
cycling to school.
Number of public services Use of renewable fuels.
Degree cultural resources are
within 10-minute walk, and job
considered in transport Transport facility resource
opportunities within 30-minute
planning. efficiency (such as use of
commute of residents.
renewable materials and
Housing affordability in
Portion of households with energy efficient lighting).
accessible locations.
internet access.
Impacts on special habitats and
Transit affordability.
environmental resources.
Comprehensive (considers all significant impacts, using best current evaluation practices, and all
suitable options, including alternative modes and demand management strategies).
Inclusive (substantial involvement of affected people, with special efforts to insure that
Planning
disadvantaged and vulnerable groups are involved).
Process
Based on accessibility rather than mobility (considers land use and other accessibility factors).
Portion of total transportation costs that are efficiently priced.
Market Neutrality (public policies do not arbitrarily favor a particular mode or group) in transport pricing,
Efficiency taxes, planning, investment, etc. Applies least cost planning.
This table identifies various sustainable transport indicators ranked by importance and type. For equity
analysis these indicators can be disaggregated by demographic group and geographic location.
35
Some indicators lack performance standards for evaluation. For example, there may be
no suitable performance standards for stormwater management or universal design. In
that case, they may be evaluated based on how well best stormwater management and
universal design practices are included in the planning process.
Indicators can be disaggregated by demographic (income, employment, gender, age,

physical ability, minority status, etc.) and geographic factors (urban, suburban, rural,
etc.), time (peak and off-peak, day and night), and by mode (walking, cycling, transit,
etc.) and trip (commercial, commuting, tourism, shopping, etc.). For equity analysis,
special consideration should be given to transport service quality and cost burdens for
disadvantaged people (people with disabilities, low incomes, children, etc.). For example,
compare the portion of household income devoted to transport, and satisfaction with the
transport system, between people with and without disabilities, the lowest and the
average income quintile, and young adults with other age groups. Similarly, special
consideration can be applied to the quality of “basic access” (transport with high social
value, such as access to for emergency and service vehicles, medical services, education,
employment, etc.), by measuring how often people are unable to make such trips.
Comprehensive, lifecycle analysis should be used, taking into account all costs and
resources used, including production, distribution and disposal. The analysis should
indicate if costs are shifted to other locations, times and groups.
These data can be presented in various ways to show trends, differences between groups
and areas, comparison with peer jurisdictions or agencies, and levels compared with
recognized standards. Overall impacts should generally be evaluated per capita, rather
than per unit of travel (e.g., per vehicle-mile) in order to take into account the effects of
changes in the amount of travel that occurs.
These indicators can be used to establish specific performance targets and contingency-
based plans (for example, a particularly emission reduction policy or program is to be
implemented if pollution levels reach a specific threshold, or a community will receive a
reward for achieving a particular rating or award if it achieves a particular mode shift).
It may be appropriate to use a limited set of indicators which reflect the scale, resources
and responsibilities of a particular sector, jurisdiction or agency. For example, a
transportation agency might only measure transportation impacts involving the modes,
clients and geographic area it serves. Special sustainability analysis and indicators may
be applied to freight or aviation sectors.
It is important that users understand the perspectives, assumptions and limitations in

different types of indicators and indicator data. Indicators should reflect different levels
of impacts, from the decision-making processes; travel effects; intermediate impacts; and
ultimate outcomes that affect people and the environment.
36
Example
A transit agency interested in developing comprehensive performance indicators starts by
defining the following general planning objectives that transit is intended to help achieve:
• Improved transit service quality.
• Reduced traffic congestion.
• Reduced road and parking facility costs.
• Energy conservation.
• Pollution emission reductions.
• Increased safety.
• Improved mobility for transportation disadvantaged people.
• Consumer cost savings, increased affordability.
• Support for strategic planning objectives (reduced sprawl, urban redevelopment, etc.)
• Cost effective operation.
• Planning effectiveness.
Performance indicators are selected to reflect these objectives. Below are examples. The
exact set of indicators will depend on priorities and the cost of collecting data.
• Service quality is indicated by transit service accessibility (portion of homes, businesses
and public institutions with some minimal level of transit service, such as 30-minute or
less headways), frequency, transit travel speeds relative to driving, reliability (indicated
by the portion of trips that are on schedule), frequency of pass-ups, portion of passengers
that must stand, waiting area comfort (portion with shelters), seat comfort, vehicle and
waiting area cleanliness, and ease of obtaining user information.
• Congestion reduction, road and parking cost savings, energy conservation and pollution
reductions result from automobile to transit mode shifts and the tendency of transit to
reduce per capita automobile travel. Suitable indicators include per capita transit trips,
transit passenger-miles, per capita vehicle ownership and mileage, and mode split.
Congestion is particularly affected by peak-period trips, so commute mode split is a good
indicator, but total trips is important for evaluating other impacts.
• Safety is indicated by crashes and injuries per million passenger-kilometers, and total
traffic injuries and fatalities per 100,000 population for all residents in a community.
Similarly, personal security is indicated by the frequency of security incidents.
• Mobility for transportation disadvantaged people is indicated by the quality of walking
and cycling conditions, transit service accessibility, land use mix (proximity of public
services to residential neighborhoods), quality of taxi services, and Internet service, with
special attention to lower-income households and neighborhoods.
• Consumer costs are indicated by the portion of total household expenditures devoted to
transportation, and to transportation and housing, by area residents. Affordability is
indicated by the availability of transit service to lower-income residents, fares relative to
average income (particularly for lower-income households, taking into account special
need-based discounts, such as concession fares and free transit passes for seniors, people
with disabilities, children, etc.).
• Support for strategic land use objectives may include factors such as whether compact
infill development is occurring along transit lines and near transit stations, and the portion
of employment located near high quality transit.
37
• Cost effective operation is indicated by performance data, such as cost per revenue-mile
and passenger-trip, and cost recovery rates.
• Planning effectiveness is indicated by factors such as the success at establishing strategic
plans, the degree to which individual short-term planning decisions are consistent with
strategic planning goals, the degree to which transportation and land use planning is
coordinated, and the quality of public involvement and support of plans. This may be
evaluated qualitatively rather than quantitatively.
Each of these indicators should be reported separately for each mode (bus, train and
demand response), service area, time period (peak and off-peak, day of week, month of
year), year (to indicate trends over time), and comparing the study system or community
with peers. As much as possible, this information should be presented in graphs to help
readers see trends. It may be appropriate to establish a semi-independent
transportation/transit evaluation agency which is in change of data collection, evaluation
and reporting.
There are often conflicts between different objectives and goals. For example, improving
basic mobility for non-drivers (which requires providing service even where and when
demand is low) can conflict with efforts to improve productivity (which requires that
transit service only be provided where and when demand is high). If possible, analysis
should investigate and report on the cause of changes, and indicate whether these support
overall goals. For example, lower vehicle operating costs per passenger-mile may reflect
desirable influences, such as increased vehicle fuel efficiency, or it could indicate
undesirable influences such as reduced service in outlying areas. Similarly, increases in
transit ridership may reflect desirable influences, such as improved service that attracts
discretionary travelers, or undesirable influences such as increased poverty.
38
Conclusions
Indicators are things we measure to evaluate progress toward goals and objectives. Such
indicators have many uses: they can help identify trends, predict problems, assess
options, set performance targets, and evaluate a particular jurisdiction or organization.
Indicators are equivalent to senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste) – they determine
how things are perceived and what receives attention. Which indicators are used can
significantly affect planning decisions. An activity or option may seem good and
desirable when evaluated using one set of indicators, but harmful when evaluated using
another. It is therefore important to carefully select indicators that reflect overall goals. It
is also important to be realistic when selecting indicators, taking into account data
availability, understandability and usefulness in decision-making.
Although there are many possible definitions of sustainability, sustainable development

and sustainable transportation, experts increasingly agree that these should refer to a
balance of economic, social and environmental health. Comprehensive and sustainable
transport planning therefore requires a balanced set of indicators reflecting appropriate
economic, social and environmental objectives. An indicator set that focuses too much on
one impact category can result in suboptimal decisions. It is important that users
understand the perspectives, assumptions and limitations of each indicator. Sustainable
transportation indicators can include:
• Planning process – the quality of analysis used in planning decisions.
• Options and incentives – whether consumers have adequate travel options and incentives
to use the most efficient option for each trip.
• Travel behavior – Vehicle ownership, vehicle travel, mode split, etc.
• Physical impacts – pollution emission and crash rates, land consumption, etc.
• Human and environmental impacts – illnesses and deaths, environmental degradation, etc.
• Economic effects – monetized estimates of economic costs, reduced productivity, etc.
• Performance targets – degree to which stated targets are achieved.
There is tension between convenience and comprehensiveness when selecting indicators.

A smaller index using easily available data is more convenient to use, but may overlook
important impacts and therefore distort planning decisions. A larger set can be more
comprehensive but have unreasonable data collection costs and be difficult to interpret.
There are currently no standardized indicator sets for comprehensive and sustainable
transport planning. Each jurisdiction or organization must develop its own set based on
needs and abilities. It would be useful for major planning and professional organizations
to establish recommended sustainable transportation indicator sets, data collection
standards, and evaluation best practices in order to improve sustainability planning and
facilitate comparisons between jurisdictions, organizations and time periods.
39
References and Resources
ADB, (2001), Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: Cities Data Book, Asian Development
Bank (www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Cities_Data_Book/default.asp).
Beatley, Timothy (1995), “The Many Meanings of Sustainability,” Journal of Planning

Literature, Vol. 9, No. 4, May, 1995, pp. 339-342.
Caubel, David (2004), Methodologies And Tools To Evaluate Issues Relating To Land-Use And /
Or Social Aspects Of Urban Transportation Policies: An Accessibility Concept Linked Approach,
World Conference on Transportation Research (www.wctr2004.org.tr).
CE Delft (2006), Transport and Environment: Facing a Dilemma: TERM 2005: Indicators
Tracking Transport and Environment in the European Union, European Environment Agency
(http://reports.eea.eu.int/eea_report_2006_3/en/term_2005.pdf).
Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development (www.sustainable.doe.gov) is a US

Department of Energy program that supports more resource efficient development.
Centre for Sustainable Transportation (CST) (www.cstctd.org) is a Canadian research institute

dedicated to encouraging more sustainable transportation policy.
Center for Sustainability (www.c4s.info), Transportation Research Laboratory (www.trl.co.uk).
Cobb, Clifford, Ted Halstead and Jonathan Rowe (1999), The Genuine Progress Indicator,
Redefining Progress (www.rprogress.org).
CST (2003), Sustainable Transportation Performance Indicators, Centre for Sustainable

Transportation (www.cstctd.org); available at http://cst.uwinnipeg.ca/completed.html.
CST (2005), Defining Sustainable Transportation, Centre for Sustainable Transportation

(www.cstctd.org); at http://cst.uwinnipeg.ca/documents/Defining_Sustainable_2005.pdf.
Herman Daly and John Cobb (1989), For the Common Good, Beacon (www.beacon.org).
Distillate (www.distillate.ac.uk) is a UK-based research project to develop practical tools for

evaluating sustainability.
DFID, Social Benefits in Transport Planning, UK Department for International Development

(www.transport-links.org/transport_links/projects/projects_document_page.asp?projectid=322),
includes various documents discussing methodologies for more comprehensive transportation
project evaluation.
Dixon, Frank (2004), Gross National Happiness: Improving Unsustainable Western Economic
Systems, presented at the GNH Conference in Thimphu, Bhutan, Centre for Science and
Environment (www.cseindia.org/programme/pov-env/national-happiness.PDF), February 2004.
Brian Dudson (1998), “When Cars are Clean and Clever: A Forward-looking View of Sustainable
and Intelligent Automobile Technologies,” Transportation Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3, Fall 1998,
pp. 103-120.
40
Eads, George C. (2003), Indicators of Sustainable Mobility, World Business Council for
Sustainable Development (www.wbcsd.org).
ECMT (2004), Assessment and Decision Making for Sustainable Transport, European
Conference of Ministers of Transportation, Organization of Economic Coordination and
Development (www.oecd.org).
EDRG (2007), Monetary Valuation Per Dollar Of Investment In Different Performance Measures,
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Standing
Committee on Planning (www.transportation.org); at
www.dot.state.tx.us/services/transportation_planning_and_programming/la_entrada/files/nchrp.pdf.
EEA (2002), Are We Moving In The Right Direction?: Indicators On Transport And Environment
Integration In The EU, European Environment Agency
(http://reports.eea.eu.int/environmental_issue_report_2002_24).
Environmental National Sustainability Index (www.yale.edu/esi), Environmental Performance

Measurement Project.
EPA (2003), Green Community Checklist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

(www.epa.gov/region03/greenkit/gccheck.htm).
EEA (2001), Indicators Tracking Transport and Environment Integration in the European Union,
European Environment Agency, European Union
(http://reports.eea.eu.int/term2001/en/term2001.pdf), 2001.
ECMT (2004), Assessment and Decision Making for Sustainable Transport, European
Conference of Ministers of Transportation, Organization of Economic Coordination and
Development (www.oecd.org).
FDOT (2002), Quality/Level of Service Handbook, Florida Department of Transportation

(www11.myflorida.com/planning/systems/sm/los/los_sw2.htm).
Federal Statistical Office Germany (2005), Sustainable Development Indicators And Accounting:
Two Separate Worlds Or A Dialogue Process By Statisticians, Politicians And Modellers?,
Statistics Division, Department Of Economic And Social Affairs, United Nations
(http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envAccounting/ceea/meetings/prelim7.pdf).
FHWA (2002), Environmental Performance Measures Report US Department of Transportation

(wwwcf.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/perform/index.htm).
FHWA (2004), Environmental Guidebook, Federal Highway Administration

(http://environment.fhwa.dot.gov/guidebook/index.htm), 2004.
FHWA and FTA (2002), Transportation & Environmental Justice: Effective Practices, Federal
Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, FHWA-EP-02-016
(www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/ej2.htm).
41
Julie Foley (Ed) (2004), Sustainability And Social Justice Institute Public Policy Research
(www.ippr.org.uk).
Forkenbrock, David J., and Glen E. Weisbrod (2001), Guidebook for Assessing the Social and
Economic Effects of Transportation Projects, NCHRP Report 456, TRB, (www.trb.org).
GDRC (2000), Notes on ‘Quality of Life,’ Global Development Research Centre

(www.gdrc.org/uem/qol-define.html).
Gilbert, Richard, Neal Irwin, Brian Hollingworth and Pamela Blais (2002), Sustainable
Transportation Performance Indicators, Centre for Sustainable Transportation (www.cstctd.org).
Global Reporting Initiative (www.globalreporting.org) is an international organization to

develop, promote, and disseminate standard framework for sustainability reporting.
Global Footprint Network (www.footprintnetwork.org) supports use of Ecological Footprint

analysis to evaluate human demands on nature and nature's capacity to meet these demand.
GRI (2007), Sustainable Reporting Guidelines, Global Reporting Initiative

(www.globalreporting.org).
Paul Michael Grimley (2006), Indicators of Sustainable Development in Civil Aviation,

Dissertation, Loughborough University (http://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace/handle/2134/2755).
GTZ, Sustainable Transportation: A Sourcebook for Policy-Makers in Developing Countries,

(www.sutp.org), by the Sustainable Urban Transport Project – Asia (www.sutp-asia.org) and
Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (www.gtz.de), 2003.
Gudmundsson, Henrik (2001), Indicators and Performance Measures for Transportation,

Environment and Sustainability in North America, National Environmental Research Institute,
Roskilde, Denmark (www.dmu.dk/1_viden/2_Publikationer/3_arbrapporter/default.asp).
Gudmundsson, Henrik (2003), “Making Concepts Matter: Sustainable Mobility And

Indicator Systems In Transport Policy” International Social Science Journal (www.blackwell-
synergy.com/rd.asp?code=issj&goto=journal), Vol. 55, No. 2, Issue 176, June 2003, pp. 199-217.
Ralph Hall (2006), Understanding and Applying the Concept of Sustainable Development to
Transportation Planning and Decision-Making in the U.S., PhD Dissertation, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (http://esd.mit.edu/students/esdphd/dissertations/hall_ralph.pdf).
Ralph P. Hall and Joseph M. Sussman (2007), Promoting the Concept of Sustainable
Transportation With In The Federal System – The Need To Reinvent the U.S. DOT, TRB Annual
Meeting (www.trb.org); available at http://esd.mit.edu/wps/esd-wp-2006-13.pdf.
Happy Planet Index (www.happyplanetindex.org), by Friends of the Earth. This indicator of

resource efficiency is calculated by multiplying indicators of Life Satisfaction times Life
Expectancy and dividing by Ecological Footprint (resource consumption).
Maureen Hart (1997), Evaluating Indicators: A Checklist for Communities, Johnson Foundation
(www.johnsonfdn.org/spring97/indicators.html).
42
Maureen Hart (1999), Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators, Sustainable Measures

(www.sustainablemeasures.com).
Anthony M.H. Clayton and Nicholas J. Radcliffe (1996), Sustainability: A Systems Approach,
Earthscan Publications (www.earthscan.co.uk).
Homberger, Wolfgang S., et al (2001), Fundamentals of Traffic Engineering, Institute of

Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley
(www.its.berkeley.edu/publications/fundamentals.html).
International Society for Ecological Economics (http://kabir.umd.edu/ISEE/ISEEhome.html) is a

professional organization.
Internetwork for Sustainability (www.insnet.org) is a nonprofit informal network to support

sustainable development.
ITE (1999), Transportation Planning Handbook, Institute of Transportation Engineers

(www.ite.org).
Jansson, et al (1994), Investing in Natural Capital: The Ecological Economics Approach to

Sustainability, International Society for Ecological Economics, Island Press
(www.islandpress.org).
Robert Johnston (2008), Indicators for Sustainable Transportation Planning, Transportation

Research Board Annual Meeting (www.trb.org).
Kittleson & Associates (2003), Guidebook for Developing a Transit Performance-Measurement

System, Transit Cooperative Research Program, TRB (www.trb.org); available at
http://gulliver.trb.org/publications/tcrp/tcrp_report_88/intro.pdf.
Land Use and Transportation Research Website (www.lutr.net), sponsored by the European
Commission, provides information and resources for more integrated transport and land use
planning, to support sustainability objectives, including discussion of indicators.
Richard Lee, Paul Wack and Eugene Jud (2003), Towards Sustainable Mobility Indicators For
California, Mineta Transportation Institute (http://transweb.sjsu.edu); at
http://transweb.sjsu.edu/mtiportal/research/publications/summary/0205.html.
Eric Lindquist (1998), “Moving Toward Sustainability: Transforming A Comprehensive Land

Use And Transportation Plan,” Transportation Research Record 1617, TRB (www.trb.org), pp.
1-9.
Litman, Todd (1999), “Reinventing Transportation; Exploring the Paradigm Shift Needed to
Reconcile Sustainability and Transportation Objectives,” Transportation Research Record 1670,
Transportation Research Board (www.trb.org), pp. 8-12; available at www.vtpi.org.
Litman, Todd (2003), “Measuring Transportation: Traffic, Mobility and Accessibility,” ITE
Journal (www.ite.org), Vol. 73, No. 10, October 2003, pp. 28-32, available at Victoria Transport
Policy Institute website (www.vtpi.org).
43
Litman, Todd (2004a), Efficient Vehicles Versus Efficient Transportation: Comparing Emission
Reduction Strategies, VTPI (www.vtpi.org).
Litman, Todd (2004b), Transportation Cost and Benefit Analysis, VTPI (www.vtpi.org).
Litman, Todd (2005a), Evaluating Transportation Equity, VTPI (www.vtpi.org).
Litman, Todd (2004b), Socially Optimal Transport Prices and Markets, VTPI (www.vtpi.org).
Todd Litman (2006a), Community Cohesion As A Transport Planning Objective, Victoria

Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org/tca); available at www.vtpi.org/cohesion.pdf.
Todd Litman (2006b), Mobility As A Positional Good: Implications for Transport Policy and
Planning, VTPI (www.vtpi.org); available at www.vtpi.org/prestige.pdf.
Todd Litman (2007), Developing Indicators for Comprehensive and Sustainable Transport
Planning, Paper 07-2706, TRB Annual Meeting (www.trb.org).
Litman, Todd and David Burwell (2006), “Issues in Sustainable Transportation,” International
Journal of Global Environmental Issues, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 331-347; at www.vtpi.org/sus_iss.pdf.
Litman, Todd and Tom Rickert (2005), Evaluating Public Transit Accessibility: ‘Inclusive
Design’ Performance Indicators For Public Transportation In Developing Countries, VTPI
(www.vtpi.org).
Louis Berger & Associates (1998), Guidance for Estimating the Indirect Effects of Proposed
Transportation Projects, Report 403, Transportation Research Board (www.trb.org), 1998.
Greg Marsden, Charlotte Kelly and Carolyn Snell (2006), Selecting Indicators For Strategic
Performance Management, Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting (www.trb.org);
available at www.mdt.mt.gov/research/docs/trb_cd/Files/06-0378.pdf.
Greg Marsden, Mary Kimble, John Nellthorp, Charlotte Kelly and Karen Lucas (2007), Progress
In Assessing The Sustainability Of Transport Strategies, 11th World Conference on Transport
Research, Berkeley, California (www.wctrs.org).
Anthony Dormer May and Mary Crass (2007), Sustainability in Transport: Implications for
Policy Makers, Paper 07-1388, TRB Annual Meeting (www.trb.org).
McClintock, Hugh (updated regularly), Comprehensive Sustainable Transportation Planning

Bibliography, Institute of Urban Planning, University of Nottingham, U.K
(www.nottingham.ac.uk/sbe/planbiblios/bibs). Provides comprehensive references and links for
transportation and land use planning.
Voula Mega and Jørn Pedersen (1998) Urban Sustainability Indicators, European Foundation For
The Improvement Of Living And Working Conditions (http://eurofound.europa.eu); available at
http://eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/1998/07/en/1/ef9807en.pdf.
44
Michael D. Meyer (2005), “Use of Performance Measures for Surface Transportation in Different
Institutional and Cultural Contexts: Cases of Australia, Japan and New Zealand,” Transportation
Research Record 1924, TRB (www.trb.org), pp. 163-174.
Mihyeon Jeon, Christy and Adjo Amekudzi (2005), “Addressing Sustainability in Transportation
Systems: Definitions, Indicators, and Metrics,” Journal Of Infrastructure Systems, Vol. 11, No. 1,
American Society of Civil Engineers (www.pubs.asce.org), March 2005, pp. 31-51; available at
www.ce.gatech.edu/research/infrasustainability/Relevant%20Publications.htm
Mihyeon Jeon, Christy, Adjo A. Amekudzi and Jorge Vanegas (2006), “Transportation System
Sustainability Issues in High-,Middle-, and Low-Income Economies: Case Studies from Georgia,
U.S., South Korea, Colombia, and Ghana,” Journal of Urban Planning and Development, Vol.
132, No. 3, September 1, 2006; available at
http://knowledge.fhwa.dot.gov/cops/pm.nsf/B/KMMM6TH69J.
A. Mitra (2003), Painting the Town Green - The Use of Urban Sustainability Indicators in the
United States of America, RICS Foundation (www.ricsbooks.com).
MOST (1999), Moving on Sustainable Transportation, Transport Canada

(www.tc.gc.ca/envaffairs/most).
Natural Step (www.naturalstep.org) uses a science-based, systems framework to help

organizations and communities work toward sustainability. The Natural Step organizations
provide a variety of resources to help implement sustainability.
J.-P. Nicolas, P. Pochet and H. Poimboeuf (2003), “Towards Sustainable Mobility Indicators:
Application To The Lyons Conurbation,” Transport Policy, Vol. 10
(www.elsevier.com/locate/tranpol), pp. 197-208.
NRTEE (2001), Environment and Sustainable Development Indicators Initiative, National Round Table
on the Environment and Economy (www.nrtee-trnee.ca/eng/programs/current_programs/sdindicators).
OECD (1998), Environmentally Sustainable Transport: Report on Phase II of the OECD Project:
Volume 1 Synthesis Report Organization of Economic Coordination and Development (www.oecd.org).
OECD (2000), Project on Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST), Organization of

Economic Coordination and Development (www.oecd.org/env/trans), produced EST Guidelines,
www.oecd.org/env/ccst/est).
OECD (2001), OECD Environmental Indicators 2001: Towards Sustainable Development,

Organization of Economic Coordination and Development (www.oecd.org).
Pembina Institute (2001), Alberta GPI Blueprint Report, Pembina Institute (www.pembina.org).
PROSPECTS (2001), Cities’ Decision-Making Requirements, Procedures for Recommending

Sustainable Planning for European Cities and Transport Systems (www-
ivv.tuwien.ac.at/projects/prospects/Deliverables/pr_del_1.pdf).
45
Andreas Rau (2005), Incorporating Sustainable Development into Transport Infrastructure,

Assessment inside Urban Areas, Dissertation Abstract, University of Dresden
(http://vplno1.vkw.tu-dresden.de/oeko/data/Abstract_PhD_Andreas_Rau.pdf).
Redefining Progress (www.rprogress.org) is a research institute studying practical ways to

evaluate progress toward sustainability.
RP (2006), The Community Indicators Handbook, Redefining Progress (www.rprogress.org).
Schlossberg, Marc and Adam Zimmerman (2003), “Developing Statewide Indices of

Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability: a look at Oregon and the Oregon
Benchmarks,” Local Environment, Volume 8, no. 6, p. 641-660, December 2003, available at
University of Oregon (www.uoregon.edu/~schlossb/PPPM).
Sperlings Best Places (www.bestplaces.net) evaluates communities based on various attributes.
StatsCan, Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators, Statistics Canada

(www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/16-251-XIE/16-251-XIE2005000.htm), 2005.
SUMMA (SUstainable Mobility Measures and Assessment) (www.SUMMA-EU.org) is a

European Commission (DG-TREN) sponsored project to define and operationalize sustainable
mobility and transit, develop indicators, assess the scale of sustainability problems associated
with transport, and identify policy measures to promote sustainable transport.
Sustainable Measures (www.sustainablemeasures.com) is a Internet site with information on

various sustainability indicators.
Sustainable Mobility Project (www.wbcsdmobility.org) by the World Business Council for

Sustainable Development (WBCSD) aims to chart pathways towards Sustainable Mobility that
support societal, environmental and economic objectives.
Sustainable Surface Transportation Website

(http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/transport/index_en.html), European Commission
Sustainable Transportation Indicators Subcommittee (2008), Sustainable Transportation

Indicators: A Recommended Program To Define A Standard Set of Indicators For Sustainable
Transportation Planning, Sustainable Transportation Indicators Subcommittee (ADD40 [1]),
Transportation Research Board (www.trb.org); at www.vtpi.org/sustain/sti.pdf.
SustainLane.com US City Rankings (http://sustainlane.com/cityindex/citypage/ranking).
TRANSECON (Urban Transport and Local Socio-Economic Development), European

Commission The Fifth Framework Programme (www.boku.ac.at/verkehr/trans_r.htm).
TRB (1997), Committee for a Study on Transportation and a Sustainable Environment, Toward A
Sustainable Future; Addressing the Long-Term Effects of Motor Vehicle Transportation on
Climate and Ecology, National Academy Press (www.trb.org).
TRB (2005), Integrating Sustainability into the Transportation Planning Process: July 11–13,
2004 Conference Report, Conference Proceedings 37; Transportation Research Board,
46
(www.trb.org/publications/conf/CP37.pdf).
UNESCO-SCOPE (2006), Indicators of Sustainability: Reliable Tools For Decision Making, Policy
Brief No 1, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Scientific
Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), (www.icsu-
scope.org/spotlight/060421_PolicyBriefs_No1.pdf).
Paul J. Upham and Julia N. Mills (2003), Environmental and Operational Sustainability of
Airports: Core Indicators and Stakeholder Communication, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change
Research, UMIST, Manchester (www.tyndall.ac.uk).
Urban Transport Benchmarking (www.transportbenchmarks.org) is an effort to develop practical

methods for evaluating urban transportation system quality, applied in 45 participating European
Cities.
USEPA (1999), Transportation Indicators, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

(www.usepa.gov/oppetptr/rap.htm).
VTPI (2005), Online TDM Encyclopedia, VTPI (www.vtpi.org).
WCED (1987), Our Common Future, World Commission on Environment and Development,
Brundtland Commission (http://ringofpeace.org/environment/brundtland.html).
E. O. Wilson (1998), Consilience, Alfred Knopf (New York).
Josias Zietsman, Laurence R. Rilett, and Seung-Jun Kim (2003), Sustainable Transportation
Performance Measures For Developing Communities, Texas Transportation Institute
(http://tti.tamu.edu); at http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/167128-1.pdf.
47

Well Measured: Developing Indicators For Comprehensive and Sustainable Transport Planning

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Well Measured: Developing Indicators For Comprehensive and Sustainable Transport Planning

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Well Measured: Developing Indicators For Comprehensive and Sustainable Transport Planning

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Victoria Transport Policy Institute

1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA

By Todd Litman, Director

Todd Alexander Litman © 2005-2008

Key Definitions (based on Gudmundsson, 2001)

There is no universally accepted definition of sustainability, sustainable development or

“…sustainability is not about threat analysis; sustainability is about systems analysis.

Environmentally Sustainable Transportation (EST) is: Transportation that does not

“The goal of sustainable transportation is to ensure that environment, social and

A sustainable transportation system is one that (ECMT, 2004; CST, 2005):

Concern about sustainability can be considered a reaction to the tendency of decision-

Sustainable economics maintains a distinction between growth (increased quantity) and

Sustainable economics strives for sufficiency, as opposed to conventional economics

Figure 1 Sustainable Development (Litman, 2006b)

Poverty Comfort Luxury Extravagance

Sustainability requires limiting resource consumption to ecological constraints (such as

Sustainability is sometimes defined narrowly, focusing on a few specific problems such

Figure 2 Sustainability Issues

This figure illustrates various sustainability issues. 2

If sustainable transportation is defined only in terms of resource depletion and climate

Table 1 Comparing Benefits

Factors to Consider When Selecting Indicators

Indicators should be carefully selected to provide useful information. In most situations,

Table 2 Sustainable Transportation Impacts

Table 3 Levels of Analysis

Quantitative data refers to numerically measured information. Qualitative data refers to

less consideration than justified by their value to affected people. Sustainability

Table 4 Quantitative and Qualitative Data

Individual indicators should be selected based on their decision-making usefulness and

Sustainability indicators can be integrated with other types of accounting statistics

Vehicle Travel As A Sustainability Indicator

Specific planning decisions can be evaluated according to whether they increase or

Transportation activities reflect these patterns. In accessible communities people can

Transportation can leverage other economic impacts (“Economic Development Impacts,”

Table 5 lists possible economic indicators of sustainable transportation.

Table 5 Economic Indicators of Sustainable Transportation

Transportation equity can be evaluated with a variety of perspectives and impacts

Table 6 lists examples of possible social indicators of sustainable transportation.

Table 6 Social Indicators of Sustainable Transportation

Of course there is considerable uncertainty about many of these costing methodologies

Table 7 lists possible environmental indicators of sustainable transportation.

Table 7 Environmental Indicators of Sustainable Transportation

Integrating these different systems requires the following:

Conventional Transport Indicators

Examples of Sustainable Transportation Indicator Sets

Table 8 is an example of a Genuine Progress Indicator developed for Alberta, Canada,

Table 8 Sustainability Indicators (Pembina Institute, 2001)

Intellectual & Knowledge Capital Ecological Footprint

Green Community Checklist

Ecological Footprint (www.footprintnetwork.org)

Happy Planet Index (www.happyplanetindex.org)

USDOT Environmental Performance Measures

Sustainable Transportation Performance Indicators

Table 9 Sustainable Transportation Performance Indicators (Gilbert, et al, 2003)

Environmentally Sustainable Transport

The OECD concludes that environmentally sustainable transport will require:

Global Reporting Initiative (www.globalreporting.org)

Mobility For People With Special Needs and Disadvantages

World Business Council Sustainable Mobility Indicators