Air Quality and Transportation Planning

The report presents the content and intentions of the US acts: Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) of 1990 and Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991. In combination, the two acts are innovative and aggressive efforts to move US cities toward inte-grated transportation and air quality planning. CAAA includes federal standards for allowable concentrations for various toxic air pollutants. ISTEA provides a set of directions that transpor-tation planners and decision-makers must follow to reach spesific goals for transportation and air quality. ISTEA is also a federal investment pro-gram for the period 1992-1997. ISTEA is focus-sing on intermodal transportation solutions and regional planning lead by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). In non-attainment areas transportation projects are expected to contribute to improved air quality. Evaluations reveal that some of the intentions of the acts fail to be implemented in some metropo-litan areas. Planning practice show, however, that changes are moving in the right direction