[Plank] The best way to cut transportation emissions is to make it really easy
for people to not have to drive at all. [Orvis] We mentioned, in the US, transportation
is the largest source of emissions, and globally it's right behind industry and electricity.
And the big challenge there is that a lot of people all over the world have to drive
to get to their jobs or to go wherever they're going. Urban mobility, urban design the idea
that if you design cities better - more oriented around walking with commercial storefronts - you
really cut down on the demand for driving. And also, a lot of research shows that actually people
tend to prefer living in cities like that. There's less air pollution, it's quieter. You can develop
public transit systems such as bus rapid transit, e-bikes or shared bikes. You can
minimize the size of blocks. So if you have to walk a half a mile to get to the next block,
and that's where the supermarket is, that's kind of daunting and you might consider
having a car. But if it's 100 yards instead, maybe that's something that's more palatable.
[Plank] One of the most cost effective ways to get cars out of cities
is Bus Rapid Transit. You don't have to build and maintain expensive tunnel networks underground
like you do with subways. Plus, the roads they travel on already exist. And now that electric
buses have arrived, it makes even more sense. [Orvis] It's almost like a subway or a light rail,
but it's a bus. So it's a dedicated set of lanes without other cars that have a boarding terminal.
The things that Guangzhou and Curitiba have done well is those buses, they run on time, they have
lots of them, they have the dedicated lanes that don't allow other traffic in, they have things
like central loading and prepayment. So a lot of times today when you get on the bus it takes
a while for everyone to get on, scan their card or pay the driver, and then get to their seat.
But good bus rapid transit, actually, you pay when you get to the station like you would on a
subway or light rail, and then the unloading and offloading of the buses is very fast.
And so you can have a system that's built around buses and not light rail and costs a lot less than
building a subway system, but you can achieve a lot of the same improvement in non-car travel that
you would with a with a metro or a light rail system. Combining all of those things together
into a comprehensive public transit system is really how to make that effective, whether it's
a BRT system, or it's a subway or light rail. [Plank] One tool is simple zoning that
encourages dense urban development instead of suburban sprawl.
[Orvis] The urban growth boundary is all about containing that kind
of sprawling growth that we tend to see so frequently, especially in American cities,
you encourage people to develop upwards and create more dense communities. In the book
we talk about an example in Oregon where there's a very clear boundary where there's just kind of
forested area and then, boom, you're in kind of a dense and urban area. Of course when you
do that you also preserve the natural space around the city, and you allow access for
people to those parks and what have you. [Plank] In the book you say, 'no town is
too small--it's never too early to implement' that and really restrict
where a city can build and expand into. [Orvis] You're actually starting to see
flat out bans on certain types of vehicles in different cities now.
In San Francisco, the board of supervisors said no more non-taxis or buses on Market Street,
which is a major thoroughfare. [Newscast] So what we're trying to do
is really minimize the conflict between bicyclists, pedestrians, and private vehicles.
[Orvis] One of the challenges in taking public transit in a city like San Francisco is that I
get on the bus, but then I sit in traffic. So if you not only have the benefit of not having
to get in a car, but also it's faster, then you can really encourage people.
[Plank] Oh yeah. [Plank] The world
is rapidly urbanizing. Why are building codes so crucial--especially in places like China, India,
and fast-growing places like Nigeria? [Orvis] Building codes are probably
the only way to really push forward buildings that are well-insulated and
that really help preserve the amount of energy needed. And so in the countries you mentioned:
in India, Indonesia, as well as a lot of southeast Asian countries, in China, as those
economies continue to develop - and the per-capita income grows - the demand for cooling is growing
exponentially. And you add on the fact that we're going to warm the climate through climate change,
and you just are growing the need in the future for cooling in those regions. If you don't have
building codes you get kind of the situation that you have in those countries where you get
uninsulated buildings. Even in urban areas that are wealthier, they tend to be uninsulated. And so
without that insulation in buildings, you really increase the amount of electricity
and energy you need to cool those buildings, and building codes require developers to have minimum
insulation installed, or minimum efficiency of equipment. And so on. For one, it reduces
people's electricity bills, their energy bills, if they have to use way less energy. It also means
you don't have to run it as frequently, so you you are saving emissions from the power
sector. You can also not buy as big of an air conditioner. Refrigerants in air conditioners
are one of the biggest sources of global emissions, and if you're able to buy a smaller
air conditioner you actually decrease the amount of that refrigerant that you need. So building
codes really have a lot of potential to improve the demand for cooling in developing countries,
but also for example to encourage the use of LEDs instead of incandescent light bulbs, or even CFLs.
The lighting revolution is really incredible and is going to allow a lot of people access to
lighting for very low cost that wasn't available even five or ten years ago.
And so all of those types of improvements, when they're encoded or enshrined in a building code,
you can really get a lot of reduced demand for energy services that has a lot of knock-on
effects for energy and emissions. [Plank] In California, we have
one of the most cutting-edge building code structures. Is what makes ours so effective
that continuous improvement aspect? [Orvis] The Title 24 building code in
California is an excellent example of a very effective building code.
The code has continued to strengthen over time and drive more efficient, better equipment
into new buildings as that equipment has become available, like LEDs, which weren't around when
the building code was originally designed. [Plank] California's efficiency standard on
appliances is also world leading. At the end of the day it's just best for the consumer,
right? It's going to get you better performance, and in California especially it helps
set the standard for the entire country because our market is so big as well.
[Orvis] Right, so one thing that companies loathe is having to meet multiple standards. And that's
partly why you saw a lot of vehicle manufacturers recently agree to meet California's standards for
vehicles even if the Trump administration rolls back federal standards. Because they'd rather
do that than have two different sets of vehicles that meet different standards. That's true for any
standard. So for appliance standards, for things like refrigerators and cable boxes, and so on.
Having a state lead the way on having strong standards is very helpful for driving the
market forward. People tend to have what's called very high implicit discount rates--they tend to
heavily undervalue future savings. And that's true about buying a new toaster oven and it's
true about buying a new car. And so appliance standards or vehicle performance standards,
they build in those cost-saving measures into the available products on the market. So they tend to
save a lot of money for consumers over time even if there's a small increase in the price up front.
That's why we like them because there's a lot of these low-hanging fruit, cost saving opportunities
out there that we're just not capturing, and performance standards can help ensure
that we get those low-hanging fruit options. [Plank] The full-length, hourlong version of
this interview is available to members of my new Video-On-Demand offering, TDC.video
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Until next time, for TDC, I'm Bryce Plank. Thanks for watching.