Reducing the need for driving makes it possible to reduce the amount of driving and the myriad negative impacts that come with it: greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, injuries and fatalities from crashes, wear-and-tear on the roads that is costly to repair, ambient noise levels, the stress of driving in congested conditions. Some of these impacts are being reduced through technology that lessens the per-mile impact of driving without changing the amount of driving. A reduction in driving produces many benefits in and of itself, but other changes associated with reductions in driving add additional benefits. If drivers switch to active modes of travel—walking, bicycling, and transit, which often involves walking or bicycling to or from stops and stations—more benefits accrue.
This project highlights some of those benefits and addresses common questions about how those benefits are achieved.