From Jetson Green

This article was written by Charles Lockwood, a green real estate authority and consultant based in southern California and New York City. His articles have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Barron’s.

California—the state that invented freeways and suburban sprawl—has become a trendsetter again, and not a moment too soon in our new age of global climate change. In October 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law SB375, which was supported by environmentalists, homebuilders, and cities and counties. SB375 will limit the state’s CO2 emissions by curbing suburban sprawl and increasing transit-based development through various incentives.

If a community plans walkable, mixed-use, transit-oriented growth that reduces automobile use and greenhouse gas emissions, for example, it gets moved to the front of the line for state and federal transportation funds. If a proposed building is located near a transit line, it will have an easier environmental review process. Why is SB375 important?

Transportation—primarily automobiles—generates one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Green buildings, no matter how high performance, cannot reduce the world’s greenhouse gas emissions on their own.

Sprawl is a major culprit. In suburban San Bernardino County, California, for example, households make an average of 10 car trips a day, because their homes, workplaces, schools, stores, and friends are miles apart from each other, and transit options are limited. All of those cars trips generate a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.

Because of sprawl, the number of cars is growing faster than the number of people in the U.S. Between 1980 and 2000, 1.2 vehicles were added to the roads for every 1 person increase in the population. Because of ever-expanding sprawl, all of those cars are being driven longer distances than ever before. Between 1980 and 2000, the total number of vehicular miles driven grew by 80%, more than three times faster than the 24% U.S. population increase in those years.

Today, Americans are driving over 365 billion miles annually and producing 154 million metric tons of carbon dioxide just going to the store. Meanwhile, U.S. commuters are generating 1.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Walkable, mixed-use, transit-oriented communities generate far less greenhouse gas emissions per capita than low-density suburbia. One 2006 study of greater Chicago found that the average household in a low-density auto-dependent exurb generates about 11.5 tons of CO2 annually. A household in a suburban area that is served by commuter rail generates 9 tons on average. And a household in Chicago itself or in one of the nearby rail-connected walkable suburbs generates just 2.5 tons of CO2 annually—only 22% of the amount attributed to the exurban household.

Some skeptics, however, insist that SB375’s goal of walkable transit-oriented development is not a realistic solution to global climate change, because most Americans want the typical suburban lifestyle.

The skeptics are wrong.

First, demographics are against them. Many of the 85 million Baby Boomers who are Empty Nesters, or will soon be, are downsizing and moving to more densely-developed urban areas where they can walk to restaurants, stores, theaters, and museums.

Meanwhile, Gen Xers (50 million strong) and Generation Y (76 million . . . and just entering the workforce) don’t want to live in their parents’ suburban neighborhoods, according to a recent RCLCo study. They want more vibrant mixed-use districts, more walkable lifestyles, and more human connections. They want to live close to friends, family, and work, i.e., in compact, pedestrian-friendly, transit-connected, mixed-use districts.

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