Our Driving Habits Must Be Part of the Climate Conversation

The briefing highlights that transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, driven by a reliance on personal vehicles and sprawling land use. It asserts that reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by 20% by 2030 is necessary to limit warming to 1.5°C, regardless of electric vehicle adoption. The author proposes a combination of smart growth development, transportation pricing signals, and roadway redesign to achieve these reductions, noting that an integrated transportation demand management (TDM) plan can compound these benefits.

• Transportation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, accounting for 29 percent of the total, with the majority originating from passenger vehicles.
• To limit global warming to 1.5°C, the United States needs to decrease vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by 20 percent by the end of the decade, a requirement that persists even with ambitious adoption of electric vehicles.
• Smart growth development strategies, including infill and transit-oriented development (TOD), could reduce VMT by an estimated 5 to 20 percent by co-locating residential density with destinations.
• Transportation pricing signals, such as congestion pricing, parking pricing, and pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) policies, have the potential to reduce VMT by 5 to 15 percent.
• Roadway reforms, such as stopping highway expansions and implementing street redesigns for 'complete streets', could yield VMT reductions of 3 to 6 percent; conversely, planned expansions in Colorado could increase statewide VMT by up to 3 percent by 2030.
• Integrated transportation demand management (TDM) plans can compound the benefits of individual interventions; for example, Seattle has achieved a 75 percent rate of travel in non-single occupancy vehicles despite population growth.

APA

RMI (2021). Our Driving Habits Must Be Part of the Climate Conversation. https://rmi.org/resources/our-driving-habits-must-be-part-of-the-climate-conversation/

Chicago

RMI. Our Driving Habits Must Be Part of the Climate Conversation. 2021. https://rmi.org/resources/our-driving-habits-must-be-part-of-the-climate-conversation/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Our Driving Habits Must Be Part of the Climate Conversation |date=24 August 2021 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/our-driving-habits-must-be-part-of-the-climate-conversation/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2021our, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Our Driving Habits Must Be Part of the Climate Conversation}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2021}, month = aug, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/our-driving-habits-must-be-part-of-the-climate-conversation/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }