New Maps Show Urban Living Helps Curb Global Warming

New research by the nonprofit Center for Neighborhood Technology comparing greenhouse gas emissions of city and suburban households has found that transportation-related emissions of people living in cities and compact neighborhoods can be nearly 70 percent less than those living in suburbs. This builds on CNT’s Housing+Transportation Index research, which shows that average transportation costs vary from a low of 14 percent of area household median income in transit-rich, compact communities, to highs of 28 percent or more in exurban areas where employment, retail, and other amenities are more dispersed. “If you’re deciding where to live, consider moving to an urban area," suggests Scott Bernstein, CNT’s President. "You’ll help fight global warming by emitting less CO2. And you’re likely to drive less, so you’ll spend less on transportation, saving up to $5,000 annually.” CNT has put the information covering 53 U.S. metropolitan areas into an interactive map. Later this year, CNT will expand the H+T analysis to more than 330 metros in the United States, which will provide coverage for more than 80 percent of the population in the United States. The Housing+Transportation Affordability Index was developed by CNT and its collaborative partner, the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, as a project of The Brookings Institution's Urban Markets Initiative. Reconnecting America is a partner with CNT in the Center for Transit-Oriented Development. The first phase of the H+T Index, released in January 2006, specifically examined the variables that inform Housing+Transportation costs. The key finding was that location matters, and can affect the true cost of housing when transportation costs are factored in. The initial H+T research found that two primary independent variables in the household transportation model, residential density and household income, drive three primary dependent variables, auto ownership, auto use and transit ridership.