Chapter

3

Transportation and theenvironment
Tomohiro Ichinose
Professor, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University

3.1

Transportation and environmental issues

The 21st century has been called the “century of the environment,” and the relationship between transportation and the environment has greatly changed due to changes in modes of transportation and theenvironmental issues being focused upon. For example, in “Kotsu to Kankyo,”1) the Japanese translationof the 1988 OECD report “Transport and the Environment,”2) issues such as air pollution and noise areraised as examples of the effects of land transportation on the environment, but there is no mention of
global warming. The Framework Convention on Climate Change was only adopted at the 1992 Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and was finally put into force in 1994. At that time, the Convention on Biological Diversity was hardly recognized, both in Japan and across the world.
In the Comparative Study on Urban Transport and the Environment (CUTE), sponsored by theSpecial Interest Group on Transport and Environment at the World Conference on Transport ResearchSociety between 2001 and 2004, the focus of research was on environmental issues such as automobile
emissions and noise, in particular localized air pollution and greenhouse gases.3) This attests to the fact
that, upon entering the 21st century, global warming was finally gaining widespread attention.
However, the environmental effects of transportation cover quite a wide range. The focus is mostcommonly placed upon automobile-related air pollution and global warming, as in the case in CUTE, tothe extent that there is very little discussion regarding the relationship between the environment andother forms of transportation. Table 1 shows a listing of the environmental effects of major forms oftransportation, and is based on the table in the above-mentioned OECD report,2) with extensive additions and revisions by the author.
Regarding the effects on air pollution, automobiles are most commonly examined due to the scaleof their effects, but marine and other water-based transportation, rail transportation, and air transportation also exhibit a variety of effects. For example, in 2011 air transportation accounted for only 3.9% ofcarbon emissions for the transportation sector as a whole, but the demand for international aviation services is expected to grow rapidly and reach a sixfold increase by 20504) compared to the demand in 2010.
Before global warming took center stage, acid rain was a central topic, particularly in Europe. In recent

32｜Theory

Table 1. The effects of transportation on the environment (Table 1 from reference 2, with additions by the author)
Transportation
mode

Air

Maritime
CO2 emissions
transportationand inland
Air pollution
waterwaysRailtransportation

Carbon dioxide
emissions
Air pollution

Carbon dioxide
emissionsRoadtransportationAirtransportation

Air pollution (Inparticular, fueladditives such as
CO, HC, NOx, dust,
and lead)

Carbon dioxide
emissions
Air pollution

Land

Port facility
construction

Water (including
groundwater)

Construction ofrelated facilities,
including roads
Terrainmodification due
to roadconstruction
Procurement ofmaterials for road
construction

Airport facility
construction

Noise, vibration

Facilities, shipdisposal

Division ofunderground water Facilities andvehicle disposal
veins by tunnel
construction, etc.

Division ofunderground water
veins by tunnels,
Facilities andetc.
vehicle disposal,
waste oil
Development ofwater regions andchanges in water Battery disposal
system due to road (especially forhybrid and electric
construction
vehicles)Surface andgroundwatercontamination

Development ofwater regions due
to airport
construction

Ecological impact
Expansion ofinvasive species
by ballast waterPort facility
construction

Drilling and
Canal construction dredging rivers
and coasts

Railway andstationconstruction

Waste

Noise around theportLandscape

Loss of natural
coast, rivers

Endocrine
Landscapes with
disruption of
ships
organisms by painton ships
Disruption ofnatural andtraditionallandscapes

Habitat
Noise andfragmentation
vibration nearstations and along
Creation of a new
Collision accidents
railwayslandscaperesources(vehicles, bridges)

Automobile noiseand vibrations incities and along
major routes

Noise and shock
Disposal of aircraft waves near
airports

Habitatfragmentation
Disruption ofCollision accidents
natural andtraditional
Disruption due tolandscapes
pollutants
Contamination byanti-freeze agents
Light pollution bystreetlights

Creation of newlandscaperesources (bridges,
etc.)

Habitat destruction
Loss of naturalby airport
landscapes
development
Collisions withairplanes (mainly
birds)

Landscapes withairplaneyears, however, fine particulate matter with particles of diameter 2.5 μm or less (PM 2.5) is the primarycause of pollution in China and other developing nations.
The impact of transportation on the environment can be roughly divided into the effects due toroads and other infrastructure, and the effects due to automobiles and other transportation vehicles.
Transportation vehicles have greater impact in the atmosphere, but on the ground the primary impact isdue to infrastructure maintenance. This is divided into facilities such as ports, stations, and airports, andthe construction of linear routes such as canals, railways, and roads. Transportation routes must be continuous, and therefore necessarily separate natural environments and land use. Furthermore the scale offacilities such as airports is quite large, and this can have a significant impact on both natural environments and land use.
Transportation infrastructure is also the cause of much of the impact on water regions. The effectsof transportation on rivers and coastal areas have been pointed out in many past studies, most of which

Chapter 3: Transportation and the environment｜33

show a degradation of water quality due to development. Disruption of underground water veins due tounderground transportation via tunnels has also been shown to reduce and pollute underground water,
and to increase maintenance costs for drainage of water. There are also many cases where transportation
machinery leads to the pollution of water areas. Regarding ground transportation, the various chemical
products emitted by automobiles are concentrated along roads, and then dispersed into the surrounding
environment.
Large amounts of waste are produced when transportation-related infrastructure is abandoned or
renewed, and when the vehicles that utilize such infrastructure exceed their serviceable lifetimes, these
too must be treated as waste. In Japan, the Act for Automobile Recycling mandates that such vehicles berecycled, and recycling rates have reached approximately 99%.5) However, there is a possibility that the
rapid spread of hybrid vehicles, and the expected increased popularity of electric automobiles and nextgeneration environmentally friendly vehicles, will result in increased battery disposal, so the cost ofrecycling may increase.
Regarding noise, with the exception of marine transportation, there has been extensive research,
and a variety of measures have been attempted. Infrastructure maintenance exceeding a certain scale issubject to the Environmental Impact Assessment Law, and must meet certain legally determined standards. There has also been continued development for the suppression of noise and vibration due totransportation vehicles. Japan is currently developing a maglev train line and continues to expand
Haneda Airport, so new issues related to noise and vibration are likely to develop.
There have been few investigations into the effects of transportation on organisms, despite various
indications for doing so from the fields of biology and ecology. The largest impacts are habitat fragmentation and loss. As I explain in more detail below, the most frequently discussed measures are environmental mitigation and eco-roads. Various other effects are also seen, but two particular features ofmarine and other water-based transportation are extended distribution ranges of invasive species due toballast water, and endocrine disruption due to the paint used on ships. In the case of air transportation,
collisions between airplanes and birds are the major problem, which can also pose danger to human
lives.
One final impact is that on landscapes. The OECD report2) makes no mention of this point. Nonetheless, transportation-related infrastructure has a significant impact both on natural scenery and on
traditional and historic views that have been cultivated over many years.6) An interesting feature of thisissue, however, is that transportation machinery and infrastructure itself can become a scenic resource.
For example, one does not need a particular interest in railways to feel a sense of beauty when viewing aphotograph of a train crossing over a bridge that straddles a valley, and there are many instances wheretransportation infrastructure itself becomes a popular landscape spot, such as in the cases of the Yokohama Bay Bridge or the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge.

34｜Theory

3.2

Road greening and parkways

The environment and transportation infrastructure have developed in close association with each other.
For example Hirasawa7) describes how rows of trees were planted as far back as the early 7th century as aform of road greening in Japan, and how records from the 8th century state that the planting of thesetrees was mandated, as they provided traveling farmers with shade in which to rest and fruit to eat when
they were hungry. The Tokugawa Shogunate later developed tree-lined roads throughout Japan, and the
beginning of using stands of cherry trees for recreation was in the first half of the 18th century, when
Tokugawa Yoshimune opened orchards in the area around Edo.7) This can be viewed as the birth of Japanese-style open space planning.
The development of green space in the West received a major boost when Friedrich Franz Leopold
III, the Lord of Dessau, became strongly influenced by the landscape gardens of England, and thereby
renovated Wörlitz Castle into a landscape garden between 1768 and 1770. Landscaping was thereafter
promoted throughout the territory, forming the birth of open space planning in Europe. It was theUnited States that first established a park system coupled with road planning.
The need for parks and green spaces was strongly felt as a result of the expansion of American cities
in the early 19th century. New York’s Central Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1873. This
was the first large-scale urban park to be built in the United States. At around the same time (1868) the
first parkway—a road developed along with a park—was built in Brooklyn.8) The definition of “parkway”
remains unclear, and already has diverged from its original meaning, but later developments in Boston,Minneapolis, and Kansas City featured a variety of axial roadways combined with green spaces, also
called parkways.8) In late 19th-century Boston, the development of parkways and green spaces was sublimated into open space planning in the form of a park system.9) This occurred before automobile usage
was widespread, in a time where roads were generally used for horse-drawn carriages.
After automobile usage rapidly spread in the early 20th century, parkways appeared as roads designated for automobile use only. This was done toallow automobiles to travel at higher speeds thanhorse-drawn carriages, as exemplified by the development of the Long Rheinland State Parkway in the
1930s.8) Parkways later began to spread throughout
the world in various forms, such as national parkroads and pay roads through scenic areas. American-style parkways were soon introduced into
Japan, starting with the Shonan Coast Park Road
(now part of National Highway Route 134), whichbegan construction in 1931 and was completed in
1936, as the first parkway in Japan10) (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Current National Highway Route 134(taken by the author in June 2014, near the Hamamiyama Kobanmaeintersection)

Chapter 3: Transportation and the environment｜35

3.3

Ecological mitigation and eco-roads

The development of railway and automotive technologies has realized high-speed movement, and automobiles in particular make possible high mobility that allows any-time, anywhere movement. The highdensity development of supporting railways and roads has arisen alongside the development of highspeed ground transportation. Following World War II in particular, global political stability andeconomic development caused transportation infrastructure development to rapidly expand, and thisbegan to have a large impact on the natural environment. In 1969 the United States enacted its National
Environmental Policy Act and institutionalized various forms of environmental impact assessment inorder to avoid, to the extent possible, the effects of various kinds of development on the natural environment. While falling far behind the countries of the West, in 1997 Japan too enacted its Environmental
Impact Assessment Law. Development exceeding a certain scale is now required to undergo environmental assessment, the possible effects of business on natural environments are investigated, and furthermore follow-up surveys after project completion are also required. However, the institutionalizationof mandatory environmental impact mitigation has gone even further in Western countries such as theUnited States and Germany. Environmental mitigation (often simply called “mitigation”) is a method for
ensuring “no net loss” of wildlife habitats before and after development and other such activities through(1) avoiding effects by refraining from certain activities, (2) reducing effects by limiting certain activities, (3) correcting effects through repair, rehabilitation, and restoration, and (4) reducing or eliminating
long-term negative effects through protection measures and management, supplying alternate resources,
and making up for negative effects through replacement, with steps taken preferentially in that order.11)
Figure 2 shows a railway near Frankfurt, Germany, in which quadruple tracks are being planned to meetthe increased demands of recent years. Such artificially created railway embankments are a habitat forthe sand lizard (Lacerta agilis), an endangered species in Germany, so this rail construction is likely tohave a significant impact. Measures to develop alternative living spaces in the surrounding areas are
therefore planned prior to construction so that the lizard populations can be maintained. The abovementioned procedures for quantifying thetotal amount and quality of organism habitats
are operated in the United States using a system called mitigation banking,12) which had
begun to be utilized before the greenhouse gas
emissions trading system was established.
Environmental mitigation is involved in
all forms of development not just transportation infrastructure, but continuous linear
developments such as roads and railways arecharacterized by the potential to divide organism habitats. This results in loss of habitat, as
well as animal deaths due to vehicle collisions

Figure 2. Railway embankments are an important habitat for
the endangered sand lizard (Lacerta agilis)(taken by the author in July 2014, in Wetterau, Hessen, Germany)

36｜Theory

while trying to cross the road, disruption of life-cycles for amphibians and other animals that musttravel between forests and waters, and reduced genetic diversity due to reduced chances for mating
between adjacent populations. Therefore, there have been efforts toward reducing to the extent possible
such effects on organisms, particularly with regard to animal movement, and such attempts are collectively referred to as “eco-roads.” As in the case of environmental assessment, various cases have alreadybeen accumulated in the West and have begun to be introduced to Japan, starting with the 11th Fiveyear Road Development Plan, which called for the increased development of eco-roads.13) A wide varietyof specific measures have been implemented, to protect not only fauna, but flora as well. The development of eco-roads is often positioned in the above-described environmental mitigation procedures in
the West. Various cases have been seen in Japan too, but in most cases road construction is decided first,
with tunnels and bridges for animals prescribed as symptomatic treatments, so in many cases it becomes
questionable as to whether the effects are sufficient to allow calling such projects “eco-roads.” A recent
study14) indicated that somewhere between 89 and 340 million birds die in America each year due tocollisions with automobiles, so further measures will likely be needed in the future.

3.4

Transportation and invasive species

I began by discussing global warming, but there is also a need to confront declines in biodiversity as a
global environmental issue of the 21st century. Alongside the Framework Convention on Climate
Change, the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 adopted the Convention on Biological Diversity, which entered into force in 1993. While previously having less recognition than global warming
issues, the Convention on Biological Diversity’s tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (alsoknown as COP10) held in Aichi Prefecture in 2010 suddenly brought biological diversity to the spotlightin Japan. Japan’s National Biodiversity Strategy 15) gives detailed information regarding factors thatthreaten biodiversity, but another issue related to its relationship with transportation is the transfer ofinvasive species. One famous example is the white clover (Trifolium repens) commonly found in grasslands throughout Japan, having been brought here in the form of cushioning materials for packaging
when trade between United States and Japan opened up. In manners such as this, when moving fromplace to place humans bring with them a variety of organisms, whether intentionally or not.
As an example characteristic of transportation, invasive species can be mixed in with the ballast
water of ships. Seawater is held in ballast tanks to help stabilize ships, especially when they are travelingunder light loads. This seawater will often contain many forms of aquatic life, and is released at a different port when the ships take on loads, and so can be carried quite a distance. Many aquatic organisms
contained within can survive until release, especially considering the higher-speed vessels that have beendeveloped in recent years. A well-known example of an invasive species attracting caution in Japan is theMediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis). Of course, there are also cases where native Japanese
species are transferred to other locations. One such example is wakame seaweed (Undaria pinnatifida),
which grew explosively in Australia, resulting in major damage to its fishing industry.

Chapter 3: Transportation and the environment｜37

Increased demand for air travel has also promoted the migration of species, resulting in risks tohumans. The most significant uninvited guests transported by aircraft are pathogens and viruses. Examples have been known ever since air travel became a common mode of transportation for tourists, but
the risks associated with increased air travel finally gained wide recognition after 2000 due to severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the avian flu. Regarding the latter, the possibility of propagation
overseas via wild birds had already been known, but the danger of the virus being transported by
infected air passengers led to various areas worldwide measuring travelers’ body temperatures using
thermal sensors. Regarding SARS, an infected air passenger in 2003 lead to emergency measures being
implemented in China and throughout the world. Another potential danger is illnesses such as West
Nile fever which are transmitted not directly from person to person but through a vector that can also
be carried on aircraft. Such dangers led to the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare issuing a noticein 2003 titled “Measures against mosquitoes carrying West Nile fever arriving via aircraft from North
America.”

3.5

Toward a low-carbon transportation society

As mentioned earlier, global warming is generally recognized as the
single most serious adverse effect oftransportation. Figure 3 gives statistics for 2012, showing that the transportation sector makes up 18% ofJapan’s total carbon dioxide emissions, and this amount would certainly increase, were the manufac-

16%

0%
3%
7%
2%

33%
21%
18%

turer of transportation vehicles

Energy conversion sector
Residential sector

included as well. However, there has
been a significant decrease of carbon
emissions from the transportation

Figure 3. Carbon dioxide emissions (indirect emissions) by sector inJapan, 2012

Industrial sector
Industrial processes

Transportation sector
Waste

Business and other sectors
Others(created by the author using data from the Greenhouse Gas Inventory Office, National Institute forEnvironmental Studies)

sector since 2000. What was once a
consistent upward trend has now become a major transformation.
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions from transportation requires three basic approaches. One isreducing emissions from vehicles. Another is improving transportation infrastructure. The last, which ismuch needed, is the construction of a transportation system that can help reduce emissions for society
as a whole. This third type of system would include tax reforms and other measures.
Automotive manufacturers in particular are competing to develop and improve vehicles. Spurredin part by soaring fuel costs in Japan in recent years, consumers are increasingly aware of fuel economy.
Hybrid vehicles with better fuel economy than purely gasoline-fueled automobiles accounted for 17% of

38｜Theory

new car sales in 2013. While next-generation automobiles continue to be developed, there has also beensteady progress toward improving fuel efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide emissions for conventional internal combustion engines. Small cars that achieve 40 km/l fuel efficiency are expected to appear
in 2015. The US and the EU have both set upcoming regulations on the amount of carbon dioxide thatcan be discharged by vehicles.
Carbon dioxide emissions can also be greatly reduced through transportation infrastructure
improvements, for example by reducing congestion. In the Tokyo metropolitan area in particular, various measures have been taken to reduce chronic congestion, and carbon emissions have been reducedby constructing new bypasses and highways, among other methods. However, it is also possible thatsuch improvements will result in increased traffic flow and thus increased travel distances, which will
ultimately increase emissions. Recently there have been attempts at making real-time measurements ofchanges in traffic volumes over time, and optimizing traffic signal control according to traffic volumes.
In addition, although they are scarce now, a recent movement has aimed to bring back roundabouts invarious districts of Japan, given their proven carbon emissions–reducing effect.16)
Drastic reduction of carbon emissions will require a transformation of our transportation system.
A variety of measures and technologies have been tested in European cities, including road pricing, carsharing, cycling road development, lowered public transportation fares, increased urban area parking
fees, park-and-drive systems, and providing public transportation information via smartphones to promote the usage of public transportation rather than privately-owned vehicles. Vienna, Austria realized a
10-point increase in public transportation utilization between 1993 and 2012.17) Such efforts toward integration remain rare in Japan. However, Toyama City is frequently cited as a success story for moving
toward becoming a more compact city design and for implementing light rail transit. The greening of
taxation systems related to automobiles has also had a great effect on reducing carbon emissions. Western countries have undertaken tax reform that meticulously considers the environment in relation to therealities of the region.18) Japan too has implemented tax incentives for environmentally friendly vehicles,
and from October 2012 has introduced tax measures related to global warming that add to existing taxes
on petroleum and coal products. The tax rate will be raised in stages through April 2016. Leveraging
revenues from taxes levied as measures against global warming issues will allow for ongoing implementation of energy source CO2 emission reduction, for example through reduced energy usage measures,the proliferation of renewable energy, and the greening and increased efficiency of fossil fuels.

References
1) Japan Economic Research Institute, trans. 1993. “Kotsu to kankyo” [Transport and the environment]. Research Report Vol.
92, No. 13: 1–212. (in Japanese)
2) Organisation for Economic Co-operation for Development. 1988. Transport and the environment.
3) Nakamura, Hideo, Yoshitsugu Hayashi, and Kazuaki Miyamoto, trans. 2004. Toshi kotsu to kankyo: Kadai to seisaku [Urban
Transport and the Environment: An International Perspective]. Institution for Transport Policy Studies. (in Japanese)
4) International Civil Aviation Organization. 2013. Environmental report: aviation and climate change.
5) Japan Automobile Recycling Promotion Center. 2014. “Automobile Recycling Law.” Accessed June 5, 2014. http://www.jarc.
or.jp/automobile/manage/.

Chapter 3: Transportation and the environment｜396) European Environment Agency. 2011. Landscape fragmentation in Europe: Joint EEA-FOEN report. Copenhagen: Publications office of the European Union.
7) Hirasawa, Tsuyoshi. 1996. “The origin and development of a row of trees before modern times in Japan.” IATSS Review Vol.
22, No. 1: 4–12. (in Japanese)
8) Ishikawa, Mikiko. 1993. “A historical study on the establishment of parkways in U.S.A.” J-STAGE Vol. 13: 105–120. (inJapanese)
9) Ishikawa, Mikiko. 2001. Toshi to ryokuchi [Cities and Green Spaces]. Iwanami Shoten. (in Japanese)10) Koshizawa, Akira. 1996. “Evolution of boulevard and street trees in urban planning.” IATSS Review Vol. 22, No. 1: 13–23. (inJapanese)11) Morimoto, Yukihiro, and Akira Kameyama, eds. 2001. Miteigeshon: Shizen kankyo no hozen/fukugen gijutsu [Mitigation:
Conservation of natural environments and restoration technologies]. Soft Science. (in Japanese)
12) Tanaka, Akira. 2010. “Wetlands conservation by mitigation banking: Current status of economic mechanism for biodiversity
offsets: Biodiversity banking in U.S.A.” Journal of Japan Society on Water Environment Vol. 33, No. 2: 54–57. (in Japanese)13) Overseas Eco-roads case investigation group, ed. 1999. Eko rodo bukku: Ikimono to kyousei suru doro zukuri kaigai jire shu[Eco-roads book: A collection of cases from overseas on road construction that promotes coexistence with living things].
Japan Highway Landscape Association. (in Japanese)
14) Loss, Scott. R., Tom Will, and Peter P. Marra. 2014. “Estimation of bird-vehicle collision mortality on U.S. roads.” The Journalof Wildlife Management. Vol. 78, No. 5: 763–771. http://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.721.
15) Nature Conservation Bureau, Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan. 2012. Living in harmony with nature:
National biodiversity strategy of Japan.
16) Matsuda, Shoji, Hiroshi Sukigara, and Shigeo Mori. 2014. “Implementation of a roundabout initiative in Iida city.” IATSS
Review Vol. 39, No. 1: 15–21. (in Japanese)17) Wiener Stadtwerke. 2014. “Modal Split.” Accessed June 5, 2014. http://www.nachhaltigkeit.wienerstadtwerke.at/daseinsvorsorge/oepnv/modal-split.html.
18) Imanishi, Yoshikazu, and Masayuki Shibahara. 2014. “Motor vehicle-related tax systems in the U.S. and Europe.” IATSS
Review Vol. 38, No. 3: 182–190. (in Japanese)
Recommended Reading
1) World Conference on Transport Research Society & Institute for Transport Policy Studies. 2004. Urban Transport and theEnvironment: An International Perspective. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
2) Benedict, Mark A., and Edward T. McMahon. 2006. Green Infrastructure: linking landscape and communities. Washington,
DC: Island Press.
Practical application projects for reference
A land utilization framework and transportation system for declining population: 132–135