Motivation and implementation of traffic management strategies to reduce motor vehicle emissions in Canadian cities

Abstract

There is a pressing need to reduce pollution emissions from transportation and consequent negative effects on air quality, public health, and the global climate. Diverse traffic management strategies have been proposed and undertaken with primary or secondary goals of reducing motor vehicle emissions. The objective of this paper is to investigate the motivation and implementation of traffic management strategies to reduce motor vehicle emissions, with a focus on moderate-scale local and regional strategies that are broadly applicable. Public documents from 44 local, regional, and provincial government entities across Canada were reviewed for information regarding the implementation of 22 traffic management strategies. Results show that different levels of government are involved in the implementation of different types of strategies, and with a different mix of traffic, safety, and environmental motivations. Regional governments more frequently cite environmental motivations and appear to be most interested in the two strategies with the strongest empirical evidence of air quality benefits: area road pricing and low emission zones. Strengthening regional transportation planning and better integrating it with municipal and provincial planning could potentially increase the implementation of effective sustainable traffic management strategies in Canada. Additional opportunities exist through emphasizing the potential environmental co-benefits of strategies such as road pricing, speed management, and traffic signal and intersection control improvements.