The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally reshaped global mobility, forcing a departure from previous travel norms. In California, initial declines in public transit and ride-hailing were accompanied by a surge in private vehicle interest and shifts to active travel. To assess whether spatial and temporal travel patterns shifted between 2019 and 2023, this study analyzed Performance Measurement System freeway data, regional transit boarding records, and spatial econometric modeling of Streetlight Insight data. The findings reveal a near-recovery of weekday freeway volumes and stable weekend patterns, yet an uneven transit recovery that favors buses over rail and weekends over weekdays. There was significant spatial dependence in active transportation; while the primary factors influencing walking and cycling remain consistent, their relative magnitudes have shifted. Ultimately, Californians’ choices of transportation modes are different after the pandemic than they were before it. Integrating these altered patterns into current planning frameworks is essential for developing resilient, equitable, and sustainable transportation policies.
This research evaluates LA Metro's GoPass program—a fare-free transit initiative for K-12 and community college students—through asurvey of Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) students. We investigated students' travel preferences through a discretechoice experiment, assessed GoPass awareness and participation impacts on transit use, and analyzed spatial and seasonal ridership patterns from TAP card records. GoPass participation increased transit use by 26 percentage points for school trips and 19 percentage points for discretionary trips, with greater benefits for socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Even students aware of GoPass but not participating showed a 5.8 percentage point increase in school-related transit use. However, 39% of eligible students were unaware of the program, and car access reduced transit use probability by 37 percentage points. The discrete choice experiment revealed students valued travel time savings at $27–$54 per hour and Wi-Fi availability at $6–$7 per trip. Modest travel time reductions generated larger welfaregains than free fares alone, suggesting service improvements may offer better returns than fare subsidies. Analysis of 1.1 million TAP cardrecords showed substantial seasonal variation: summer ridership declined 37.5% for buses and 32.2% for rail. Single-vehicle householdsmaintained more consistent usage (+11.9%), while three-vehicle households showed the largest declines (-40.9%). Areas with high transit stop density and high violent crime maintained more consistent usage, reflecting transit-dependent populations. These findingsdemonstrate that increasing student transit ridership requires addressing service quality, coverage, and program awareness beyond farereductions alone.
This study investigates free and reduced fare pass programs (FRFPs) for K-12, post-secondary, and college students across California since the COVID-19 pandemic and their role in ridership recovery. A survey of 67 transit agencies, including 34 with established FRFPs, indicates that most of them maintained their FRFPs between fiscal years 2018-2019 and 2022-2023, showcasing agencies' resilience despite financial uncertainty. LA Metro's GoPass enrolled over 241,000 students and generated 1.2 million monthly boardings, inspiring similar initiatives. Post-pandemic, K-12 FRFPs saw significant expansion, improved funding, and a surge in ridership across participating agencies. These findings underscore the positive influence of fare-based incentives on student mobility and attendance.
This study highlights that Inductive Loop Detectors (ILDs), sensors embedded into the pavement for traffic control, are concerningly vulnerable to novel cyber and physical attacks.
This study shows that as freight transportation costs decline due to autonomous driving technology and online shopping increases, warehousing becomes more consolidated, the number and size of distribution centers increase, drayage truck mileage is reduced but delivery truck mileage increases, leading to a net mileage increase.
Although construction equipment generates 2% to 3% of total GHG emissions in California, the construction sector lags behind other industries for decarbonization, primarily due to the systemic challenges of delivering high-capacity electric power to temporary and remote jobsites. This study investigates the primary infrastructure, regulatory, and economic barriers to construction site electrification while exploring technological and policy solutions. Using a multi-faceted approach, we conducted a literature review, interviewed California Electric Load-Serving Entities, and analyzed emerging mobile charging technologies. Findings indicate that utility support varies by institutional model; municipal utilities often manage requests more efficiently than larger investor-owned utilities, which face complex regulatory hurdles. Key obstacles include local grid capacity limitations, long lead times and high costs for distribution upgrades, and high capital costs for electric machinery. Since the immediate benefits of electrification—the elimination of tailpipe emissions and significant noise reduction—are most impactful in densely populated urban areas, electrification should be prioritized in these areas with quiet zones and low-emission construction zones coupled with subsidies to absorb the cost of bringing electric infrastructure to these sites. Alternative power solutions such as mobile battery energy storage systems (BESSs), hydrogen fuel cell generators, and solar-powered units could help other construction sites. A successful transition requires a coordinated framework involving streamlined permitting, technical guidance for emerging infrastructure, and targeted financial support to lower costs and improve local air quality.
California’s ability to achieve its climate and mobility goals depends on addressing the growing gap between transportation infrastructure needs and the declining effectiveness of traditional fuel tax revenues. As electric vehicle adoption rises, fuel efficiency improves, and demands for resilient, multimodal systems expand, new approaches to transportation funding and demand management are required. This paper examines a range of mobility pricing strategies—including tolling, managed lanes, congestion charges, vehicle-based fees and feebates, distance-based user charges, and parking pricing—to evaluate their potential for enhancing financial sustainability, reducing congestion, and internalizing the environmental and social costs of driving. Particular attention is given to dynamic pricing, which can flexibly manage demand for both road and parking space, and to distance-based charges that offer a more equitable and efficient alternative to fuel taxes. The analysis highlights the importance of revenue allocation to ensure that pricing strategies not only generate funds but also support equitable investments in sustainable mobility options. While some approaches are well established, others require pilot testing and policy innovation. Given its policy leadership and commitment to climate action, California is well positioned to advance and integrate these strategies, shaping a comprehensive pricing framework that strengthens the state’s fiscal resilience while promoting a cleaner, more efficient, and more equitable transportation system.
This study examines whether co-locating stations for light-duty zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) with stations for heavy-duty ZEVs would increase network coverage and improve resiliency to help California achieve its targets for widespread ZEV adoption. The study separately models of siting light-and heavy-duty at the same locations vs. separate locations for (i) electric charging stations and (ii) hydrogen refueling stations. The results indicate electric charging stations in California are being used at only 13% of total capacity. Building out and optimizing the locations of light-duty electric vehicle stations will results in greater demand met and resiliency than will co-locating these at heavy-duty charging stations. On the other hand, co-location of hydrogen refueling stations for light duty vehicles at sites for heavy-duty vehicle stations may increase demand met, network resiliency, and adoption rates of light-and heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles. These adoption rates are constrained by the current infrastructure.
The Vehicle Weight Safety Study provides supporting analysis for the California Transportation Commission’s study on therelationship between vehicle weight and road user injury and roadway degradation required by Assembly Bill (AB) 251, which was signed by the Governor in October 2023. To inform the work of the CTC, this report summarizes trends of road user injuries and fatalities in California and potential factors contributing to these trends (Chapter 2); summarizes trends in vehicle weight, size, and height for registered vehicles in California (Chapter 3); documents the landscape of policy solutions focused on vehicle size that might address California’s road user injuries and fatality challenge (Chapter 4); analyzes the impact of potential weight-based fees on consumer vehicle purchasing behavior (Chapter 5); and, analyzes the relationship between shifts in passenger vehicle weight and degradation of road infrastructure (Chapter 6).
Traditional data collection approaches present significant drawbacks in computational costs and limited privacy protection. This research evaluates the bathtub traffic flow model as a privacy-preserving alternative to traditional methods that require detailed network layouts and individual trip data. The study assesses the feasibility of the bathtub model through calibration and validation using Bluebikes data from Metro Boston, focusing on three key components: the unified relative space paradigm, conservation equations, and the generalized bathtub model. Results demonstrate that the unified relative space paradigm successfully integrates network trips by considering remaining trip distances, though the trip distance distribution exhibited a log-normal pattern rather than the time-independent negative exponential distribution in Vickrey's original bathtub model. Conservation equations for total trips and trip-miles traveled showed high accuracy, and the generalized bathtub model yielded accurate results, particularly for space-mean speed. This novel approach preserves privacy by eliminating the need for origin-destination data while still effectively capturing network dynamics.
