This is an archive of a selection of past news and events in which UCTC or its researchers, students or faculty were involved. There is also a conferences archive for events that UCTC sponsored in whole or in part.
The politics of sustainable development opposition: State legislative efforts to stop the United Nation’s Agenda 21 in the United States
Karen Trapenberg Frick University of California, Berkeley, USA; David Weinzimmer University of California, Berkeley, USA; Paul Waddell University of California, Berkeley, USA
Karen Trapenberg Frick
UCTC-SafeTREC Seminar May 2: Flexible Work Schedules and Transportation Behavior at UC Berkeley
Presentation by Wei-Shiuen Ng, PhD candidate
Noon-1 pm UCTC 2nd floor conference room 2614 Dwight Way. Or tune in via webinar link on event page.
Presentation by Matt Braughton and Ashleigh Griffin, Kittelson & Associates
Presentation by Bayliss J. Camp, California Department of Motor Vehicles
Research by a Team Led by UCTC 2013 Student of the Year Steven Spears in the News
Race, Class, Fear, and Shame: Transit Barriers
If Metro builds it, they still won't ride public transit ... at least, not until their psychological blocks are overcome. That's the result of a new study led by Steven Spears [UCTC 2013 Student of the Year]. ...Spears and his research team found that "attitudes toward public transportation and concerns about personal safety ... were robust predictors of transit use."
Why Correcting Misperceptions About Mass Transit May Be More Important Than Improving Service
A research team led by planner Steven Spears of UC-Irvine... identifies two basic but vastly underappreciated factors in transit use: general attitude toward transit, and concerns about personal safety
Tuesday, March 11, 6-8pm
Evening Lecture and Discussion on: "Railtown: Los Angeles"
Presentation by Ethan Elkind (author of Railtown, UC Press, 2014)
Discussant: Martin Wachs, RAND Corporation and UCLA Department of Urban Planning; formerly Professor of City and Regional Planning and Transportation Engineering, UC Berkeley
Seaborg Room, Faculty Club, UC Berkeley. Free. (First come/First served).
Thursday and Friday, March 20 and 21
Two-Day Conference: "Transit & Cities: Past, Present, Future" Preliminary Program
Keynote Speakers:Peter Calthorpe (The Next American Metropolis and Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change), Jaime Lerner (Two-time Mayor, Curitiba, Brazil), and Therese McMillan (Deputy Administrator, Federal Transit Administration)
Host and Event Moderator: Robert Cervero (Director, IURD and UCTC;The Transit Metropolis and Transit Villages for the 21st Century)
Discussant: Allan Jacobs (Great Streets)
Spring 2014 IURD-UCTC Event Series:
Transit & Cities
Creating sustainable urban futures
Monday, February 10, 6-8pm
Evening Lecture and Discussion on: "Places for People & Transit"
"From Jane Jacobs to Livable Cities"Presentation by Jan Gehl, Jan Gehl and Associates, Copenhagen
Discussant: Neil Hrushowy, City of San Francisco Planning Department
Wurster Auditorium, UC Berkeley. Free.(First come/First Served).
UCTC-SafeTREC Research Seminars
Bikeways in Berkeley
Friday, February 21, noon to 1
Presentation by Eric Anderson, City of Berkeley
Benefit Cost Analysis Applied to Behavioral and Engineering Safety Countermeasures in San Francisco, California
Friday, December 13, noon to 1
Presentation by Ryan Greene-Roesel, Senior Transportation Planner at the San Francisco County Transportation Authority
The state of the practice in safety has advanced rapidly in recent years with the emergence of new tools and processes for improving selection of the most cost-effective safety countermeasures. However, many challenges prevent fair and objective comparisons of countermeasures applied across safety disciplines (e.g. engineering, emergency services, and behavioral measures). These countermeasures operate at different spatial scales, are funded often by different financial sources and agencies, and have associated costs and benefits that are difficult to estimate.
The Tea Party and Property Rights Activists: Pushing Back Against Agenda 21 and Sustainable Communities Planning
Presentation by UCTC Assistant Director Karen Frick
Monday, December 2, 3:30-5:00 PM
UCLA Lewis Center and Institute of Transportation Studies
Public Affairs Building, Room 2343
UCLA Campus
The Tea Party exploded on the U.S. scene after President Obama’s 2008 election, and its role in national politics has been well researched. Less studied is the fierce opposition Tea Party and property rights advocates have directed at local and regional sustainability planning efforts. Some perceive that this planning reacts to the United Nation’s 1992 document called “Agenda 21: the Rio Declaration on Development and Environment”. The Tea Party and property rights advocates suggest that the U.N. seeks to restrict individual property rights on how citizens may develop land and live. Karen Frick will present research findings from her comparative case analysis of regional planning efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area and Atlanta, examining participants’ motivations, their use of the web and social media to communicate, organize, market their cause and refine their strategies, as well as planners’ responses and impacts on practice.
More
Crash Rates and Risks: the Roles of Vehicle Design, Driver Habits and Demographics
Slides and recording now online
Friday, Nov. 22 noon- 1pm
Presented by Dr. Kara Kockelman
E.P. Schoch Professor of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin
Traffic fatalities are responsible for 1.3 million deaths annually, worldwide, and 16 percent of all Americans dying between the ages of 1-44. Crash rates and consequences can be examined from multiple perspectives, reflecting characteristics of the drivers and passengers, their vehicles, home locations and crash settings. This presentation focuses on crash risks and injury severities as a function of driver and vehicle characteristics and other factors. For example, heteroscedastic ordered probit models distinguish the effects of vehicle weight, footprint and height on the severity of injuries sustained by vehicle occupants in the US General Estimates Systems data sets (while controlling for many additional attributes). A survey of over 1,000 Americans was employed to analyze the impact of driving habits and distances, citation histories, vehicle ownership and demographics on crash histories and risk. Lastly, data on the 240 respondents who currently ride or have ridden a motorcycle allow one to analyze the relationship between rider training and riding frequency on regular helmet use and set the stage for a holistic cost-benefit analysis of motorcycling, to examine tradeoffs in safety, emissions, fuel use and vehicle costs.
Dr. Kockelman is E.P. Schoch Professor of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and a registered professional engineer, She holds a PhD, MS, & BS in civil engineering, a Masters of City Planning and a minor in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Kockelman’s papers (as pre-prints) and curriculum vitae can be found at http://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/home.html.
"Transportation Policy in Oakland as It Is and as It Should Be"
Friday, November 1, noon to 1
Presentation by Jamie Parks, Complete Streets Program Manager, City of Oakland
Second Floor Conference Room, SafeTREC, 2614 Dwight Way (near People's Park) or via webcast at https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/registrations/new?cid=2sehnn175tn3
Oakland has more BART stations than any other Bay Area jurisdiction, numerous mixed-use neighborhoods, and one of the highest bike-to-work mode shares in the country. Yet, the City has failed to fully take advantage of these natural advantages, partially due to the lack of a cohesive vision for the role transportation should play in the lives of Oaklanders. Oakland passed a Complete Streets Policy in 2013 that will allow the City to consider transportation decisions from a broader perspective. The presentation will share updates on several on-going complete streets initiatives, including analysis of crash trends Citywide, data management, CEQA reform, and experiments with green paint and temporary spaces. The presentation will also identify key knowledge gaps as suggested topics for future urban transportation research.
Jamie Parks is a Senior Transportation Planner with the City of Oakland, and works on a range of City-wide transportation policy, planning, and implementation issues. Current projects include establishing traffic signal timing policy to accommodate all modes, bikeway corridor planning, and development review policy reform. While the topics are diverse, a common thread through Parks' work is the desire to rationalize bureaucratic decision-making to make it more responsive to real-world needs. Parks recently served as the project manager for the Latham Square Pilot Plaza, which used low-cost temporary materials to create a high-quality pedestrian plaza out of a tangled, auto-oriented intersection. The pilot is being used to test concepts and inform a permanent reconstruction of the intersection that will occur in 2014.
Prior to joining the City of Oakland, Parks worked as a consultant on numerous transportation planning, engineering, and research projects throughout the country. Example projects included serving as the Project Manager for the City of Philadelphia Complete Streets Handbook, authoring the signal-related sections of the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide, and work to incorporate non-auto modes into the 2010 Highway Capacity Manual. Parks has Bachelor’s degrees in History and Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University, and a Master’s degree in Transportation Engineering from Northwestern University. He is engaged with several Transportation Research Board committees, including serving as Vice-Chair of the TRB Bicycle Committee.
UCTC's Robert Cervero and Donald Shoup Named Among Top 100 City Innovators Worldwide by UBM's Future Cities Website
October 14—Two of the 11 people named in the Transportation sector for UBM's Future Cities top 100 innovators worldwide for 2013 are affiliated with UCTC: Robert Cervero, Director, and Donald Shoup, Editor of ACCESS.
In naming Cervero, who is Professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, the story noted that he is "an inspirational and influential longtime leader in the realm of transit-oriented development (TOD) and a strong proponent of car sharing and land use policies that favor sustainable transportation."
Shoup, Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA, was cited in the following: "In addition to his position at UCLA, Dr. Shoup is an Honorary Professor at the Beijing Transportation Research Center, as well as the author of The High Cost of Free Parking, which discusses the need for better parking policies in cities and how these can improve the economy and environment."
UCTC Co-Sponsors Shared-Use Mobility Summit Oct. 10-11, San Francisco
The Shared-Use Mobility Summit is a two-day event facilitating a lively dialogue among mobility providers, policymakers, governmental agencies, non-profits, affiliated industries, technologists, academics, media and stakeholders on the current state of the practice, opportunities, and obstacles to market expansion. Registration: $350.
"Giving cycling the green light: An overview of transportation in Ireland and the design of the National Cycle Network"
SafeTREC-UCTC Seminar
Friday, October 11, noon to 1
Slides and recording now online
Presentation by SafeTREC Visiting Scholar Richard Manton
SafeTREC second floor conference room
Background
In the last 25 years, Ireland has followed the US down the road of car-oriented development and unsustainable transport. However, positive developments in the last five years show the potential for Ireland to move to safer, more sustainable modes of transportation. One such development is the National Cycle Network.
Abstract
Similarly to the US, driving a car to work continues to gain ground in Ireland, and the country is presented with major challenges in environment and health as a consequence. In safety, at least, Ireland has had some major successes. In 40 years, the number of fatalities has fallen from 640 to 162, a drop of 75%. Such improvements in road safety have been attributed to a combination of education, enforcement and engineering. Pedestrian and cyclist fatalities have each fallen by 66% in 20 years; however, this could be attributed to the lower numbers of people walking and cycling. Nevertheless, disproportionate numbers of pedestrians and cyclists are killed and injured on Ireland’s roads.
Cycling has significant potential to get drivers out of their cars and is undergoing a renaissance in Ireland at present. Developments since 2009 include a National Cycle Network, Cycle to Work Scheme, Dublin Bikes Scheme, Smarter Travel Areas and a range of policy initiatives. Between 2006 and 2011, the commuting modal share of cycling marginally increased - the first increase since the 1980s – to 2.5%. Walking, which was strong in Ireland, has been falling at a rate of 1% mode share every 5 years and now only represents 10% of trips to work.
A 2,000 km National Cycle Network (NCN) was proposed in 2010 as part of a cycle policy which targets a 10% cycle commuting share by 2020. The NCN will be modelled on international networks, will be predominantly inter-urban and greenway based, and forms part of EuroVelo, the European Cycle Network. Research at NUI Galway is underway to develop criteria for route selection of the NCN corridors, considering safety, economy, environment, connectivity and route design. Surveys, CBA, LCA and best practice will develop a quantitative basis for each criterion and feed into an overall route selection matrix using multi-criteria analysis. The case study for this methodology is a coast to coast route from the capital, Dublin (metropolitan area pop: 1 million), in the east to Galway (pop: 75,000) in the west.
Bio
Richard Manton is a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil Engineering at the National University of Ireland, Galway and a Visiting Scholar at SafeTREC. The subject of his research is designing for walking and cycling and he is funded by NUI Galway and the Irish Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. His interests include the route selection of long-distance walking and cycling routes, pedestrian and cyclist safety, design of greenways, permeability of the built environment, and embodied carbon of transport infrastructure.
Pursuing the Technological Sublime: How the Eastern Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Became a Megaproject
Friday, September 13, 4-5 p.m. in 534 Davis Hall
UCB Transportation Seminar presented by Karen Trapenberg Frick, Ph.D. Assistant Director, University of California Transportation Center
The new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which was opened after the Labor Day weekend, is a classic instance of a megaproject, not just because of its huge complexity, protracted timeline and “mega” cost (some $6.5 billion). It is also a textbook embodiment of what I have identified as the “six C’s” of a typical megaproject: colossal, captivating, costly, controversial, complex, and subject to issues of control.
Karen Trapenberg Frick is Assistant Director of the University of California Transportation Center. She also is a lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in transportation policy and planning, and is the academic lead for the College of Environmental Design's [IN]CITY summer program in sustainable city planning. She holds a Ph.D. in city planning from UC Berkeley and a master's in planning from UCLA.
UCTC in the News
Bay Bridge Reopens After Troubled Makeover: Karen Frick is included in a story on NPR by Richard Gonzales
San Francisco's Bay Bridge is open again, after being closed over the weekend to allow the last phase of a retrofitting project to finish up. While commuters are celebrating the bridge's return, the project was a lesson in cost overruns and delays...
Karen Frick, assistant director of the UC Transportation Center, says the cost grew because planners opened the process up and started asking some big questions. "When you provide an opportunity for conversation, there's naturally friction. And that's what happened, very publicly, and also influenced cost in a huge way."...
Sticker shock over price of new Bay Bridge Includes an interview with Karen Trapenberg Frick in the UCTC offices.
Forthcoming article: Pursuing the Technological Sublime: How the Eastern Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Became a Megaproject
by Karen Trapenberg Frick
The new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, set to open on the Labor Day weekend, is a classic instance of a megaproject, not just because of its huge complexity, protracted timeline and “mega” cost (some $6.5 billion). It is also a textbook embodiment of what I have identified as the “six C’s” of a typical megaproject: colossal, captivating, costly, controversial, complex, and subject to issues of control.
BART's Big Gift to Wealthy Corporations The transit agency says it doesn't have enough cash to give modest raises to workers, but that's because the large corporations that have benefited the most from its services pay almost nothing for them.
..."BART has not been anywhere near as entrepreneurial as other transit agencies around the world in leveraging the real estate land value increases it helps create around stations in helping to pay for the system," ... UCTC Director Robert Cervero
Lack of Parking Requirements Led to Cheaper Housing in DTLA
A recent study of Downtown housing options shows that--surprise, surprise--it's cheaper to provide housing if you don't have to also provide on-site parking for every unit. And because it's cheaper to build, developers are more likely to provide more, less expensive housing. The [UCTC] study comes from Michael Manville at UCLA, who looked at housing units built under LA's Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, which allows developers to adapt old commercial buildings for residential uses.
UCTC Dissertation Grant Recipient Rebecca Sanders Receives Coveted Eno Fellowship
Two UC Berkeley transportation doctoral students, André Carrel and Rebecca Sanders, have received two of 20 awards given out nationally this year by the Washington-based Eno Center for Transportation. The two will take part in the 21st annual Eno Leadership Development Conference in Washington, D.C., June 2-6 where they will meet with top government officials, members of Congress and their staffs in order to better understand how the country’s transportation polices are shaped, adopted and applied.—ITS Berkeley News
ACCESS Wins Transportation Organization of the Year from California Transportation Foundation
"The California Transportation Foundation (CTF) is proud to announce the Transportation Award winners for 4 categories including Project of the Year, Person of the Year, Elected Official of the Year, Manager of the Year, and Organization of the Year and the top finalists in 14 other categories.
"The winners of those categories will be announced at the 24th Annual Transportation Awards Luncheon on May 23rd in Sacramento.
"The CTF Transportation Awards recognize excellence in California transportation, all modes, public and private sector and from all regions of the state."—from the CTF press release
Person of the Year – Joe Tavaglione, 2012 CTC Chairman
Elected Official of the Year – The Honorable Mark Ridley-Thomas, Los Angeles County Supervisor
Organization of the Year – Access Magazine, University of California Transportation Center
Project of the Year - SR237 Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority; Caltrans District 4; Federal Highway Administration; California Highway Patrol; Bay Area Toll Authority; Gray-Bowen; Parsons Brinckerhoff; CDM Smith; TransCore; RGW.
Eric A. Morris Winner of the 2012-2013 UCTC Student of the Year Award
December 12, 2012—Eric Morris has been named the 2012-2013 UCTC Outstanding Student of the Year, UCTC Director Robert Cervero announced.
"Eric was selected because of his major accomplishments in academics, teaching, and service," Cervero notes. He is Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at Clemson. His primary focus is transportation, particularly how transportation contributes to our quality of life.
UCTC-SafeTREC Friday Research Seminar
"Teens, Technology, and Transportation: An exploration of the digital lives of high schoolers" noon-1 p.m., Friday, April 5, 2013
Presented by Brian H. Y. Lee, PhD, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Vermont (UVM)
In the face of increasing sprawl and car-dependence in US metropolitan areas, young people – especially teens in middle-class suburbs – may be experiencing new mobilities generated by their near-universal adoption of cell phones and increasing access to private automobiles. The growth in the adoption of hand-held mobile devices that can be used for communication and information may enhance accessibility and independent mobility for certain segments of the youth population, especially those in higher socio-economic status households. In a project with teens in two high schools in Chittenden County, Vermont, we used a mix of methods to explore the rapid changes in teens’ lives fostered by tools such as cell phones, texting, mobile internet access, and various forms of messaging. In this study, we find that millennial teens use digital devices to construct new intersections between communication, information, and transportation. By also actively employing these devices in our research, we are using novel methods for understanding the "digital lives" of teens, which represent a mix of traditional analog techniques and exploratory digital methodologies. In this presentation we examine issues including how often and in what ways high school students use advanced electronic communication tools to arrange transportation, what travel needs are being met and modes used, and how social processes contextualize the use of digital tools for mobility. We conclude by reflecting on how the daily lives of these teens may serve as a harbinger of emerging intersections of mobility, communication, and place.
This research was performed in collaboration with Meghan S. Cope, Professor and Chair of Geography, also at UVM
Lee is an Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont (UVM) with a primary appointment in the School of Engineering and secondary appointments in the UVM Transportation Research Center and the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics. His research interests include information and communication technologies (ICT) in transportation, relationships between travel behavior and the built environment, walking and bicycling activities, and transportation safety.
Register here to hear the presentation and see the slides online.
SafeTREC-UCTC Brownbag Seminar "Introducing the new SWITRS GIS Map application in TIMS" noon-1 p.m., Friday, February 22
Presented by John Bigham and Sang Hyouk Oum, SafeTREC researchers
The Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS) has been established to provide data and mapping analysis tools and information for traffic safety related research, policy and planning. The SWITRS GIS map was developed in 2009 as a comprehensive web tool to query, map and download California collision data. SafeTREC researchers have completely revamped the SWITRS GIS Map using the latest available web protocols and are ready to showcase the new interface and functionality and improved performance.
John Bigham is the GIS Program Manager at SafeTREC. His background is in GIS design and analysis and he manages spatial analysis, web mapping and database development projects.
Sang Hyouk Oum is an Applications Programmer at SafeTREC. He is the lead developer of TIMS and has been involved with other development projects such as the benefit/cost calculator for safety countermeasure evaluation.
2nd Floor conference room at SafeTREC, 2614 Dwight Way #7374, Berkeley, CA 94720-7374 (map)
Go here to register for the webinar. You will be able to hear the talk and see the slides.
SafeTREC-UCTC Brownbag Seminar "Enlisting Youth in Preventing Crashes: experiences in Bulgaria" noon-1 p.m., Friday, February 8
Presentation by Daniel Vankov, Fulbright Scholar with National Organizations for Youth Safety, Virginia
About 1.3 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people, aged 15–29 years.” (WHO) Still many of us think “This cannot happen to me.” and just a few take appropriate measures to reduce the chance of something going wrong on the road. The general impression is that “prevention is boring”. This presentation showcases a good example of how young people get involved in looking for a permanent solution of the traffic-related problems; how they develop their strategies during the years and how involving more people in prevention activities can be fun and interactive. It also shows how relevant research and practice can go together for achieving better results.
Daniel Vankov is Chairman and CEO of “Open Youth” – a Bulgarian youth-led not-for-profit organization. His areas of interest include project management and implementation in the fields of citizenship rights, combating violence and reducing risky behavior with emphasis road safety.
2nd Floor conference room at SafeTREC, 2614 Dwight Way #7374, Berkeley, CA 94720-7374 (map)
Register here to attend the meeting remotely. You will be able to hear the talk and see the slides.
UCTC-SafeTREC Friday Brownbag Seminar:
"Double-decker determinants: concessionary public transport and public health in London, UK" noon-1 p.m., Friday, February 1
Presentation by Dr Alasdair Jones, US-UK Fulbright Commission Visiting Scholar, Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI), UC Berkeley
Adjustments to public transport fare structures have been used by municipal governments globally as a means to increase uptake of public transport, reduce car dependence, reduce transport inequalities and ease road congestion. Like many other policy and infrastructural interventions, however, such measures can also be shown to have had a significant influence on public health despite their not having an explicit public health brief. In this presentation, Dr Alasdair Jones presents the findings of the mixed-methods ‘On the buses’ study which set out to explore the public health impact of the granting of concessionary bus travel to young people in London, UK. These findings will be discussed in the context of broader public transport provision in London. In addition, the public health implications of these findings for San Francisco – where the Municipal Transportation Agency's Board of Directors has recently voted that low-income youth will be able to ride the city's public transportation system for free – will be considered.
Additional info: The findings presented derive from a study funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research (NIHR PHR) programme (project number 09/300/13). Visit the PHR programme website for more information www.phr.ac.uk/. The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the PHR programme, NIHR, NHS or the Department of Health
Dr. Jones is visiting UC Berkeley from the University of Hertfordshire (UK) where he is the UH-Lafarge Sustainable Living Partnership Research Fellow. His research has a broad focus on qualitative understandings of urban social practices, and includes an interest in the relationship between transport and health in cities. This presentation derives from his work as part of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s ‘Transport and Health Group’ where he is an Honorary Research Fellow. Dr Jones has also worked on transport issues outside of academia, in particular as the London Co-ordinator of the UK walking charity Living Streets.
2nd Floor conference room at SafeTREC, 2614 Dwight Way #7374, Berkeley, CA 94720-7374 (map)
There will be no remote viewing of this presentation, and no availability of slides or recordings after the fact. We anticipate future presentations will be available for remote viewing. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience.
UCTC-SafeTREC Brownbag Seminar: "Comparing the Performance of Sliding Moving Window, Peak Searching, and Continuous Risk Profile Methods for Identifying High Collision Concentration Locations," noon-1 p.m., Friday, December 14
Presentation by Koohong Chung of the California Department of Transportation
UCTC-SafeTREC Brownbag Seminar "Toward an integrated mobility agenda," noon-1 p.m., Friday, November 30, 2012
Presentation by Bill Satariano, Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health, UC Berkeley
Do Texting, Tweeting Lead to Less Travel Among Teens?
When ITS-UCLA Director Brian Taylor’s oldest daughter, Maya, left home for college at age 18 she left behind a 2002 Honda that her grandparents had given her when she turned 16 — from the ITS Berkeley news story on Taylor's presentation of What's Youth Got to Do with It? Exploring the Travel Behavior of Teens and Young Adults.
UCTC Director Robert Cervero comments on rail transit in a Wall Street Journal Story, The Commute of the Future To Get Riders, Buses Try to Be More Like Trains; Skip Red Lights
"There's more of a cachet that goes with rail because those services tend to be in better neighborhoods," said Robert Cervero, a professor of city and regional planning at the University of California at Berkeley specializing in transportation planning.
UCTC Transit Study Spurs TV News Story
A new university study found that the Bay Area is home to transit systems that are among the most and least cost-efficient in the nation. Despite the city's many transit problems, San Francisco came second-best only to Denver with the BART line running through the city. Robert Cervero, an internationally noted scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, is a co-author of a new study comparing 54 transit districts across the United States.—KTVU
This story refers to the article in the current issue of ACCESS, Transit and the “D” Word by Erick Guerra and Robert Cervero
UC Berkeley [IN]City featured in ITS Berkeley's Berkeley Transportation Letter
2012 UTC Spotlight Conference, Sustainable Energy and Transportation: Strategies, Research, and Data
November 8-9, 2012 The Keck Center of the National Academies Washington, DC Organized by Transportation Research Board Sponsored by Research and Innovative Technology Administration, University Transportation Centers Program, United States Department of Transportation.
UCTC-SafeTREC Brownbag Research Seminar
"Walking in San Francisco: How SF Safety and Walkability Compare to Best Practices," noon-1 p.m., Friday, November 16, 2012
Presentation by Frank Markowitz, Senior Transportation Planner, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
San Francisco has received recognition as one of the most walkable cities in the U.S., but also has high levels of pedestrian injuries and fatalities per capita. This talk will cover San Francisco's innovative Pedestrian Strategy and compare it to trend setters such as New York City and London.
Markowitz has managed pedestrian and station area planning projects for the SFMTA over the last 12 years. He also has extensive transportation planning experience for consulting firms. He received a Master of City & Regional Planning degree from UC Berkeley and an MA in Health Science from San Jose State.
2nd Floor conference room at SafeTREC, 2614 Dwight Way #7374, Berkeley, CA 94720-7374 (map)
Register here to attend the meeting remotely. You will be able to hear the talk and see the slides.
"What Is the Role of Public Bikes and Electric Bikes in Beijing? A Stated Preference Approach," noon-1 p.m., Friday, October 19
Presentation by Andrew Campbell, M.S. Candidate in Transportation Engineering, University of Knoxville
Andrew Campbell will report on the methods and results of a recent stated preference survey conducted in Beijing. The project tested traveler sensitivity to trip and mode attributes such as distance and cost as well as environmental attributes including air quality, temperature and the presence of bicycle lanes.
Campbell spent four years working in the bicycle transportation industry with the BART Bikestation program and BikeLink.org. He has a B.S. in CEE from UC Berkeley and is completing an M.S. in transportation engineering program at UT Knoxville.
2nd Floor conference room at SafeTREC, 2614 Dwight Way #7374, Berkeley, CA 94720-7374 (map)
Register here to attend the meeting remotely. You will be able to hear the talk and see the slides.
Photo credit: The Bike-sharing Blog
New Methods to Measure, Understand and Realize Healthy and Sustainable Urban Ecologies: From City Form & Function to Livability, noon-1 p.m., Friday,October 12, 2012
Presentation by Bruce Appleyard, PhD, AICP
2012 UTC Spotlight Conference on Sustainable Energy and Transportation: Strategies, Research and Data
Download PDF of Preliminary Program
November 8-9, 2012 The Keck Center of the National Academies 500 Fifth Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Early registration rates expire September 12.
The 7th annual UTC Spotlight Conference, chaired by ITS-Davis Director Dan Sperling, is designed to promote dialogue and coordination among University Transportation Centers (UTCs), industry, and federal, state and local agencies on the complex and challenging issues concerning sustainable energy and transportation. The transportation sector currently accounts for about two-thirds of the petroleum consumption and one-third of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. This conference explores various opportunities to reduce dependence of surface transportation on petroleum, taking into account economic, social and environmental impacts. Attendees will discuss these opportunities and challenges to identify the research and data needed to promote informed and practical solutions and strategies. Topics include: Challenges to reducing oil use and GHG emissions in surface transportation Energy pricing and financing strategies Emerging vehicle and fuel technologies Freight transportation issues and opportunities Metropolitan transportation issues and opportunities The preliminary program is now available, and registration is open.
Organized by: Transportation Research Board
Sponsored by: The University Transportation Centers Program of U.S. DOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA)
"Exploring Traffic Danger for Bicyclists: Initial Findings from a Recent Survey of Bay Area Drivers and Bicyclists" Friday, August 24, 2012 noon to 1 pm
Presentation by Rebecca Sanders, PhD candidate and SafeTREC graduate student researcher
Rebecca Sanders will present the results from her recent internet survey of nearly 500 drivers and bicyclists in the Bay Area.The findings suggest that frequent and infrequent bicyclists fear different aspects of bicycling in traffic, and that these fears are related to their "near miss" and crash experiences. The results also indicate that "near misses" occur from 5-36 times more than actual collisions, depending on the category--suggesting that reported crash statistics may seriously underestimate bicycling danger. She will conclude with a discussion about implications of this research, as well as next steps. 
Location: 2nd floor conference room, 2614 Dwight Way, Berkeley.Free and open to the public.
UCTC-SafeTREC Friday Seminar, Friday, April 6, 2012: "Spatio-temporal distributions of vulnerable road user injuries along San Pablo Avenue"
Presented by Yuanyuan Zhang, Visiting Scholar, SafeTREC, Swati Pande, Research Associate, SafeTREC and Offer Grembek, Post-Doctoral Researcher, SafeTREC
UCTC-SafeTREC Friday Seminar, Friday, March 9, 2012, noon to 1 p.m. "Young drivers’ night-time mobility choices and attitudes toward alcohol consumption: a Hybrid Choice Model"
Presented by Stefano Scagnolari, University of Lugano Institute for Economic Research and Visiting Researcher, UC Berkeley Berkeley Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Sustainable Mobility & Cities: Marrying Technology and Policy February 23, 2012 in Downtown Berkeley
Sponsored by the Ted and Doris Lee Fund at the College of Environmental Design and the Boalt School of Law, managed by the Institute of Urban & Regional Development. Individual conferences organized by the Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, the Institute of Urban & Regional Development, and the University of California Transportation Center.
It is the third and final conference in the series, Sustainable Economic Development Strategies in Lean Fiscal Times. It is organized by the University of California Transportation Center and sponsored by the Ted and Doris Lee Fund at the College of Environmental Design and the Boalt School of Law of UC Berkeley, managed by the Institute of Urban & Regional Development. The conference focuses on key policy debates and opportunities for using technology to improve our transportation system and cities.
Robert Cervero Appointed Inaugural Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Urban Studies
University Transportation Centers Program Open Competition 2011
The Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT) plans to competitively select ten Tier 1 University Transportation Centers (UTCs), two Tier 1 Transit-Focused UTCs, and ten Regional UTCs.
UCTC-SafeTREC Seminar, Friday, December 2, 2011
Noon to 1 p.m.
"Comparing the Cost Effectiveness of 4E (engineering, enforcement, emergency response, and education) Safety Strategies"
Presented by Ryan Greene-Roesel, Cambridge Systematics
The cost effectiveness of "4E" safety investments (engineering, enforcement, emergency response, and education) are rarely compared. Without making such comparisons, safety plans (such as State Strategic Highway Safety Plans and others) are unlikely to deliver the maximum injury and fatality reduction benefit for each dollar invested.
One reason comparisons are infrequent is that information on the costs and effectiveness of behavioral safety (engineering and enforcement) and emergency response strategies is often lacking, whereas information on engineering strategies is relatively abundant. It is tempting to conclude that comparisons are not possible if information is of inconsistent quality across countermeasures.
This is not the case - comparisons can still be made using qualitative information and judgement. NCHRP 17-46, A Comprehensive Analysis Framework for Safety Investment Decisions, proposes a qualitative framework for assessing the costs and effectiveness of safety countermeasures. This method could be used by any agency seeking to prioritize safety investments when information is incomplete, and will support agencies in moving incrementally towards data-driven investment decision making.
Ryan Greene-Roesel is a consultant at Cambridge Systematics where she assists transportation agencies in developing project prioritization processes. She has developed such processes for several local and regional governments and is the Deputy Project Manager for NCHRP 17-46, "A Comprehensive Analysis Framework for Safety Investment Decision Making," a project to develop methods for prioritizing safety investments according to their cost effectiveness. Greene-Roesel is a graduate of the UC Berkeley Department of City and Regional Planning and was formerly a researcher at the UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC).
Robert Cervero on "Global Lessons for Rapidly Growing Countries"
At the inaugural TransUrban International Conference: Integrating Urban Transport and Planning in an Age of Scarcity, November 12-16 in Dubai, UAE.
Berkeley Lab Features UCTC Paper and Policy Brief
"The Lab's success in reducing its fleet size and meeting a Department of Energy mandate two years ahead of schedule was highlighted in a recent Federal Times article. DOE secretary Steve Chu has called for a 35-percent reduction in fleet size by October 2013 from a 2005 baseline. The article quotes Jim Dahlgard of Facilities. Separately, the Lab's bike-friendly policies, including showers and the indoor bike rack in Building 76, have been featured in a well-received research paper by the UC Transportation Center on "bicycle-oriented design" and a policy brief.
"What is the global warming footprint of cars vs. public transit?"
UCTC Director Robert Cervero interviewed in Part 3 of Passengers, an NPR documentary from Humankind. In this half-hour segment:
June 29: Open Payments, Mobile Payments and Personal Identification Verification (PIV) Acceptance
Overview of Innovations in Public Transit Payment Systems. 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET.
Free Webinar. Registration required.
Both Webinars offered as part of a series, Talking Technology and Transportation (T3) by the ITS Professional Capacity Building Program (ITS PCB), in the ITS Joint Program Office.
UCTC-SafeTREC Seminar: Friday, June 3, noon-1 p.m.
"Analyzing Travel Behavior Using the National Household Travel Survey"
The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) is an inventory of the National travel. This survey collects data on all modes of travel, for all trip purposes. NHTS data is used by transportation officials, planners and the research community to understand travel behavior. This presentation will introduce the 2009 NHTS survey as well as the California add-on survey and will discuss methods and issues involved in the analysis of data.Presented by Swati Pande, MS, Research Associate, Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) University of California, Berkeley
All seminars are free and open to the public. Location: 2nd floor conference room at 2614 Dwight Way. Free and open to the University community and the general public featuring both University and outside experts.
Co-sponsored with the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) at UC Berkeley.
May 25, noon-1:30 p.m. NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide Free Webinar
Hosted by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. This free webinar will introduce practitioners to the ins and outs of the recently released Urban Bikeway Design Guide, a design tool for state-of-the-practice bikeways by and for cities throughout the United States. The goal of the presentation is to demonstrate how the guide may be best applied in urban traffic situations and to help practitioners become familiar with the contents and functions of the guide. Participants will learn how the need for the NACTO guide was identified, get a tour of its contents, and review further needs in design guidance for bicycle and pedestrian professionals. This overview will be followed by a series of shorter presentations on how the principles of the guide are being applied in cities nationwide. Presenters will include Mia Birk, Joe Gilpin, Robert Burchfield, Hayes Lord, and representatives from other NACTO cities.
Wednesday, May 18 Eco-Driving Research Workshop
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.) Claremont Hotel Club & Spa, Berkeley, CA $75 per attendee Contact: Nelson Chan [email protected]
Researchers at UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, and UC Davis are pleased to announce an upcoming research workshop in the area of eco-driving. The purpose of this workshop is to bring together experts in the fields of transportation, energy, policy, and programming from both the public and private sectors to critically evaluate the behavioral, technical, and policy issues associated with eco-driving. With the growing awareness of climate change and global policies calling for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, it is essential for a diverse panel of experts to evaluate eco-driving's role in reducing GHG emissions from the transportation sector.
May 18-20 Women's Transportation Seminar Annual Meeting
Ray LaHood is keynote May 19. UCB alum and former MTC exec Therese McMillan (Deputy Admin FTA) is also speaking. Advance registration until May 6. Walk-ins welcome. San Francisco.
SafeTREC-UCTC Seminar: Friday, May 20, noon-1 p.m. "Centrality Characteristics of Traffic Analysis Zone Road Network Patterns"
Pedestrians might like to walk on streets where the blocks are close together, but for drivers this means a lot of signals and stop signs. Curved roads may reduce vehicle speeds in order to decrease accident rates, but bad sight lines on curves can increase crash frequency. A high-density road network can offer high accessibility for bus service, but it can also lead to narrow streets and too many intersections, which slow buses down. All these are decided by road network patterns. Among grid, cul-de-sac, loops, rings, which kind of road network is good for safety, energy, community life, efficient commutes, public transit, etc.?
Though this presentation does not answer the big questions of "which is good for what?", it is the first and necessary step for the whole study: to distinguish different road network types. This study offers a topological measure which can quantitatively distinguish different graphical pattern types and build relationships between graphical and topological features of road network patterns at traffic analysis zone (TAZ) level. A deep understanding of the properties of different network patterns can provide useful guidance for design and improvement of road systems.
Presented by Yuanyuan Zhang, Visiting Scholar, SafeTrec, PhD student, Tongji University. Research interests: transportation planning, traffic safety, urban planning
UCTC-SafeTREC Seminar: Friday, May 13, noon-1 p.m. "We All Want the Same Thing: Results from a Roadway Design Survey of Pedestrians, Drivers, Bicyclists, and Transit Users in the Bay Area"
Pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, and public transit users all desire similar design features on local streets. At least, that is what a recent intercept survey of Bay Area residents (n=537) found with regard to a major urban corridor. This paper elaborates on the findings from this survey, which was conducted as part of a larger effort to establish performance measures for pedestrian and bicyclist safety and mobility for the California Department of Transportation. The survey was conducted to understand traveler preferences for street design to increase perceived traffic safety, walkability, and bikability, as well as encourage economic vitality through increased visits.
When asked an open-ended question about what street improvements could be added to make them feel safer from traffic along the survey corridor, all respondent groups requested the same top five improvements. Pedestrians, drivers, and bicyclists all named bicycle lanes as the top traffic safety improvement for the corridor (ranked fifth by public transit respondents), followed for nearly all groups by improved pedestrian crossings (ranked third by bicyclists). The remaining top five elements, while the same for all groups, were ordered slightly differently among them: slowing traffic/improving driver behavior, installing more traffic lights, and increasing the amount of street lighting. A similar open-ended question asking about street improvements that could encourage more visits to the corridor included a preference among all user groups for increased street trees and landscaping, street lighting, a bicycle lane, and public art/beautification.
These findings strongly suggest that traditional ideas of nuanced planning for various user groups may miss opportunities to create an urban street environment that is pleasing to all user groups by focusing efforts on a handful of design ideas. In addition, there is evidence that design features previously thought to benefit only one user group, such as bicycle lanes, may have unmeasured benefits for other user groups like pedestrians and drivers. In an era in which "complete streets" principles are becoming more common and accepted, these findings offer encouraging evidence that this concept is on the right track to increase perceptions of traffic safety and encourage more lively streets through attracting users. These results also offer evidence of targeted actions that could encourage more walking and bicycling along local streets, helping to achieve goals of increased physical activity among the general population.
Presented by Rebecca Sanders Carlton, PhD student, Department of City & Regional Planning, Researcher, Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) University of California, Berkeley
UCTC-SafeTREC Seminar:
Friday May 6, noon-1 p.m. "Applying Safety in Numbers: What it means for public health"
Presented by Peter Jacobsen, a professional engineer with a strong interest in the health impacts of transportation policy
There's no conflict between promoting walking and bicycling and preventing injuries. Safety-in-numbers showed that that increased levels of walking or bicycling are associated with safer walking or bicycling. This presentation will explore the possible reasons for this non-linearity of risk....
Jacobsen's influential article, Safety in Numbers, showed that the risk of pedestrians and bicyclists being hit by a motorist decreases as more people walk and bicycle, and hence the health goals of injury prevention and activity promotion can work together to improve health. His current efforts bring state-of-the-art roadway engineering to improve health by encouraging physical activity and reducing severe injuries.
Lecture: Wednesday, May 4, 12 to 1:30 p.m., "Chicago and Its Skyway: the Cintra-Macquarie Lease in Historical Perspective"
Presented by Louise Nelson Dyble, Assistant Professor of History at Michigan Technological University
Room 305, Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley campus
(Co-sponsored by the Institute of Urban and Regional Development)
The 99-year, $1.83 billion lease of the Chicago Skyway in 2004 was a landmark in the history of American toll roads, celebrated as a triumph for Chicago and an important precedent for future infrastructure concession agreements. The prior history of the Skyway had been characterized by remarkable failure. It was conceived in 1953 to address an anticipated traffic crisis caused by piecemeal highway development and a lack of regional planning. Its financing was based upon faulty traffic projections compounded by deindustrialization, leading to one of the largest municipal bond defaults in history. Its management was plagued by charges of petty corruption and neglect, and contributed to the environmental degradation and decline of Southeast Chicago.
This paper examines the history of Skyway failures, as well as the nature and context of the facility’s financial revival and reconstruction in the 1990s. It contributes an historical perspective on public-private partnerships in the context of changes in municipal policy, intergovernmental relations, global finance, and political ideology. Finally, it poses the question: did the spectacular, landmark 2004 lease represent the redemption and ultimate success of the Chicago Skyway? And if so, success for whom?
Bio: Louise Nelson Dyble is assistant professor of history at Michigan Technological University, specializing in urban history, infrastructure and the built environment, and metropolitan government and governance. Her book, Paying the Toll: Local Power, Regional Politics, and the Golden Gate Bridge won the Abel Wolman Award of the Public Works Historical Society in 2009. Dyble completed a PhD in history at UC Berkeley and won the Urban History Association’s award for best dissertation in 2004. She was appointed as the Kevin Starr Fellow in California Studies in 2005 and the Weisman Postdoctoral Fellow in American History at the California Institute of Technology in 2006. Dyble spent two years as Associate Director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy at the University of Southern California. She has published articles about transportation policy in the Journal of Urban History, Technology and Culture, and the Journal of Planning History. Her article about Marin County’s freeway revolt won the 2007 Michael C. Robinson Award of the Public Works Historical Society. Her current research focuses on highway financing in the United States since from the 1920s through the present, with a focus on turnpikes and toll roads.
Co-sponsored by the Institute of Urban and Regional Development. Room 305, Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley campus
Special Joint Seminar: Monday, April 18
12:30-1:30 p.m. "Carbonless footprints: Promoting health and climate stabilization through active transportation" Read related paper.
Presented by Lawrence D. Frank, Ph.D., AICP, CIP, ASLA Bombardier Chair, University of British Columbia
Sponsored by: School of Public Health; College of Environmental Design; Institute of Urban and Regional Development; UCTC; and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC).
Friday, April 1, noon-1 p.m.
"Design of Mobile and Web Applications for Tracking and Supporting Sustainable Transportation Behavior"
Presented by Jerry Jariyasunant, PhD student, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley
Friday, March 18, noon-1 p.m.
"Measuring Individuals' Travel Patterns and Spatial Knowledge Using Smart-Phones"
Presented by Drew Dara-Abrams, PhD student, Department of Geography, UC Santa Barbara, and Berkeley-based consultant on mobile and Web technologies relevant to people and built environments
Friday, March 11, noon-1 p.m.
"How Do People Choose a Travel Mode? Factors Associated with Routine Walking & Bicycling"
Presented by Robert Schneider, PhD student, Department of City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley, Graduate Student Researcher, SafeTREC
UCTC-SafeTREC Transportation Safety Seminar: Friday, March 4, noon-1 p.m.
"Analysis of Accident Data using Time Series Models" Presented by Oh Hoon Kwon, Visiting Scholar, SafeTREC
"What's Wrong with U.S. Public Transit Policy?" Genevieve Giuliano
Public transit has received government subsidies for four decades, but USC professor Genevieve Giuliano told an overflow crowd at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club on February 3 that transit has failed to meet its basic objectives. ... Read entire writeup of the Fifth Annual Martin Wachs Distinguished Lecture in Transportation. Download PDF of Genevieve Giuliano's Wachs Lecture: "What's Wrong with U.S. Public Transit Policy?"
RITA Presents...The first in a series on Transportation Innovation
Wednesday, February 16, 1-2 pm "How will planet earth accommodate a projected two billion vehicles – twice as many as there are today – within 20 years?" Presented by Daniel Sperling, UC-Davis Series will run the same time, the third Wednesday of every month.
UCTC in the News:
Berkeley tests concept of backyard cottage ...Karen Chapple, director of the Center for Community Innovation, leads a study funded by the University of California Transportation Center "to determine how many accessory homes could be built around five Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, and how they might affect the local economy." Berkeley has as many as 4,000 backyard cottage infill sites, according to the study's preliminary findings. A metropolitan area could have hundreds of thousands of such sites...
(Roger K. Lewis, "Shaping the City" column, Washington Post)
UCTC at TRB 2011
Publishing launch January 24, 12:30 at TRB, Marriott Exhibition, Booth 2019, for Auto Motives Understanding Car Use Behaviours, edited by Karen Lucas, Evelyn Blumenberg and Rachel Weinberger.
UCTC-ITS Berkeley Transportation Reception at TRB: Sunday, January 23, 6-8 pm at the Omni Shoreham.
UCTC Students Among 2010 Council of University Transportation Centers Award Winners
- Wootan Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation in Policy and Planning: Gian-Claudia Sciara, University of California Berkeley, for the dissertation "Planners and the Pork Barrel: Metropolitan Engagement in and Resistance to Congressional Transportation Earmarking" UCTC Dissertation 166.
- Parker Award for Outstanding Non-thesis Masters Degree Paper in Policy and Planning: Colleen Callahan, UCLA Department of Urban Planning, for her report "The Plane Truth - Air Quality Impacts of Airport Operations and Strategies for Sustainability: A Case Study of the Los Angeles World Airports"
The CUTC Awards Competition recognizes outstanding transportation students, faculty and leaders for their accomplishments in the field of transportation research and education. Each year six students are honored at the Annual CUTC Awards Reception and Banquet. These individuals, who have been nominated by educators from across the country, have emerged as some of the best and brightest minds in the industry.
A Senior Level Dialogue With Transportation Students January 25 at TRB Annual Meeting
Peter Appel, Administrator, and Robert Bertini, Deputy Administrator of the U.S. DOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), will lead this exclusive student-only dialogue with transportation research leaders from the federal government. Tuesday, January 25, 2011 5:30-6:30 PM Marriott Wardman Park - Washington B5 Room Refreshments will be served. RSVP to [email protected].
UCTC in the News
Bridges' toll increases put revenue plans on track ...How have commuters responded to the toll increases? The general attitude is a "resigned acceptance" of the increased costs, said Karen Frick, a commission consultant who is also assistant director of the University of California Transportation Center. Frick and a team of transportation experts from UC Berkeley are working on a yearlong study to determine what effects the toll increases have had on commuter transportation patterns. (SF Chronicle, January 13, 2011)
Berkeley zero net energy cottage deserves study
KAREN CHAPPLE's just-built second home looks exactly like what it is..... Chapple herself has a $60,000 grant from the UC TRANSPORTATION CENTER to study the potential for adding single units to the backyards within a half-mile of five East Bay BART stations. (San Francisco Chronicle—John King)
UCTC Student of the Year
Eric Gonzales Winner of the 2010-2011 UCTC Student of the Year Award
Eric Gonzales has been named the 2010-2011 UCTC Outstanding Student of the Year, UCTC Director Robert Cervero announced.
Gonzales is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. He was nominated by Carlos Daganzo, professor of civil and environmental engineering, with whom he is doing research. His work focuses on how to manage multimodal transportation systems and street space in cities worldwide. His thesis is titled, "Allocation of Space and the Costs of Multimodal Transport in Cities."
Read more about the 2010 UCTC Student of the Year.
New Research Webinars for Professionals: Bridging Transportation Research and Practice
Packed lunchtime presentation and discussion sessions are designed to give you just the info you need and the chance to know more.
All seminars run 11:00am-1:00pm on one Wednesday per month.
Equity Considerations in Transportation November 17, 2010
Participate in-person or online ... either way is free!
Encouraging Sustainable Behavior, Part II October 13, 2010
How Will Obama’s ‘Livability’ Policies Transform American Cities?
Presented by Randal O'Toole, Cato Institute
Thursday, October 7 3:30 to 5 pm
President Obama and transportation Secretary Ray LaHood say that their “livability” policies—including high-speed rail, an emphasis on urban transit, and supportive land-use policies—will have a “transformative” effect on American cities, saving people money by making goods and services more accessible while reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, these policies will only make cities more expensive and more congested. Instead of these policies, the federal government should promote a user-fee-driven transportation system that gives people freedom to choose how they get around while insuring they pay the full costs of their choices.
Co-sponsored by Institute of Urban and Regional Development, ITS Berkeley, and UCTC.
Two UCTC Students among Bay Area Women's Transportation Seminar Winners
Among the winners of scholarships given out at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the WTS San Francisco Bay Area Chapter on May 26 were Kimberly Leung, who received the Luis Moritz Molitoris Undergraduate Leadership Scholarship, and Alainna Thomas, who was given the Elaine Dezenski Legacy Scholarship. Leung is an alumna of the UC Berkeley Undergraduate Transportation Week; and Thomas is a doctoral student in City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley.
Eno Fellows from UCTC
University of California transportation programs accounted for four of this year’s 20 Eno Transportation Foundation Fellows, and three of the four are from UCTC campuses.
The three UCTC fellows are (in alphabetical order):
- Eric Gonzales, University of California, Berkeley;
- Sarah Hernandez, University of California, Irvine; and
- Daniel Work, University of California, Berkeley.
The fourth, Jonn Axsen, is from UC Davis, which has its own University Transportation Center.
All the fellows attended the annual Leadership Development Conference, held in Washington, D.C., May 17-20.
They took part in an intensive schedule of meetings with officials from the executive branch and congress, executives from the transportation industry, as well as leaders of other transportation organizations. They also heard presentations by Norman Y. Mineta, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and John Porcari, Deputy Secretary of Transportation.
Eno Transportation Foundation Fellows page
UCLA Summer Urban Planning Course
In summer of 2010, Alison Yoh, Associate Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, UCLA, and Michael Smart, a PhD student at ITS Los Angeles, are teaching "Transportation Geography," an undergraduate course in the Urban Planning Department.
UC Berkeley Undergraduate Transportation Week
In the spring of 2010, UCTC Assistant Director Karen Frick hosted an undergraduate transportation week.
"Equity, Pricing, and Surface Transportation Politics"
The Martin Wachs Distinguished Lecture Thursday, April 8, 2010, at UCLA. PDF of slides now available.
UCTC Co-Sponsors City Planning Session of [In]city
UC Berkeley is hosting [IN]City, Introduction to Sustainable Cities, a unique six-week intensive summer program to expose students to sustainability and city planning issues, including transportation, land use, climate change, and related fields. It is designed especially for recent graduates holding bachelors degrees and senior undergraduates. The program runs from July 6-August 13. Applications are due Monday, April 19, 2010. The program is through the Department of City and Regional Planning and the College of Environmental Design, and UCTC is pleased to be a co-sponsor.
Special Speaker Co-sponsored with IURD
April 16, noon-1 pm, "Current Issues in Transportation: the Case of New York City and Beyond," by Professor Robert E. Paaswell, Interim President, City College of New York. 305 Wurster Hall.
TRB Webinar: Knowledge Is Power: How TRB's Databases Improve Access to Transportation Research
Monday, April 19, 2010, from 2 pm to 3:30 pm EDT that will explore practical tips for using the Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS), Research in Progress (RiP), and Research Needs Statements (RNS) databases. Harmer E. Davis Library Director Rita Evans and Reference Librarian Kendra Levine are among the panel members. Participants must register for the webinar and will not have to pay a fee to attend this session.
Webinar for Professionals: April 14, 2010: Corridor Management
Hosted by the Sustainable Transportation Center at UC Davis.
UCTC Co-Sponsored Seminar
April 9, 4-5 pm, "Busting Silos: How the Obama Administration’s Agenda is Broadening the Reach of the Transportation Profession," Presented by Therese McMillan, Deputy Administrator, Federal Transit Administration. Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center, UC Berkeley campus.UCTC Transportation Seminar at ITS Berkeley, Co-sponsored with ITS.
IURD Seminar
"TOD 3.0 and Beyond: a reality check" William Kohn Fleissig, Wednesday, March 17, noon to 2 p.m., in the IURD Conference Room, 316 Wurster Hall, on the UC Berkeley Campus.
New UCTC Faculty
Two new faculty members, Dan Chatman and Doug Houston, join UCTC this fall. And both have previous ties to the center...
UCTC at TRB 2010
- UCTC-Funded Research Paper from UC Irvine Wins TRB Pyke Johnson Award
- Former UCTC Director Martin Wachs will give the Thomas Deen Distinguished Lecturership at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 89th Annu'al Meeting. He will be presenting, "Transportation Policy, Poverty, and Sustainability: History and Future" January 11, 2010, 6 pm-7:15 pm.
- UCTC Co-Sponsors TRB Reception with ITS Berkeley: Tuesday, January 12, 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Atrium at the Marriott Wardman Park.
New Look, Functionality for UCTC Web site
We're pleased to announce a new design and updated functions for the UCTC Web site. Please email Phyllis Orrick, who handles the Web site and other UCTC communications, with ANY complaints, suggestions (or compliments). And be sure to join UCTC on our new Facebook page, where you can post announcements, share links, videos and more. (If you're using IE, it's best viewed in IE 7 or above.)
Fall 2009 Dissertation Grants Awarded
Five proposals receive support. They address transit access and travel behavior, land use and transportation networks, allocation of costs in multimodal networks, truck traffic and transport emissions, and vehicle automation using GPS. View Fall 2009 and Spring 2009 dissertation proposal abstracts.
Dan Work 2009-2010 UCTC Student of the Year
November 19—Dan Work has been named the 2009-2010 UCTC Outstanding Student of the Year, UCTC Director Robert Cervero announced...
2009 Arrowhead Symposium at the UCLA Conference Center at Lake Arrowhead The Transportation-Land Use-Environment Connection October 18-20, 2009: Presentations and Proceedings
56th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International. November 18-21, 2009, in San Francisco
Mel Webber Special ACCESS available online, May 25, 2007