Keith Vodden Dr. Douglas Smith - Transports Canada
Keith Vodden Dr. Douglas Smith - Transports Canada
Keith Vodden Dr. Douglas Smith - Transports Canada
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Analysis and Estimation of the Social Cost of Motor Vehicle Collisions in Ontario<br />
Ontario and then valued these additional emissions using widely cited estimates from the<br />
environmental policy literature.<br />
The most widely cited report on air quality and valuing benefits is provided by the<br />
U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 1999) estimating the benefits of the U.S.<br />
Clean Air Act in preventing premature deaths and illness due to reduced air quality.<br />
For greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Pearce (2005) and Tol (2005) provide<br />
estimates of the benefits of emission reductions designed to be used in a cost-benefit<br />
context (that is, as we are using the estimates). Their estimates are in the range of C$2.70<br />
to C$17.50 per tonne of CO 2 emitted. In this project, we have used an average of these<br />
numbers of C$10 per tonne of CO 2 as the value for this parameter. This literature and the<br />
environmental economics literature more generally indicate that these values are likely to<br />
be higher in the future.<br />
The air pollution literature contains many benefit estimates associated with<br />
reductions in Criteria Air Contaminants (CACs). In the case of GHG emissions including<br />
automobiles, this literature suggests that damages related to health effects account for a<br />
large fraction of the total value of what are referred to as ancillary benefits (that is<br />
benefits associated with GHG reductions that go beyond climate change). In this project,<br />
we have used a value of just over C$8 per tonne of CO 2 as the value for the ancillary<br />
benefits (air quality) parameter. The source for this estimate is a study for Resources for<br />
the Future, a leading environmental research institution, by Burtraw and Toman (1998).<br />
This means that the benefits of reducing incremental motor vehicle emissions associated<br />
with traffic incidents consist of C$10 per tonne of CO 2 plus an additional $8 per tonne of<br />
CO 2 to reflect air quality (CAC) benefits (as opposed to CO 2 climate change benefits).<br />
This latter value reflects the damage costs related to CAC emissions per tonne of CO 2 .<br />
Note that the CAC damage estimate of $8 per tonne, from the work of Resources<br />
for the Future, is $8 per tonne of CO 2 , not $8 per tonne of the major (non-diesel) motor<br />
vehicle pollutants (HC, CO and NO x ). Average emissions (pounds per mile), according<br />
to EPA data are as follows:<br />
• CO 2 -- 0.916 pounds.<br />
• HC -- 0.0033 pounds.<br />
• CO -- 0.033 pounds.<br />
• NO x -- 0.005 pounds.<br />
As these numbers clearly indicate, emissions of the CAC pollutants are much<br />
smaller per mile than for CO2. Put somewhat differently, one tonne of CO2 emissions<br />
will be accompanied by approximately eight pounds of HC emissions<br />
(0.0033/0.916*2205). Alternatively 2407 vehicle miles implies one tonne of CO2 and<br />
eight pounds of HC.<br />
152 TNS Canadian Facts, Social and Policy Research