Category
Fleet Management
Development
Planning
Strategy




Install On-Board Idle Reduction Technologies
Retrofit Older Vehicles & Equipment
Repower Older Vehicles & Equipment
Replace Older Vehicles & Equipment
Business Evaluation and rightsizing of Fleet
Usage



Development Measures to encourage
reduction of Vehicle Miles Traveled
Development Measures to Reduce Electricity
Consumption
Heat Island Mitigation
Survey Questions
Q7: Fleet management is the practice of upgrading or
replacing fleet vehicles to make the fleet more efficient. Do
you believe the additional cost for cleaner fleets is an
acceptable expense? (Y|N)
Q8: Please Rank the following fleet management options from
highest to lowest:
•Install On-Board Idle Reduction Technologies
•Retrofit Older Vehicles & Equipment
•Repower Older Vehicles & Equipment
•Replace Older Vehicles & Equipment
•Business Evaluation and rightsizing of Fleet Usage
Additional comments:
Q5&6: Development policies can influence ozone in a variety
of ways. Please indicate your support for the following
development strategies.
Survey Narrative Results
•Cleaner fleets was considered an acceptable
cost for businesses and governments to
protect air quality by 87% of respondents
•Replacing older vehicles/equipment and
business evaluation/fleet rightsizing were
the only options that scored high, both with
over 50% strong approval
12 responders total noted that certain fleet
management purchase policies were costly
relative to possible gains in air quality
improvement. Therefore, regional
governments should conduct a cost benefit
analysis(es) to determine if the cost of
upgrading technologies (i.e., replacement,
repower, idle-reduction technologies, cleaner
fuel guidelines, etc.) would be worth the
benefits to air quality.
•All development policies had over 75%
support and strong support. Cooling/shading
stood at 78.5% strong support and the others
broth broke 55% strong support.

25 individual responders mentioned
furthering green housing construction
such as to accommodate alternative
energy sources.
o
8 individual responders
specifically mentioned solar
energy development. Both
rulemaking strategies (e.g.,
mandatory inclusion of solar
panels on new housing
construction for certain
housing types) to
incentivizing strategies (e.g.,
credits for installing panels as
opposed to penalties for not
installing them).
o
3 separate responders noted
Outreach &
Awareness







Procurement Policy




Ozone Action Day Programs
Multimedia Public Education Program
School curricula & education programs
Local Green Business Leaders Certification
Program
Individual Pledges
Business Outreach Program
Promoting the Use of Commute Solutions
Rideshare Program
Q2: What is your level of awareness of air quality issues in our
region?
Tier 2, Bin 4 or better Light-Duty Vehicles
CARB-Certified Low-NOX Idle Heavy Duty
Vehicles
Clean Contracting Policies
Clean Fuel Specifications in Contracts
Q10&11: Purchasing decisions can be used to achieve
emissions reductions. Which of the following, if any,
purchasing guidelines would you support for your local
government? (1) Buying lower emissions vehicles (Y|N) (2)
clean contracting guidelines (Y|N) or (3) buying local (Y|N)?
Q3&4: Which of the following should be done to improve air
quality awareness and reduce emissions in our region?
the promotion of white
roofing as a way to reduce
“heat island” effects in highly
developed areas, thus
reducing the meteorological
conditions that can lead to
higher ozone

4 individual responders supported
further development of public
transportation
•54% said they had a medium level of
awareness of air quality issues. The only
option to score less than 55% was collecting
individual pledges.

30 individual responders
mentioned improvements to public
transportation in the region and creating
a more extensive public transit network.
This ranged from suggestions of
retrofitting buses so that they run on
electricity or natural gas to extending the
existing Metrorail service to building
new light rail infrastructure.

7 individual responders mentioned
anti-idling policies as something they
would support. The second most
common suggestion was incentives for
reducing commercial, public, and
individual vehicle idling, though specific
policy recommendations were absent.

5 responders promoted bike
commuting by local employers

3 individual responders reported
using funds for local air quality
improvement for further education and
awareness programs for residents and
consumers in the area
•All options presented to survey
respondents received >60% strong support
and ~90% support + strong support.

5 respondents didn’t make the

Local Sourcing of Materials
Comments:



Regulation &
Enforcement








Modifications to Current Vehicle Inspection &
Maintenance Program
Enhanced Vehicle Inspection & Maintenance
Program Enforcement
Expansion Inspection & Maintenance Program
Enhanced Vehicle Idling Enforcement &
Restrictions
Regulating Use of Unpermitted Combustion
Equipment
Open Burning Restrictions
Special Event Policies
Require Trip Reduction plans for companies
with 100 or more employees
Q12&13: Regulations with adequate enforcement represent
opportunities to reduce emissions
that contribute to our ozone problem.Which of the following
regulatory/enforcement
policies would you support?
connection for why local purchasing
would be effective (e.g.s., “what does
local have to do with emission levels?”
or ”It is important to buy local, but other
manufacturers of low emissions
products may need to be found
elsewhere.”)
4 respondents were confused about the
general nature of the question—
assuming it referred to personal
purchasing decisions as opposed to
municipal purchasing decisions.
2 respondents supported a practice
already in place within the City of
Austin’s purchasing department, which
is to consider the “cradle-to-grave”
lifecycle of a piece of municipally-owned
equipment as a formalized process prior
to purchase of a particular piece of
equipment.
6 individual respondents encouraged
municipal purchasing departments to
conduct cost-benefit analyses to
determine the financial impact of city
purchasing decisions.
•All suggested regulations received over 49%
strong support and over 80% support +
strong support
3 common specific policy recommendations
were suggested from this question. One
concerned the regulation of gas-powered leaf
blowers and lawnmowers in the region. These
ranged from specific calls to outlaw said lawn
equipment (3 responders) to other, more
general calls to encourage electrical or
mechanical powered equipment (i.e., rotary
mowers), which were favored by 2
responders.
The second issue concerned discouraging
fraudulent car inspections at the municipal
and regional level.

2 responders commented on the issue,
with one respondent directly referenced
SB 1350, a Senate Bill proposed by Sen.
West, which never passed a vote in the
other chamber. The specific reference to
this bill involves Sec. 502.047 (relating to
the enforcement of a centralized
computer registration-based system for
vehicle inspection). Another respondent
referred more generally to the fact that
fraudulent inspections are common and
need to be curbed.
Ride share, carpool and telecommuting policy
incentives

6 respondents noted that ridesharing,
telecommuting and carpooling need to
be more common activities in the
region. This ranges from the following
“Discourage individual transportation,
encourage public and co-op
transportation” to “carpools for large
employers” to suggestions that
employers who receive tax incentives
being required to have employee
carpool programs.
Reporting &
Planning



Small Source Reporting Requirements
Non-Road Equipment Reporting Requirements
Conducting Annual Emission Inventory of
City/County Operations
Q14&15: Emissions reporting and inventories are used to help
policymakers analyze air quality trends. This is important
because pollutants come from a variety of sources other than
traffic which have effects on our air quality that are difficult to
estimate. Would you support reporting requirements for small
sources (Y|N) and/or non-road equipment (Y|N)? Do you
believe municipalities should prioritize annual inventories of
their operations (Y|N)? Comments:
•Each measure received at least 60% support
+ strong support. Strong support ranged
from low 30% to a high of 47% for reporting
by government agencies.
For question #14 in particular, only 17
respondents included written input. Of those
respondents, three stated that they outright
did not support having such requirements,
citing that they would be too onerous and
overbearing to businesses and governments
alike. In addition to this,

4 more responders noted that that they
did not understand the nature or
intention of the question, noting that it
contained too much jargon in the
response options to be able to
adequately understand the question.
For question #15, 10 respondents voiced
further confusion about the nature of the
question. Of these,

2 respondents understood the scope of
the question but were skeptical that it
could accurately be measured. Example
explanations for why include the
assertion that the definition non-road
pollutants are not “narrow enough” to
get an accurate measure, as well as
another responder who believed it
would be easy to underestimate area
emissions.
For affirmative responses, there was no
discernibly consistent response.
Stationary Source
Reductions




Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy Measures
Resource Conservation Measures
Power Plant NOX Controls
Replacing Older Gas-Fueled Power
Plants with Newer Gas-Fueled Power
Plants
Q16&17: Stationary sources of air pollution such as power
plants represent a persistent challenge to air quality in our
region. In addition to conserving electricity, another strategy
for dealing with stationary sources is to make the electricity
we generate cleaner. Which of the following, if any, would you
support? Renewable Energy Measures (Y|N), Power Plant
NOX Controls (Y|N), and/or Replacing Older Gas-Fueled Power
Plants with Newer Gas-Fueled Power Plants (Y|N)?
Comments:
•Energy efficiency and renewables each
scored ~85% and pollution controls and
power plant replacement each scored ~75%

17 respondents offered support for solar
energy development in the region. One
individual suggested creating an option
for a voluntary “community supported”
common pool for specific businesses and
individuals to utilize solar generated
electricity. Three responders suggested
tax incentives for businesses investing in
solar energy. All in all, where specific
actions were noted only, conversion to
solar energy was supported more than
investments in improving pollution
controls for existing non-renewable fuel
sources.
Transportation
Emission Reduction
Measures




Improvement of roadway
performance
Expanded and Improved Transit
Commuter Trip Reduction Programs
for CAC members
Improved Non-Motorized Travel
(Pedestrian/Bike) Facilities
Transportation emission reduction measures are designed to
reduce air pollution from on-road sources which represent the
largest share of ozone emissions in our region. Please rank
the following measures:

3 responders were concerned about the
costs involved should a power plant be
mandated to switch to a renewable
energy source.

1 responder noted that, cost aside, the
construction activity involved in
converting a plant from fossil fuel-usage
to renewable energy-usage could itself
pose a risk to air quality in the short run.
•All measures scored at least 80% support +
strong support.

40 responders noted that public
transportation networks aren’t sufficient
enough to provide service to areas
where the responders live in order for
them to take advantage of it. This
included residents in areas as diverse as
West Travis County to Far South, Round
Rock and east of Austin in areas such as
Taylor.
o
4 of the responders who
expressed this could be
classified as need-based
riders as opposed to “choice”
riders, in that they depend on
the automobiles of friends
and family and, in one case,
are disabled. Their main issue
with public transportation in
the area was the inability to
actually get to the bus stops
themselves.

Where alternative “off-peak”
commuting was mentioned, responders
noted that this was not an option for
them, given the demands of their work
schedule and inflexibility of their
employers.
-investing in infrastructure meant to provide you with an
alternative to your car for getting to work and around town
-expanded transit options
-improvements meant to increase roadway performance
-improved pedestrian and biking facilities
Comments: