| Concerns about the environmental effects of automobile use are reaching unprecedented levels, and governments around the world are giving attention to this problem as never before. This research was motivated by the fact that 27% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are associated with transportation in Canada and there is considerable potential for reducing these gases in urban areas. The research is based on the thesis that appropriate policy changes in favor of transit can contribute to reducing GHG emissions in urban areas and that bus transportation has the potential to play an important role in this context.; Eleven scenarios were proposed in order to show the range of possible measures and their effectiveness in terms of increasing transit ridership and/or improving technology to reduce GHG emissions in the National Capital Region. These scenarios include: increasing parking costs, increasing fuel costs for vehicles other than public transit buses, decreasing transit fare, decreasing transit travel time, and using diesel-electric hybrid buses and fuel cell buses as replacements for diesel buses.; To assess the effectiveness of the scenarios, two tools were used: the transportation planning model, EMME/2, and the GHG Emission Calculator. The EMME/2 framework was used as a platform for the estimation of travel demand and GHG emissions. All the required socio-economic, travel and transportation network data were acquired and used.; Based on the results from this research, it can generally be concluded that bus transportation has the potential to play an important role in reducing GHG emissions, depending on the measures adopted to increase transit ridership. |
