Officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation and local elected officials from the state of Maryland met with Johns Hopkins University experts on June 17 for a roundtable talk about sustainable transportation solutions.
The event, which was held at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and hosted by the Center for Climate-Smart Transportation, focused on how communities and government agencies can center transportation decisions around environmental justice, climate change mitigation, and safety for all road users based on multi-modal transportation models. The panelists’ expertise included climate-smart transportation strategies such as electronic vehicle technology, urban planning concepts that favor multimodal transportation, and 15-minute cities.
The U.S. transportation sector is responsible for roughly 28.5% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Experts agree that rapid innovation and systemic change are essential to address climate change and the risk it poses to public health.
The USDOT-funded Center for Climate-Smart Transportation, launched in 2023 at JHU, focuses on identifying and advancing evidence-based, practice-ready solutions that put climate change at the center of transportation decisions. It is a consortium that includes experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas Austin, the University of Utah, Morgan State University, and Diné College. It is part of the USDOT’s larger network of University Transportation Centers.
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Corren Johnson, director, Baltimore Department of Transportation
Credit: Michael Ciesielski for Johns Hopkins University
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From left, Mark Edelson, Maryland State Delegate, District 46; Elonna Jones, Baltimore City Regional Director, Office of U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen; Deron Lovaas, chief of Environment and Sustainable Transportation, Maryland Department of Transportation
Credit: Michael Ciesielski for Johns Hopkins University
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From left, Megan Latshaw, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering; Ebrahim Azimi, associate director, Center for Climate-Smart Transportation; Shima Hamidi, director, Center for Climate-Smart Transportation, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering; Marsha Wills-Karp, chair, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering; and Keshia Pollack Porter, Bloomberg Centennial Chair and Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management
Credit: Mike Ciesielski for Johns Hopkins University
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From left, Firas Ibrahim, director, Office of Research, Development and Technology; Ed Schlesinger, dean, Whiting School of Engineering; Keshia Pollack-Porter, Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management; Marsha Wills-Karp, chair, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering; Robert Hampshire, deputy assistant secretary for Research and Technology and chief science officer; Gretchen Goldman, director, Climate Change Research and Technology; Kelley Severns, senior adviser, Special Programs and Projects, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology; Rolf Schmitt, deputy director, Bureau of Transportation Statistics; Shima Hamidi, assistant professor of American Health, and director, Center for Climate-Smart Transportation, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering; Melisa Lindamood, assistant vice president For Federal Strategy
Credit: Michael Ciesielski for Johns Hopkins University
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