Transportation Tools
General Transportation Resources | Analytical Tools | Data Sources
General Transportation Resources
Fuel Economy Web site
Sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE), the Fuel Economy Web site is designed to help
the public factor energy efficiency into their car buying decisions. This
Web site offers information on the connection between fuel economy, advanced
technology and the environment.
EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality
EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality protects public health and
the environment by controlling air pollution from motor vehicles, fuels
and nonroad equipment, and by encouraging travel choices that minimize emissions.
DOE's Clean Cities Program
Clean Cities is a DOE program, which is designed to encourage the use of
alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) and its supporting infrastructure throughout
the nation. By encouraging AFV use, the Clean Cities program will help achieve
energy security and environmental quality goals at the national and local
levels.
Department of Transportation (DOT) Center for Climate Change and Environmental
Forecasting Center
This DOT Center creates comprehensive and multi-modal
approaches to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gases and to mitigate
the effects
of global
climate change on the transportation network.
EPA's Green Vehicle Guide
The Green Vehicle Guide provides detailed information on air pollution
and greenhouse gas emissions for cars.
Analytical Tools
EPA
Draft NONROAD 2005 Model
The draft NONROAD model calculates past, present
and future emission inventories (i.e., tons of pollutant) for all nonroad
equipment categories, such as
outdoor power equipment, recreational vehicles, farm and construction equipment
and
boats. The model excludes commercial marine, locomotives and aircraft.
Fuel types included in the model are: gasoline, diesel, compressed natural
gas and
liquefied petroleum. The model estimates exhaust and evaporative hydrocarbons
(HC), carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), particulate matter
(PM), sulfur oxides (SOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2).
The user may select a specific
geographic area (i.e., national, state or county) and time period (i.e.,
annual, monthly, seasonal or daily) for analysis.
MOBILE Model
EPA’s highway vehicle emission factor model, MOBILE, predicts
average gram-per-mile emissions of HC, CO, NOx, CO2,
PM, and toxics, for each of
eight categories of vehicles for any calendar year between 1970 and 2020.
MOBILE allows
the user to specify different conditions (e.g., temperature, traffic speed,
etc.) that might influence emissions levels. It is used by EPA to evaluate
control strategies for highway mobile sources, by states (except California),
and other
local and regional planning agencies to develop emission inventories and
control strategies for State Implementation Plans (SIPs) under the Clean
Air Act, and
to develop Environmental Impact Statements (EISs).
Modeling and Inventories Web Page
In addition to the tools listed here, the EPA Modeling and Inventories Web page
provides links to a number of models and databases developed by EPA’s
Office of Transportation and Air Quality for estimating air emissions from
on-road and nonroad mobile sources.
MOVES Model
EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality is currently
working on a new modeling system termed the MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator
(MOVES).
This new system will estimate emissions for on-road and nonroad sources,
cover a
broad range of pollutants and allow multiple scale analysis, from fine-scale
analysis to national inventory estimation. When fully implemented, MOVES
will serve as the replacement for MOBILE6 and NONROAD. The new system will
not necessarily
be a single piece of software, but instead will encompass the necessary
tools, algorithms, underlying data, and guidance necessary for use in all
official
analyses associated with regulatory development, compliance with statutory
requirements, and national/regional inventory projections. This project
was previously known
as the New Generation Mobile Source Emissions Model (NGM).
SmartWay Transport Partnership Freight Logistics Environmental and Energy Tracking (FLEET) Performance Models
FLEET Performance Model for Freight Carriers
FLEET Performance Model for Shippers
The SmartWay Transport Partnership
is a collaborative voluntary program between EPA and the freight industry
that will increase U.S. energy efficiency
and
energy security while significantly reducing air pollution and greenhouse
gases. The
Partnership offers two environmental and energy tracking models relating
to freight transport—one for freight carriers and another for shippers.
The FLEET performance model for Shippers allows a company to quantify the
percentage of freight they ship or receive with fleets that are members
of the SmartWay
Transport Partnership. The FLEET performance model for Freight Carriers
allows companies to quantify the environmental performance of their fleet
operations
using information on the number of trucks in the fleet, gallons of fuel
consumed, and mileage accumulated. Both models provide estimates of the
actual CO2,
NOx
and PM emissions generated from their entire freight operations. The FLEET
Performance Model also helps evaluate the effectiveness of fuel saving
and emission reduction
strategies that companies have integrated into their fleet operations.
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Travel Matters
Developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Travel Matters site
features a number of resources related to transportation and the benefits
associated with efficient transport systems. In addition to maps displaying
transportation-related emissions on a regional and county scale, Travel
Matters
provides online tools to estimate emissions from individual travel and different
types of transit systems. These tools allow the user to estimate emissions
differences resulting from changes to transportation patterns.
Local Government Commission
The Local Index of Transit Availability (LITA)
The Local Index of Transit
Availability (LITA) is a tool used to tabulate the intensity (or availability)
of transit service in
a given metropolitan
area. The tool is designed for use by transit and land use planners
and policymakers by providing transit information on locations
where service is more or
less
available. As a result, LITA can be used to develop appropriate
land use plans and policies for areas with low, medium, and high
transit availability.
LITA
considers transit capacity, frequency, and route coverage in
rating areas, such as census tracts or Traffic Analysis Zones, within
a
metropolitan area. In addition,
LITA has some additional features that can assess the transit
impacts of
potential development in peripheral areas that may lack sufficient
road
or other services.
Data Sources
Federal Highway Administration, State Departments of Transportation, and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) 2000
Developed in cooperation between
State Departments of Transportation, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration
and the Census Transportation Planning
Package (CTPP) provides a wide selection of transportation data for state
and local
areas. The CTPP includes information about population, household characteristics,
worker characteristics and characteristics of the Journey-to-Work describing
travel flow between home and work. The CTPP is organized into state-level
and urban elements. The State Element includes data for all locations in
the U.S.
with populations greater than 2,500, and information about counties and
each state. The Urban Element includes detailed summaries for areas with
populations of 50,000 or greater.
U.S. Federal Transit Administration
National Transit Database (NTD)
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s
Federal Transit Administration (FTA) operates the National Transit Database
program to collect and disseminate
data on the state of mass transit in the U.S. FTA collects financial and
operating data from over 600 transportation providers in the U.S. every
year. The data
is used by government and the private sector in tracking and addressing
mass transit system needs across the country.
U.S. Department of Transportation
National Household Travel Survey
Sponsored by the Bureau of Transportation
Statistics and the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, the purpose of
the U.S. Department of Transportation’s
National Household Travel Survey is to collect data on the long-distance
and local travel activities of the U.S. public. The survey collects data
related to mode of transportation, duration, distance and purpose of a
trip, as well
as general demographic, geographic and economic data. Policy makers, State
Departments
of Transportation, local and regional planning institutions, businesses
and academic institutions use the data in understanding transportation
patterns, planning infrastructure, and determining financial requirements.
TransStats
TransStates is a comprehensive transportation portal maintained by the
Bureau of Transportation Statistics at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
TransStats
provides a wide array of transportation data categorized by transportation
mode, subject area or agency, and includes links to over 100 transportation-related
databases covering every mode of transportation as well as a number of interactive
online tools.