Compendium of Workshops on Integrating Air Quality and Transportation Available
Washington, DC – The National Association of Regional Councils (NARC), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of a cooperative agreement, conducted a series of workshops from 2001 through 2005 on Integrating Air Quality and Transportation. A comprehensive compendium of information from these ten workshops is now available through the NARC web site.
The workshops were designed primarily for board members, executive directors, and staff of Regional Councils and Metropolitan Planning Organizations. According to Kathy Daniel at FHWA, “the workshops addressed the challenges that these organizations must confront when attempting to balance healthy air with transportation investments.”
An advisory group, comprised of representatives from Regional Councils that regularly deal with air quality planning and transportation planning, joined representatives from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), and the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators/Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials (STAPPA/ALAPCO) to develop the workshop topics.
Topics included: Smart Growth and Alternative Land Use; Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) Project Selection Criteria and Performance Measures; Using Outreach to Improve Air Quality; Climate Change: A Transportation Planning Approach to Reducing Greenhouse Gases; and Air Quality Conformity Case Studies. According to Mark Simons at EPA, “These workshops bring the knowledge and experience of federal, state and local public officials and planners to bear on the challenges of developing and implementing transportation and air quality plans. The information shared in these workshops will assist areas that are trying to attain or maintain the national air quality standards, especially those that are, for the first time, facing non-attainment under the 8-hour ozone standard.”
NARC is a membership organization of Councils of Government, Planning Commissions, Development Districts, and Metropolitan Planning Organizations who are striving to build regional communities all across the country. In this day and age, it is imperative that communities collaborate on issues such as air quality and transportation planning. NARC has published this compendium for agencies and organizations to showcase the efforts of their members and others who are striving to achieve and maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone. For more information, please contact Peggy Tadej (tadej@narc.org) at 202-986-1032, ext. 224.