Fehr & Peers Joins Vision California Team

Fehr & Peers is providing transportation expertise on “Vision California” , an unprecedented statewide effort to explore the critical role of land use and transportation investments, such as High Speed Rail, in meeting the environmental and fiscal challenges facing the Golden State. The study, funded by the California High Speed Rail Authority and the state’s Strategic Growth Council, will examine alternative land use and transportation scenarios through which California can accommodate expected growth and create a more sustainable future. Fehr & Peers joins a team, lead by Calthorpe Associates, which also includes experts in land use, natural resources, energy and public health.  

The work will be a natural extension of Fehr & Peers’ work for the US Environmental Protection Agency on 4D and MXD modeling tools, and our role helping define the process for addressing California’s AB32 and SB375 climate laws as participants in California State Air Resources Board Regional Targets Advisory Committee.     

Meeting the targets established by AB32 and SB375 will require a new direction in how the state invests in and develops its communities, transportation systems, and critical infrastructure.  Vision California will develop and apply tools that illustrate and comprehensively measure the role of land use and High Speed Rail and SB 375-mandated regional “Sustainable Communities Strategies” in meeting AB 32 greenhouse gas targets.

The study will include statewide scenario development and modeling coordinated with the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in each of the regions served by High Speed Rail. The regions will be described though a detailed mapping of “place types” at a 5-acre scale.  Fehr & Peers will develop the system through which these scenarios will be evaluated and compared with respect to their effects on transportation infrastructure and the environment.

The evaluation will account for place-type’s unique density, location, urban design, transportation network, and demographic context. It will also consider the effects of travel demand management and transportation systems management “best management practices” as defined in the SB 375 target setting process.  The evaluation will provide clear evidence for state, regional and local decision-makers on the effects of the statewide planning visions on California’s future vehicle miles traveled, energy consumption and greenhouse emissions, transit mode shares, walking and bicycling and public heath, cost and fiscal impacts.

“When you’re building infrastructure, you have to take into account the different statewide goals. We haven’t done scenario planning at a statewide level, and it’s something we need.”  (Cynthia Bryant, California’s Cabinet-level Strategic Growth Council)

Click here to learn more about Vision California and the California High-Speed Rail Authority