Air Quality Contacts
For more information, please contact Victoria Martinez.
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The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) official release of MOVES3 was published in a Federal Register Notice and on EPA's transportation conformity website, replacing the MOVES2014 series of models as EPA's latest model for estimating air pollution emissions from cars, trucks, motorcycles, and buses, as well as many categories of nonroad equipment. The MOVES3 two-year conformity grace period started on January 7, 2021 and ends on January 9, 2023. MOVES3 will need to be used as the latest EPA emissions model in both regional emissions analyses and in hot-spot analyses that start after the end of the grace period for transportation conformity purposes outside of California. The MOVES web page is the source for MOVES3 software as well as MOVES Policy Guidance, MOVES Technical Guidance, and information on MOVES training.
FY 2020 Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program annual reports were due by March 1, 2021. These reports should reflect all projects for which CMAQ funds were obligated in Federal FY 2020 and be submitted through the CMAQ Project Tracking System (PTS). Resources including the CMAQ Tracking System User's Guide, webinars, and a presentation on a detailed project listing report (DPLR) are available on the CMAQ Annual Reporting webpage. For additional information on the CMAQ annual reporting process, visit the Help feature in the CMAQ PTS.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is continuing to develop a series of tools to provide technical support for the implementation of the CMAQ Program. This CMAQ Emission Reductions Calculator is offered as an additional resource to assist departments of transportation (DOTs), metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and project sponsors in the project justification process. All modules are available on the FHWA CMAQ Emissions Calculator Toolkit webpage. For more information, please contact Mark Glaze (Mark.Glaze@dot.gov or 202-366-4053).
Most recently, the Managed Lane Facilities and Conversions tool was updated, and FHWA hosted a webinar to demonstrate the Alternative Fuels and Vehicles and the Dust Mitigation tools. Recordings of these and other training webinars are available via the CMAQ toolkit website.
On January 22, 2021, representatives from Resilience and Durability to Extreme Weather Pilot Projects presented on the findings and lessons learned from their studies in Workshop 1046 at the TRB Annual Meeting. The workshop covered eleven projects which addressed one or more of three areas related to deploying resilience solutions: integrating resilience and durability into agency practices; using available tools and resources to assess the vulnerability and risk of transportation projects or systems; and deploying a resilience solution and monitoring performance. A recording of this workshop is available on the TRB Annual Meeting website until March 18, 2021.
The air quality committee meetings at the TRB 2021 Annual Meeting included a focus on electrification (vehicles and roadways), the air quality and health co-benefits of greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions in surface transportation, and changes in local air quality during COVID-19. State DOTs discussed tools and methods for analyzing GHG emissions and the degree to which performance targets at the State and local level may influence climate emissions. Targets aimed at reducing GHG emissions have been shown to produce near-term benefits on local air quality, particularly PM and ozone. Several presentations emphasized this link between climate change mitigation and human health and the importance of including health impacts in future climate policies. A presentation on plug-in electric vehicle purchase incentives highlighted the impacts of incentives on energy savings and PM emissions reductions, as well as issues around equity and ensuring programs are accessible to low-income and minority communities. Alternative fuel corridors were also highlighted from the perspectives of local air quality, climate, and equitable access in underserved populations. There was also discussion around what data are needed to better incorporate climate considerations in transportation planning. For example, it was noted that the degree to which mode shift influences vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduction and emissions is still largely unknown. Improved data related to induced travel demand and research into effective VMT reduction measures (e.g., VMT banking) are needed. For more information on TRB events, visit the TRB 2021 Annual Meeting website.
The AASHTO CMAQ Task Force is holding monthly teleconferences, open to all AASHTO members. The task force is a forum for communications, guidance, and resources focused on the CMAQ program, providing recommendations and support to State DOTs. The CMAQ task force meetings are a venue to engage fellow AASHTO members, and FHWA provides regular updates at each monthly meeting. For further information, please contact the AASHTO Committee on Planning (committeeonplanning@aashto.org) or visit the task force website.
FHWA demonstrates how to use the DPLR to quality check CMAQ projects entered in the CMAQ Project Tracking System for CMAQ annual reporting purposes. A video, script, and slides for the DPLR presentation are available on the Annual Reporting website.
FHWA's Resource Center Environment, Air Quality & Realty Team is available to offer MOVES and other trainings. Please contact Mike Claggett, at Michael.Claggett@dot.gov, for additional information or to discuss scheduling a training.
Several web-based transportation conformity training opportunities are available on-demand from FHWA's conformity training website (under "Web-based Training"). These training opportunities range in level of detail from a short 27-minute video providing a high-level basic overview of transportation conformity to a detailed set of 32 self-directed training modules. Recordings of two webinars are available: basic transportation conformity overview (June 12, 2018, 70 minutes) and basic MOVES emissions model training (June 18, 2018, 42 minutes).
The target audience for these training materials are FHWA staff and State and local transportation partners (MPOs and State DOTs) who are either new to or would like a refresher training on the conformity process. For questions, please contact David Kall, at david.kall@dot.gov, or 202-366-6276.
FHWA posted a 27-minute YouTube video on the CMAQ program. The video provides a basic introduction to the program, how CMAQ funds are distributed to States, and the types of projects eligible for the CMAQ program. The training is available via FHWA's YouTube channel. For more information about the CMAQ program, please contact Mark Glaze at mark.glaze@dot.gov or (202) 366-4053.
The FHWA Resource Center Environment, Air Quality & Realty Team periodically conducts a series of training sessions on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Air Quality Analysis for Highway Projects. The training includes sessions on project-level applications appropriate for managers and practitioners, as well as hands-on sessions intended for modelers. Please note this is not a general MOVES training course, but is focused on project-level applications. It is not intended to address regional applications, such as State Implementation Plan (SIP) emissions inventories or regional (plan and transportation improvement plan) conformity analyses. If you are interested in this training, please contact Michael Claggett at michael.claggett@dot.gov.
FHWA has created a Traffic Noise Model (TNM) Playlist on its YouTube Channel and 4 new videos were added in December. These videos demonstrate how to install TNM, set up a project, and begin to conduct basic tasks in the software. The newly released videos cover how to input barriers, the barrier analysis tool, parallel barriers, and the input heights report. More videos will be posted throughout the year and each will be a short-format demonstration of 1 or 2 specific topics relating to using TNM. To access the playlist please visit the TNM Training page. For technical assistance with TNM please contact TNMHelp@dot.gov.
The National Highway Institute (NHI) Air Quality Planning web-based training series is designed for transportation practitioners. It includes four modules: Clean Air Act Overview (FHWA-NHI-142068), SIP and Transportation Control Measure (TCM) Requirements and Policies (FHWA-NHI-142069), SIP Development Process (FHWA-NHI-142070), and Transportation Conformity (FHWA-NHI-142071). All courses are free. For more information, visit the NHI website and search "Air Quality Planning," or look for the specific course number. Please contact Karen Perritt at (202) 366-9066, or Karen.Perritt@dot.gov with any questions or comments.
Past issues of the Air Quality and Sustainability Highlights are available on FHWA's website: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/air_quality/conformity/highlights/ or https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/sustainability/newsletter/.
Please e-mail Victoria.Martinez@dot.gov with any suggestions for future issues.
