Efficient vehicles versus efficient transportation. Comparing transportation energy conservation strategies

This article compares four potential transportation energy conservation strategies using a comprehensive evaluation framework that takes into account how each strategy affects annual vehicle travel, and therefore, mileage-related impacts such as traffic congestion, road and parking facility costs and crash risk. Mileage-related impacts tend to be large in magnitude compared with energy conservation benefits, so even small changes in total vehicle travel can have a large impact on net benefits. Fuel efficiency standards and some alternative fuels cause vehicle travel to increase. Higher fuel taxes cause a combination of increased vehicle fuel economy and reduced mileage. Mobility management strategies cause relatively large mileage reductions and so provide the greatest mileage-related benefits. Conventional evaluation practices often overlook mileage-related impacts and so tend to overvalue strategies that increase vehicle fuel efficiency and undervalue mobility management strategies.