What is climate change?
How do HOV lanes help to reduce GHG emissions and climate change?
What else is the Department of Transportation doing about climate change?
What is the State of Washington doing about climate change?

What is climate change?

The average global surface temperature has increased a little more than one degree Fahrenheit during the past century, and most of that gain has been during the last two decades. Even small temperature changes are linked with extreme ecological and weather changes. Washington State is considered to be especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and the average temperature is expected to continue to rise unless action is taken.

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are considered the primary culprits behind climate change. GHGs include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases, and other compounds which create a “greenhouse effect” on the planet by trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. Although some GHG emissions occur naturally, many of them are thought to be the result of the burning of fossil fuels. Industrial processing, landfill, agriculture, and land use are also contributors.

In most urban areas, the majority of fossil fuels are burned in the production of energy (for instance in gas or coal plants), and a much smaller percent of their GHGs come from transportation. That is not true here, however, since the Pacific Northwest gets much of its energy from hydro-electric power. In Washington State, almost half of the GHGs come from vehicle emissions.

How do HOV lanes help to reduce GHG emissions and climate change?

Since almost half of Washington State’s GHG emissions are from transportation, reducing single occupant vehicle trips is a good place to start. HOV lanes have been shown to encourage people to carpool, vanpool, or take the bus rather than drive by themselves. Every carpool trip reduces the amount of GHG emissions that would have been created if carpool members had driven their own vehicles. Vanpools and buses help to reduce GHGs by much more. One vanpool can take as many as 14 vehicles off the road; a standing-room only articulated bus can take 90 cars off the road during peak commuting hours.

If you drive an average car, every mile of driving you avoid keeps one pound of carbon dioxide from being emitted. Cleaner and “greener” vehicles and fuels with lower (and sometimes even no) GHG emissions are coming onto the market, so the above calculation is not exact. Until all vehicles have zero GHG emissions, however, ride-sharing will play a crucial role in reducing transportation GHG emissions.

Forming a carpool with someone from your household, your neighborhood, or your place of employment, joining a vanpool, taking the bus, train, ferry, telecommuting, or using a non-motorized mode of getting around are all ways for you to make an important contribution towards helping the environment.

What else is the Department of Transportation doing about climate change?

WSDOT is actively engaged in meeting the Governor’s Climate Change Challenge as well as reducing its own GHG emissions in many ways. See the WSDOT Climate Change page for details and updates.

What is the State of Washington doing about climate change?

Governor Gregoire signed the Washington Climate Change Challenge, Executive Order No. 07-02, in early 2007, and then further clarified State direction on climate change with Executive Order No. 09-05 in May 2009.  Gov. Gregoire’s Climate Change Challenge sets three different targets for GHG emission reduction goals for the State of Washington:

• 2020: Reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels.
• 2035: Reduce GHG emissions below 1990 levels by 25%.
• 2050: Reduce GHG emissions below 1990 levels by 50%.

To read more about Washington State's work on climate change, see the Governor's Environment page.