Transportation Planning

Introduction

Control Measures

Conformity with the District’s Air Quality Management Plan

Coordination with Other Agencies

  

Introduction

The District’s 1998 emission inventory shows that on-road mobile sources (e.g., passenger cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles) comprise 50% of the reactive organic compound (ROC) emissions and 57% of the nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in Ventura County.  The primary goals of transportation planning are to develop and implement programs to reduce the emissions generated by on-road mobile sources.  To this end, the District adopts control measures in its Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP), reviews projects to ensure that they conform to the AQMP, and coordinates its activities with other governmental agencies.

 

Control Measures

The District’s AQMP incorporates two types of control measures to reduce the air quality impacts generated by on-road mobile sources. Transportation Control Measures (TCMs) reduce emissions by promoting strategies to change people’s driving behavior, thereby reducing vehicle use, vehicle trips, and vehicle miles traveled. Mobile Source Control Measures implement technological solutions to reduce emissions from on-road motor vehicles, such as low- and zero-emission vehicles, vehicle inspection and maintenance, and retiring high-polluting vehicles.

 

Conformity with the District’s Air Quality Management Plan

Section 176(c)(1) of the federal Clean Air Act provides: “No department, agency, or instrumentality of the Federal Government shall engage in, support in any way or provide financial assistance for, license or permit, or approve, any activity which does not conform to [a state] implementation plan after it has been approved or promulgated under section 110 [of the Clean Air Act].  No metropolitan planning organization designated under section 134 of title 23, United States Code, shall give its approval to any project, program, or plan which does not conform to an implementation plan approved or promulgated under section 110. The assurance of conformity to such an implementation plan shall be an affirmative responsibility of the head of such department, agency, or instrumentality.”

 

Federal conformity regulations implementing federal Clean Air Act section 176(c) require that the District adopt and implement local rules to ensure that transportation and non-transportation projects conform with the adopted state implementation plan, in our case the Ventura County Air Quality Management Plan. District Rule 221 (Transportation Conformity) requires that transportation plans, programs and projects conform to the AQMP. District Rule 220 (General Conformity) applies to non-transportation federal projects that exceed 25 tons/year of either ROC or NOx.

 

Coordination with Other Agencies

The Transportation Planning section works closely with the Ventura County Transportation Commission, Southern California Association of Governments, and other local, state and federal agencies to ensure that control measures are implemented and conformity requirements are followed. This coordination is necessary to ensure that the District continues to make the required progress to achieve clean, healthful air in compliance with the federal Clean Air Act and the California Health and Safety Code.