The GPI Transportation Accounts: Sustainable Transportation in Nova Scotia

" Instead of planning to widen two-lane highways 101 and 103, which would disperse more people away from Halifax, the province should promote smart growth, advises Victoria Transport Policy Institute Executive Director Todd Litman in the new ''Sustainable Transportation for Nova Scotia'' report, which enumerates economic, environmental and social advantages of compact, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly development near transit, including lower commuting costs, gas use and air pollution; better public health, fitness and safety; and traffic fatality rates cut by some 75 percent. "

"We consider the daily toll of traffic fatalities almost normal. Yet, we would never tolerate 2,730 deaths and 17,533 serious injuries every year if the victims were riding in aircraft, trains or buses. Nor would we accept the horrendous costs. A report released last week by the economic measurement group GPI Atlantic points out that in Nova Scotia alone in 2002, traffic accidents cost nearly $975 million. Those costs included lost income, pain and suffering, medical expenses, police salaries and property damage."

"If you want to avoid being killed on the highway, it's helpful to stay off the highways. This seems like a simple idea, but thus far it has eluded Nova Scotia's traffic authorities and urban planners. That thought emerged from the release last week by GPI Atlantic of the GPI Transportation Accounts: Sustainable Transportation for Nova Scotia."

"If we're going to get serious about the environment, which we seem to have at least started doing recently, one of the first things we've got to talk about is transportation, the largest source of pollution, direct and indirect, locally and globally. Talking about transportation, however, is not easy. The car, the truck, highways – these are virtually the icons of a secular North American religion. To argue that we need less highway-building, not more, and incentives to discourage driving and encourage more benign forms of transportation and social organization is more or less to blaspheme against the accepted order."

"Transportation is the single highest cost for Nova Scotians -- more than housing, food, living expenses, or health costs, says a new report on sustainable transportation by GPI Atlantic."

"The high, and growing, cost of transportation in Nova Scotia was usefully identified by a new GPI Atlantic study released Wednesday. According to the 565-page report, Nova Scotians spend more on transportation than on any other single item, including housing, food or health care. The study found the average Nova Scotian spent $3,036 a year on direct costs, such as vehicle operation, and another $4,562 indirectly, through things like related taxes and the health care costs from accidents. And, GPI says, those costs are rising."

"This is the challenge public transit faces: how to induce drivers to leave their cars at home when commuting to and from work. It's an important challenge — according to a report from Genuine Progress Index (GPI) Atlantic, Nova Scotians' collective cost of driving is $6.4 billion per year."

"Everyone knows how much it costs to run a car. There's the sticker price, the gas, the insurance, repairs, parking, maybe even a speeding ticket here and there. But does that really give a true measure of the cost of driving? One group argues the real cost of transportation to Nova Scotians reaches more than $6.4 billion annually, or about $7,600 per person. That's based on “invisible” measures such as the cost of land devoted to parking lots, or the long-term costs of greenhouse-gas emissions."

"Nova Scotians may not realize it, but transportation has quietly become their single largest household expense, says a new report."

"Transportation is going the wrong way in Nova Scotia, according to a new report released Wednesday by GPI Atlantic. "The current way that we measure progress can be very, very misleading to policy makers and send very, very inaccurate signals to policy makers and to the general public," Ronald Colman, executive director of the non-profit research organization, said at a news conference in Dartmouth."

"Nova Scotians may be driving themselves to the brink of bankruptcy, a new report suggests. The study, released Wednesday by GPI Atlantic, said transportation is one of the biggest expenses for individuals who live in the province when indirect costs are included."

"ONE SUSPECTS that a 565-page report on the sustainability of Nova Scotia's transportation system, to be released next week, will be filled with insights and questions that the average Nova Scotian rarely considers and political leaders will be struggling to deal with. It is exactly the type of study Nova Scotia-based independent research group GPI Atlantic specializes in. GPI stands for Genuine Progress Index, which has been designed to go beyond traditional economic measures to point toward a more inclusive accounting system."

Authors: Aviva Savelson, MA; Ronald Colman, PhD; Todd Litman, MES; Sally Walker, PhD; and Ryan Parmenter, MEDes
with assistance from William Martin, Clare Levin, Gillian Austin, Ben Gallagher, Jenny Gimian, Jaspal Marwah, and Antoni Wysocki