Sustainable Transportation Tracking Tools

The Transportation Research Center (TRC) at the University of Vermont has launched an interactive Transportation Sustainability Tracking Tool for Chittenden County, Vermont, in collaboration with the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. The web‐based dashboard and mapping application present key metrics—including greenhouse gas emissions, transportation energy use, and vehicle miles traveled—at multiple spatial scales, from individual vehicles to households and entire communities. By visualizing temporal changes and geographic patterns, the tool enables municipalities and residents to assess progress toward regional sustainability and climate targets, identify areas of improvement, and compare performance across different jurisdictions.

Developed using the open‐source R Shiny framework, the tool draws on an enhanced longitudinal dataset maintained by the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, which includes registration and inspection records for light-duty, personal vehicles in the county. Its design supports annual updates to reflect the latest travel behavior and emissions data, while acknowledging limitations such as the exclusion of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and transit fleets. Hosted on a UVM server, the platform is intended to guide policy and planning decisions by offering a transparent, data-driven foundation for evaluating the impacts of transportation initiatives and informing future investments.

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