DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICAL SUSTAINABILITY INDICATOR FOR MPOs

摘要

Good amount of work has been done in the area of developing indicators defining sustainable transportation or livable cities. At times, it has been observed that it remains difficult for the Metropolitan (or Municipal) Planning organizations (MPOs) to implement those indicators. This paper provides an initial step taken in this direction. It provides a comparative assessment of the use of motorized and nonmotorized modes in the light of equity and sustainability in urban transportation systems. It is being reported that motorized use of facilities not only requires a very high resource assistance but also impose equally high external costs. The load of these costs comes over other users of the facility as a penalty. Therefore, the policies should be re-appraised, the external costs should be internalized, the land use planning should reduce the need of traveling and greener modes should be included in the planning. This will help in bringing the equity and sustainability in the transportation system in urban areas. Four sustainability criterions are laid along with equity, which should be satisfied for achieving the above listed objectives. The paper finally suggests the use of indicators, namely Environment Accessibility Index, Transportation System Performance Index and Transportation Sustainability Indicator as a measure to compare the sustainability of different areas under consideration. Certain illustrations, clearly specifying the application of above indicators are also incorporated.