Access to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is critical to advancing California’s EV adoption goals. The California Energy Commission has projected the state needs “nearly 1.2 million” chargers by 2030 “to meet the fueling demands of 7.5 million passenger plug-in electric vehicles.” Currently, California has about 152,000 publicly available EV chargers. Innovative asset ownership models, like charging-as-a-service (CaaS), could help overcome some of the barriers to deploying and maintaining charging infrastructure. For example, CaaS providers could procure, install, maintain, and replace charging equipment for subscription customers.
To better understand how CaaS solutions could expand EV use and charging access, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 CaaS companies, electric utilities, and customers to identify the perceptions, challenges, and opportunities of the CaaS business model in addressing charging station needs in California.
The rapid growth in freight transportation, particularly heavy-duty trucks, poses significant environmental and public health challenges for communities near major ports and freeways. In areas such as those near the Port of Los Angeles and the I-710 corridor, communities are exposed to elevated levels of air pollution, noise pollution, and associated health risks. Traditional traffic data collection methods primarily concentrate on gathering traffic volume data for freeway segments or smaller areas, often overlooking heavy-duty vehicles across roadway networks and in local communities.
To better understand the environmental impact and spatial distribution of heavy-duty truck traffic, we employed a deep learning approach to analyze satellite imagery and publicly accessible spatial data. This approach allowed us to identify and categorize heavy-duty trucks and shipping containers along critical freight routes and analyze impacts on adjacentcommunities.
California is committed to transitioning heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) from diesel to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) like battery electric vehicles (BEVs) or hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (HFCEVs) by 2045, and in certain cases much sooner. Achieving this goal requires substantial efforts from various sectors, including vehicle manufacturers, infrastructure developers, and governments. It is particularly important to understand the perspectives of HDV fleet operators, as their viewpoints and willingness to adopt ZEVs will be critical to California’s success in this transition. To better understand the perspective of fleet operators, we conducted in-depth interviews with 18 California HDV fleet operators, across various sectors and fleet sizes, on the viability of zero-emission fuels and vehicles over the next 10 to 20 years and the main motivators for, and barriers to, procuring ZEVs.
To better understand the implications of transitioning drayage trucks to zero-emission, we analyzed the health impacts and GHG freeway emissions from diesel-powered drayage trucks and the benefits of replacing them with zero-emission trucks, accounting for current and expected air quality regulations. Our study area stretched between the San Pedro Bay and the Inland Empire, home to large warehouse complexes. We focused on two years: 2012 (when pre-2007 drayage trucks were phased out in the Clean Air Action Plan), and 2035 (the deadline in Executive Order N-79-20). Our analyses incorporated projections of the size and composition of the vehicle fleets from data collected by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), estimates of future emission factors from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that account for projected technology improvements, and projected increases in cargo demand at the ports in 2035 compared to 2012.
Drayage trucks (i.e., heavy-duty trucks that move containers and bulk freight between ports and rail facilities, distribution centers, and other nearby locations) are a critical part of port operations, however, they also adversely affect air quality. In California, drayage fleets are facing strict regulatory pressure under the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulations. Starting in January 2024, all newly registered drayage trucks in the CARB Online System must be zeroemission vehicles (ZEVs), so either a battery electric truck (BET) or hydrogen fuel cell electric truck (HFCET). By 2035, every drayage truck operating in California must be zeroemission.
The Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (Senate Bill 1 or SB 1) aims to improve and enhance California’s transportation infrastructure. Like many infrastructure programs, however, there are concerns with project cost overruns, delays, and cancellations, as these can undermine program goals and negatively impact quality of life in California. To better understand SB 1 program performance thus far, we analyzed quarterly Caltrans SB 1 project reports between 2018 and 2023 to provide insights into project costs, delays, and cancellations.
In this study, we examine if observed line-level changes in OCTA bus boardings could be partly attributed to AB 60, while controlling for differences in transit supply, socioeconomic variables, gas prices, and the built environment. Using fixed effects panel data models, we analyzed monthly boardings on different OCTA route classifications—local, community, Express, and station link routes—one year before (2014) and two years after (2015 and 2016) AB 60’s implementation.
More systematic coordination between transportation and housing development is increasingly recognized as a promising strategy for creating more sustainable communities. In California, the importance of transportation-housing coordination is reflected in recent legislative efforts to address the state’s long-standing housing affordability crisis. One approach is to encourage higher density affordable housing developments near transit or in similarly transportation-efficient areas, such as locations with low vehicle miles traveled (VMT). However, little is known about how transportation access should be considered in guiding housing development, what challenges can arise from coordinating housing development with transportation, and what the state can do to better deal with these challenges and achieve more equitable residential densification.
During the pandemic, California’s four major rail systems— Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS), Sacramento Regional Transit (SacRT), and Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro)—experienced an average ridership decline of 72 percent between 2019 and 2021. BART had the greatest decrease (87 percent) and MTS the lowest (47 percent). However, ridership changes varied significantly across individual stations, with stations located in the central business district or at the end of lines having the highest ridership losses. Land use, development density, and the pedestrian environment are strongly associated with station-level transit ridership. We examined how these characteristics affect transit ridership pre- and post-COVID and how they differ across station types based on longitudinal data collected between 2019 and 2021 for 242 rail stations belonging to BART, MTS, SacRT, and LA Metro.
There are two operational objectives for optimizing the operation of HOT lanes: (i) maintain free-flow conditions on HOT lanes and (ii) move as many vehicles as possible through HOT lanes to minimize the travel corridor’s total delay. Meeting these objectives will help guarantee trip time reliability of both HOVs and paying SOVs and minimize congestion on general purpose (GP) lanes. The key factor in achieving these objectives is the price charged to SOVs, which determines the percentage of SOVs choosing to use the HOT lanes. This in turn requires operators to adjust the toll fee in response to changing levels of traffic congestion. However, achieving these goals efficiently is contingent upon dynamic pricing strategies where tolls are adjusted in real time in response to traffic levels to maximize the total throughput while preventing queuing on the HOT lanes.
