Sustainable Transportation
SMPDC conducts planning, outreach, and regional coordination on sustainable transportation issues, such as electric vehicles, low impact design, and alternative transportation.
Estimating On-Road Transportation Emissions in York County, Maine
Sustainable Road Design Standards
SMPDC developed a model Roadway Design Standards that can be incorporated into local Subdivision and Zoning Ordinances. These standards for road design and construction of new streets in rural towns promote the health and safety of the residents of the towns, provide a safe and convenient environment for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and minimize long-term street maintenance and repair costs by incorporating more climate resilient design. In recognition that new roads have significant impacts on the environment, local economy, and community structure, the new Roadway Design Standards will incorporate sustainable development best practices such as low impact design for stormwater management, waste management in construction, use of recycled materials, retention ponds, alternative transportation accessibility, and reducing roadway width where possible.
Municipal Electric Vehicle Readiness Toolkit
Municipalities play an important role in scaling up adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) to reach statewide emission reduction targets. They can encourage EV infrastructure development through planning and policy changes, set an example by incorporating EVs into their own municipal fleets, and disseminate information about EVs through stakeholder and public outreach. SMPDC partnered with the Greater Portland Council of Governments to create a Toolkit that will provide technical guidance on encouraging EV adoption, fleet transitions, and infrastructure development.
Municipal EV Readiness Toolkit