Transportation details of LA Mayor’s proposed Green New Deal
01 May 2019
On Monday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti released his version of a Green New Deal (LAGND). The LA Green New Deal seeks to “zero out” Los Angeles’ main sources of harmful emissions: buildings, transportation, electricity, and trash.
The ambitious plans includes accelerated goals and new targets such as:
Building a “zero-carbon” electricity grid — reaching an accelerated goal of 80% renewable energy supply by 2036 with 100% renewables by 2045.
Creating a Jobs Cabinet to bring city, labor, educational, and business leaders together to support an effort to create 300,000 green jobs by 2035 and 400,000 by 2050.
Mandating that all new municipally owned buildings and major renovations be all-electric, effective immediately, and that every building in Los Angeles—from skyscrapers to single family homes—become emissions-free by 2050.
Phasing out styrofoam by 2021, ending the use of plastic straws and single-use takeout containers by 2028, and no longer sending any trash to landfills by 2050.
Recycling 100% of wastewater by 2035; sourcing 70% of water locally; and nearly tripling the maximum amount of stormwater captured.
Planting and maintaining at least 90,000 trees citywide by 2021 and increasing tree canopy in low-income, severely heat impacted areas by at least 50% by 2028.
A 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
LA’s carbon neutral pathway calls for deep reductions in GHG emissions from the transportation sector, affecting mobility, public transit and private vehicles. bOne of the key elements in the program is building out the transit system in LA to enable Angelenos to use public transit and other non-vehicular modes.
The mode shift is fundamental to the plan. Thus, a key target is to increase the percentage of all trips made by walking, biking, micro-mobility / matched rides or transit to at least 35% by 2025; 50% by 2035; and to maintain this at least at a 50% level by 2050.
As a corollary, Garcetti’s LAGND seeks to reduce VMT (vehicle miles traveled) per capita by at least 13% by 2025; 39% by 2035; and 45% by 2050.
The plan also calls to ensure Los Angeles is prepared for Autonomous Vehicles (AV) by the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
To meet the reduced VMT targets, the plan proposes the following milestones:
2021: adopt a mobility first policy that will see the updating of the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) ordinance. First/last mile infrastructure improvements around transit stations—including the integration of existing and emerging mobility services (e.g. bikeshare, e-scooters, carshare, etc.)—will need to be developed and implemented.
2021: expand Metro Bike Share to at least three new neighborhoods; deliver multi-modal Integrated Mobility Hubs with infrastructure for car share, shared rides, bike share, and dockless mobility services, starting in Downtown L.A. and Hollywood; and double annual Metro Bike Share trips in Downtown LA and University Park
A major element of the LAGND is increasing the percentage of electric and zero emission vehicles in the city to 25% by 2025; 80% by 2035; and 100% by 2050. As part of this, the plan calls for the 100% electrification of LA Metro and LADOT buses by 2030. The plan also targets reducing port-related GHG emissions by 80% by 2050.
Plan milestones on the road to 100% ZEVs by 2050 include:
Develop a zero emission roadmap for LAX by 2021.
Distribute 1,000 used electric vehicle (EV) rebates, 11,500 Level 2 EV charger rebates, and 75 DC fast charger rebates by 2021.
Develop a roadmap for a Fossil Fuel Free Zone by 2021; implement it by 2030.
Install 10,000 publicly available EV chargers by 2022 and 28,000 by 2028. Update the building code to expand EV charging requirements to meet anticipated need. Build 20 Fast Charging Plazas throughout the city. Expand curbside EV charger program to include the private sector.
Electrify 10% of taxi fleet by 2022 and 100% by 2028.
100% Zero Emission school buses in Los Angeles by 2028.
100% of urban delivery vehicles to be zero emission by 2035. Create a suite of innovative street and curb usage regulations to encourage electrification of urban goods movement.
For the port, the plan calls for the expansion of the use of shore power (AMP) or other emissions capturing technologies to 100% of ships as part of a suite of emissions reductions programs for ocean going vessels by 2028.
Cargo-handling equipment should be 100% zero emission by 2030, and on-road drayage trucks should be 100% zero emission by 2035.
The really bad guys seem to be:
1) Waste with a very large +75% change. A real disaster?
2) Industries with a large +47.5% change. Another disaster?
The good or better guys seem to be:
3) Buildings with an acceptable -15% change.
4) Transports with a small -4.5% change. Not a great success?
The leader State (California) could do a lot better?
Posted by: HarveyD | 01 May 2019 at 06:09 AM
"..increasing tree canopy in low-income, severely heat impacted areas.."
L.A. is one big heat island with all the asphalt.
Posted by: SJC | 01 May 2019 at 06:41 AM
The LAGND page posted by the mayor's office has NOTHING on how all this ecological wizardry is to be accomplished. All new municipal buildings and major renovations are to be all-electric? What's supposed to provide the 24/7 supply of electricity these things will require? PV won't do it. Wind won't do it. There isn't enough pumped hydro in California to do it. If even overnight battery storage is priced into every building, the price tag is going to skyrocket.
I'd love to see LA raise taxes to pay for this boondoggle. It would show just how impossible it is to be "Green" in the way these scientific illiterates insist we MUST be (because Ontario, France and Sweden are "doing it wrong").
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 01 May 2019 at 12:33 PM
The fact they set goals and target dates is a move in the right direction and sets a spark that will get people thinking clean energy and less pollution, instead of 'status quo.'..and, there's a lot of time left. Who knows what progress will be made in science and clean energy innovation before the target dates?
Posted by: Lad | 01 May 2019 at 01:47 PM
... WITHOUT any identified means of meeting them is proof positive that this scheme is either proposed by idiots or a deliberate fraud.
Do you know what's going to happen with this? I do. The "renewables" are going to be playing second fiddle and the natural gas companies are going to be laughing all the way to the bank.
A real effort to decarbonize would have Diablo Canyon not merely operating but expanded, San Onofre back in operation and Rancho Seco with a couple new units added. GND is a sick joke; it won't work because it CAN'T work.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 01 May 2019 at 07:54 PM
Waste management and industrial processes will have to be improved to reduce their growing pollution and GHGs. A stick and carrot system to compensate good results and tax the bad ones may work.
Buildings and vehicles have started to move in the right direction but more have to be done to increase efficiency and clean energy production with more low cost clean REs.
Posted by: HarveyD | 02 May 2019 at 04:03 PM
Enough propaganda, AlzHarvey. Get your employer to pay you to post somewhere else.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 02 May 2019 at 04:27 PM
"A stick and carrot system to compensate good results and tax the bad ones may work."
So how much tax would be needed on a gallon of gasoline to make the transportation part of that happen? $15? $30?
OK for the elites, but how can working people afford to get to work? Are they forced to spend more than 4 hours a day on buses?
Posted by: Steve Reynolds | 02 May 2019 at 06:07 PM
The solution is NOT to put more vehicles on the busy California roads/streets but less. Shared eADVs with 6 to 10 passengers could safely transport more users, faster and in more comfort with a much smaller pollution/GHG footprint. A UBER like program could be used to match eADVs availability with demands.
The first 10-12 passenger eADVs will be used to (freely) transport locals and tourists from subway stations to Expo grounds and Botanical Gardens this summer in Montréal QC. The system may be expanded to cover the Old Town tourist area to ease the traffic nd parking problems.
Posted by: HarveyD | 03 May 2019 at 07:28 AM
SR, I think there's a pretty good description of how back in the article:
The FFFZ would effectively limit consumers to electricity, hydrogen and maybe some kinds of biofuels. How this would be implemented is anybody's guess, but if FF-capable vehicles are prohibited from the city it would pretty much force the issue. If not, there would be massive gasoline smuggling, gangs controlling the sale of "illegal fuel", and a host of other absolutely predictable consequences that those responsible will claim nobody could possibly have anticipated.
My money is on these people being utterly evil.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 03 May 2019 at 07:31 AM