Kyoto Comes to Seattle

This morning, Seattle Mayor Greg "Gridlock" Nickels makes a big announcement on the findings of the "green paper" report commissioned by the city to figure out how to adhere to the CO2 emissions reductions of the Kyoto Protocol. The goal is to reduce Seattle's emissions to 7 percent below its 1990 levels. I'll have more particulars after they're released, but the Seattle Times and Seattle P-I newspapers have some pre-announcement info. (I really wanted to make it to the announcement, as Al Gore's gonna be there, but alas, I've got too much on my plate.)

Here are a few tidbits from the Times:

Buses would come much more often. Walking and cycling paths would be more plentiful. Buildings and appliances would use less energy. Housing and jobs would be clustered together. And lots of trucks would run on vegetable oil.

There would also be fewer parking spaces, and many of them would cost more. People might have to pay more to drive a car into downtown Seattle, or to drive alone in car-pool lanes.

And requirements for better home insulation could push up construction costs.

Much of the proposed changes boil down to how people get around. Cars, planes and trucks are the dominant sources of greenhouse gases in Seattle, partly because most of the city's electricity comes from hydropower. So the study commission suggests a combination of incentives and punishments to try to change how people drive.

The benefits would include about a 40 percent increase in transit service, the doubling of official bike lanes, and more sidewalks. The punishments could include a new tax on commercial parking spaces and tolls for driving on certain roads, or for driving at certain times.

And here's a graphic from the P-I story (which you can see in full in the article) that shows potential reductions from policy decisions:



Also, be sure to check out this post over at Pike Place Politics, which points to a Seattle Times op-ed on overal transit theory--it's not just about relatively instant gratification of enjoying a ride on light rail in a few years, but it needs to be looked at as a 100-year plan.