Regional Collaboration to Reduce Auto Dependence: Lessons from Europe for SB 375 (English Edition)

In the fall of 2010, Autumn Bernstein was awarded a German Marshall Fund fellowship through the Urban and Regional Policy Program. Through this fellowship, Ms. Bernstein traveled to Torino, Italy; Lyon, France; and Stuttgart, Germany, to understand how these regions built collaborative planning efforts and programs to reduce automobile dependence and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). This policy paper summarizes the results of that research and addresses how California can learn from these regions to achieve the goals of SB 375. The research finds that certain factors are essential to understanding the success, including leadership from major cities, the abatement of jurisdictional competition, the creation of linkages between economic development and sustainable transportation, and strong community participation.