Recent its_rw items

California and USA Pricing Strategy Experiences

Fri, 4 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This white paper examines the successes and failures of road pricing strategies in California and the United States, with implications for congestion pricing across California. It evaluates nine case studies spanning feasibility studies, operational HOT lane programs, and the country's first large-scale cordon pricing zone. We address the conditions that favor pricing, barriers, outcomes, and how costs and benefits are distributed using case studies in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo County, Alameda County, New York City, and Northern Virginia. We find that successful pricing programs have sustained political champions, state enabling legislation, and benefits visible to identifiable users. Revenue allocation, not toll structure, is the primary determinant of whether pricing is regressive or progressive. No pricing program reviewed was repealed after implementation. We conclude that advancing road pricing in California will require clear state leadership and supportive...

Accelerating Transportation Innovation in California

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Mobility 10x Summit convened more than 200 leaders from state agencies, regional governments, academia, and industry to accelerate California’s transition toward a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable transportation system. As the capstone event of the Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative (RIMI)—a four‐year UC ITS research effort launched in 2021—the summit synthesized extensive research and practitioner insights across ten priority transportation topics, ranging from public transit to automation and carbon-neutraltransportation to equity, safety, and resilience.Across the opening and closing plenary discussions and nine breakout sessions, participants examined the structural challenges facing California’s transportation system: declining gas tax revenues, climate‐driven infrastructure damage, uneven public transit ridership recovery, inequitable access to mobility options, and rapid technological change. These challenges are converging at a moment when California...

Research Brief: The Changing Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Individuals and Households in the U.S.

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This brief describes findings from a research effort to understand the changing impacts of the pandemic upon households from different places and backgrounds living in the United States. We investigated the effects of the pandemic along with pandemic-based restrictions and rules on people’s behavior along with their mental and emotional health, social relations, and livelihoods. Unlike other research efforts, as far as we are aware this effort is the only one to join passive data from cell phones with survey information collected from the same individuals over time. We combined these data with a county-by-county inventory of pandemic rules and regulations regarding shelter-in-place, and mask wearing.

Political Preferences and Transport Infrastructure: Evidence from California’s High-Speed Rail

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We study how political preferences shaped California’s High-Speed Rail (CHSR), a largetransportation project approved by referendum in 2008. Voters’ support responded significantly to the projected economic gains in their tract of residence, as measured by a quantitative model of high-speed rail matched to CHSR plans. Given this response, a revealed-preference approach comparing the proposed network with alternative designs identifies strong planner’s preferences for political support. The optimal politically-blind design would have placed the stations nearer to California’s dense metro areas, where it was harder to sway votes, thus increasing the projected economic gains.

Reducing Emissions through Monitoring and Predictive Modeling of Gate Operations of Idle Aircraft: A Case Study on San Francisco International Airport

Mon, 3 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The use of airport gate electrification infrastructure in the form of ground power (GP) and preconditioned air (PCA) systems can reduce energy and maintenance costs, emissions, and health risks by limiting the use of aircraft auxiliary power unit (APU) engines at the gate. However, their benefits can only be gained when they are actually being used; otherwise, pilots keep APUs on to fulfill their aircraft’s demands for electrical power and air conditioning. GP and PCA systems require a large initial infrastructure investment to increase energy efficiency, and they are installed with the assumption that they will be highly utilized. In this report, a method is developed to examine how much and why GP and PCA are not used to their full potential when they are readily available.

An improvement on the end-of-life of High-speed rail rolling stocks considering CFRP composite material replacement

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It is undeniably true that transportation systems positively impact human life but, the use of transportation systems also emits green house gasses in the environment which leads to global warming. In this day and age, various technologies are being combined with transportation systems, aimed at reducing the global impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The high-speed rail (HSR), which is well-known for low CO2emissions, has continually been improved, especially its model. In this study, the material replacement method is taken to account for a feasibility study on the next model of the HSR. There are three types of composite materials that consist of glass filled with epoxy, glass filled with polyester and glass filled with nylon, replacing the six chief parts of HSR components. As a result, the total weight of rolling stock has significantly reduced to 24.61% on average so, it can decrease the amount of fuel in the HSR operation. Also, the feasibility of the recyclability (%Rcyc)...

Authorized Vehicles Only: Police, parking, and pedestrian access in New York City

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Sidewalks and crosswalks serve little purpose for pedestrians if they are routinely obstructed by automobiles. In New York City, local journalists and transportation advocates have drawn attention to this occurring, particularly in certain settings. Specifically, there is consistent photographic evidence that streets surrounding New York Police Department (hereafter, NYPD) offices are replete with cars parked on the sidewalk and within crosswalks. Though clearly problematic for pedestrians and abutting residents and local businesses, this type of parking behavior has not been studied systematically–both in terms of its geographic extent, and how long it has occurred. This paper considers the intersection of two issues –parking and public-employee behavior –both of which have been considered at length by scholars separately. As to the former, there have been a number of studies documenting drivers parking in ways that violate established regulations. Indeed, drivers...

New Metrics for Measuring Academic Research Outside the Ivory Tower

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The need to demonstrate the value of research programs is critical for funding sustainability, particularly in the 21st century where research funding is rarely guaranteed beyond the life of a single project. After the great economic crash of 2008 many research programs have also diversified their funding portfolios, which means cultivating new relationships with funders and potentially different objectives of research projects. Measuring the impact of academic research outside academia is critical to providing a holistic view of a research program, but the methods to do so are still being figured out and are largely context specific. Within the field of transportation, no metrics for measuring the impact of research have really been established. Readily available and easily measured metrics, like citations or other scholarly impact factors are not entirely appropriate to assess these kinds of research, since it hews to a narrow academic setting. This chapter proposes a methodology...

ACC, queue storage, and worrisome news for cities

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

ACC, queue storage, and worrisome news for cities

Women and Cycling: A Case Study of the Use of San Francisco Bike Lanes

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper presents a case study of the use of San Francisco bike lanes with a focus on women. Bike counts and intercept surveys of cyclists at three locations in San Francisco’s SoMa District were complemented by focus groups with cyclists, particularly women cyclists, and brief interviews with non-cyclists. Consistent with other US studies, we find that white men are disproportionately represented among the cyclists we observed, and that women bike less and bike shorter distances. However, at least in the SoMa sample, women are more likely to bike to work than men. Cyclists included people of all income groups and ages in the sample ranged from 18 to 75.

Women who cycle cite the freedom it gives them to travel on their own schedule and the exercise benefits it delivers as major reasons for cycling. Both men and women noted cost savings. Women feel more secure on a bicycle than on transit or walking, but fear of injuries from a bike collision or fall and concerns about...

Calculating and Forecasting Induced Vehicle-Miles of Travel Resulting from Highway Projects: Findings and Recommendations from an Expert Panel

Fri, 3 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In the context of implementation of SB 743 (Steinberg, 2013), staff at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) have been developing guidance documents on how to calculate induced travel, working with their counterparts at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR). OPR’s technical advisory discusses two methods for estimating induced travel: an approach based on the application of travel models and an approach using elasticities drawn from the peer-reviewed literature (such as the National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) induced travel calculator. Caltrans is developing internal guidance to help its analysts choose the best method (or combination of methods) for assessing induced travel from projects on the State Highway System, and has been holding meetings to provide stakeholders with opportunities to express their views and voice their concerns about the drafts

Renaming and Removal of Harmful Names and Monuments on State Transportation Right of Way

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The objectives of this study are to formulate policies and practices that can be used to identify place names that have derogatory or racist linkages and provide recommendations on how to rename or remove harmful names and monuments in the California transportation right of way (ROW). This study was requested by the California Department of Transportation and conducted through the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies Technology Transfer Program.

Small and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (SB/DBE) Issues in Caltrans Contract and Bid Process

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This Preliminary Investigation document, on one hand, outlines challenges encountered by SB/DBEs in the process of getting certified, entering into a contract, executing on projects or delivering services, and sustaining or growing their business. On the other hand, it summarizes OCR’s current ongoing efforts that are aiming to expand contracting with SB/DBEs. Along the way it identifies opportunities that warrant more in-depth investigation for OCR to target its programming and resource allocation as it aims to reduce obstacles or otherwise improve the ability of SBs/DBEs to successfully contract with Caltrans.

Are shelters in place? Mapping the distribution of transit amenities via a bus-stop census of San Francisco

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Transit stops serve as crucial components of journeys for riders, but their condition is often left out of equity considerations. Two important empirical questions are what stop amenities, such as places to sit, clear sign age, shelters for inclement weather, and unobstructed curbs are present, and how are they distributed across systems, which may reveal neighborhood or route-specific disparities. San Francisco, CA represents an ideal case for which to pursue this question, given it maintains a ‘transit first’ policy directive that mandates public space prioritize transit over private automobiles. An in-person census of 2964 street-level bus stops was conducted over three months, which finds that a majority of stops lack both seating and shelter of any kind, that route sign age varies widely in format and legibility, and that roughly one third of all stops are obstructed by on-street parking, rendering them difficult to use and exposing riders to on coming traffic. Stops in the...

Automated Vehicles Industry Survey of Transportation Infrastructure Needs

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Automated vehicle (AV) deployment can bring about transformational changes to transportation and society as a whole. The infrastructure owner-operators (IOOs), who own, maintain, and operate the infrastructure, have the opportunity to work jointly with the AV industry to provide safe and efficient operations. A key question for the IOOs is, “What transportation infrastructure improvements do AV manufacturers believe will facilitate and improve AV performance?” This study was designed to address this question through a comprehensive survey approach, including an online survey and follow-up interviews. A list of ten questions was discussed, covering the physical and digital infrastructure, infrastructure maintenance, standards and specifications, policy support, data sharing, and so forth. The researchers reached out to more than 60 entities who hold the AV testing permit in California. In total, 20 companies responded. They were from different sectors and well represented the AV...

Where the Crosswalk Ends: Mapping Crosswalk Coverage via Satellite Imagery in San Francisco

Tue, 8 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Marked crosswalks are the primary means of safeguarding pedestrian travel at intersections in American cities. In the face of decades-high pedestrian fatalities nationwide, the provision of adequate cross walks is highly salient. Though, how they are spatially distributed across an entire city, and vary by neighborhood, has drawn little academic scrutiny. Given that, this study utilizes satellite imagery to map the presence of marked crosswalks throughout San Francisco, a dense, walkable city that has struggled to reach its pedestrian-safety goals. For the first time, this allows for a calculation of 'crosswalk coverage' for the city as a whole. Manual review of satellite imagery documents that cross walks are present at 58% of San Francisco’s roughly 6,400intersections, though they are not evenly distributed across neighborhoods. Both hotspot analysis and comparing crosswalk coverage by Census tracts demonstrates that northern neighborhoods –even outside of the downtown core–maintain...

Advancing the Science of Travel Demand Forecasting

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Travel demand forecasting models play an important role in guiding policy, planning, and design of transportation systems. There is no shortage of literature critiquing the accuracy of model forecasts (see, for example, Pickrell, 1989; Wachs, 1990; Pickrell, 1992; Flyvbjerg, Skamris Holm, and Buhl 2005; Richmond, 2005; Flyvbjerg, 2007; Bain, 2009; Parthasarathi and Levinson, 2010; Welde and Odeck, 2011; Hartgen, 2013; Nicolaisen and Driscoll, 2014; Schmitt, 2016; Odeck and Welde, 2017, and Voulgaris, 2019), not to mention several high-profile lawsuits (Saulwick 2014, Stacey 2015, Rubin 2018). Many researchers and practitioners feel more can be done to advance rigorous travel analysis methods for the public good (see, e.g., zephyrtransport.org). Motivated by these critiques, a two-day, NSF-funded workshop was held at UC Berkeley in the Spring of 2017 to engage in a fundamental review of the state of the art in travel demand modeling, to discuss the future of the field, and to...

Trust and Compassion in Willingness to Share Mobility and Sheltering Resources in Evacuations: A case Study of the 2017 and 2018 California Wildfires

Mon, 7 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Advances in the sharing economy – such as transportation network companies (e.g., Lyft, Uber) and home sharing (e.g., Airbnb) – have coincided with the increasing need for evacuation resources. While peer-to-peer sharing under normal circumstances often suffers from trust barriers, disaster literature indicates that trust and compassion often increase following disasters, improving recovery efforts. We hypothesize that trust and compassion could trigger willingness to share transportation and sheltering resources during an evacuation.

To test this hypothesis, we distributed a survey to individuals impacted by the 2017 Southern California Wildfires (n=226) and the 2018 Carr Wildfire (n=284). We estimate binary logit choice models, finding that high trust in neighbors and strangers and high compassion levels significantly increase willingness to share across four sharing scenarios. Assuming a high trust/compassion population versus a low trust/compassion population results...

A Report on the Future of Electric Aviation

Mon, 7 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

UC Berkeley has long been known as the home of important societal movements. In early October 2019, the electric aircraft movement came to UC Berkeley (UCB) courtesy of UCB’s Institute for Transportation Studies (ITS) and the College of Engineering. At what some have called the “Woodstock of Aviation”—the Sustainable Aviation Symposium (SAS) convened leaders of that movement from across the globe for two full days in UC’s Pauley Ballroom to explore how to solve important societal-enviro-economic issues in transportation with breakthroughs and innovations in high-tech physics, chemistry and electrical engineering. Beyond Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) topics, the faculty presentations spanned a broad spectrum of UC’s graduate and undergraduate curriculum and included those by prominent UC faculty members, professors from other universities, leaders from NASA as well as several by experts in private industry. SAS 2019 was unique among conferences in...

A Revealed Preference Methodology to Evaluate Regret Minimization with Challenging Choice Sets: A Wildfire Evacuation Case Study

Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Regret is often experienced for difficult, important, and accountable choices. Consequently, we hypothesize that random regret minimization (RRM) may better describe evacuation behavior than traditional random utility maximization (RUM). However, in many travel related contexts, such as evacuation departure timing, specifying choice sets can be challenging due to unknown attribute levels and near-endless alternatives, for example. This has implications especially for estimating RRM models, which calculates attribute-level regret via pairwise comparison of attributes across all alternatives in the set. While stated preference (SP) surveys solve such choice set problems, revealed preference (RP) surveys collect actual behavior and incorporate situational and personal constraints, which impact rare choice contexts (e.g., evacuations). Consequently, we designed an RP survey for RRM (and RUM) in an evacuation context, which we distributed from March to July 2018 to individuals impacted...

Micromobility evolution and expansion: Understanding how docked and dockless bikesharing models complement and compete – A case study of San Francisco

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Shared micromobility – the shared use of bicycles, scooters, or other low-speed modes – is an innovative transportation strategy growing across the United States that includes various service models such as docked, dockless, and e-bike service models. This research focuses on understanding how docked bikesharing and dockless e-bikesharing models complement and compete with respect to user travel behaviors. To inform our analysis, we used two datasets from February 2018 of Ford GoBike (docked) and JUMP (dockless electric) bikesharing trips in San Francisco. We employed three methodological approaches: 1) travel behavior analysis, 2) discrete choice analysis with a destination choice model, and 3) geospatial suitability analysis based on the Spatial Temporal Economic Physiological Social (STEPS) to Transportation Equity framework. We found that dockless e-bikesharing trips were longer in distance and duration than docked trips. The average JUMP trip was about a third longer in distance...

City-wide traffic control: modeling impacts of cordon queues

Mon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Optimal cordon-metering rates are obtained using Macroscopic Fundamental Diagrams in combination with flow conservation laws. A model-predictive control algorithm is also used so that time-varying metering rates are generated based on their forecasted impacts. Our scalable algorithm can do this for an arbitrary number of cordoned neighborhoods within a city. Unlike its predecessors, the proposed model accounts for the constraining effects that cordon queues impose on a neighborhood's circulating traffic. It does so at every time step by approximating a neighborhood's street space occupied by cordon queues, and re-scaling the MFD downward to describe the state of circulating traffic that results. The model is also unique in that it differentiates between saturated and under-saturated cordon-metering operations. Computer simulations show that these enhancements can substantially improve the predictions of both, the trip completion rates in a neighborhood and the rates that vehicles...