The Legacy of Martin Wachs

DeCafe Perloff Hall 365 Portolo Plaza, Los Angeles, CA

For better than a half-century, Professor Martin Wachs was a leading educator, researcher, and influencer of transportation policy and planning at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and the RAND Corporation. This afternoon event will bring together some of his many former students, colleagues, and friends to reflect on his influence and legacy as a teacher and mentor, as a planning and transportation scholar, as well as his dedication to influencing policy and practice for the better. UCLA DeCafe Perloff Hall 365 Portolo Plaza Schedule of Events This event will include a programmed portion with speakers, followed by a reception. 1:30 p.m. :: Welcoming Remarks & Reflection Brian D. Taylor, Professor and Director, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies 1:45 p.m. :: Marty’s Influence as Teacher and Mentor Cornelius Nuworsoo, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Megan Ryerson, University of Pennsylvania Paul Sorenson, Cambridge Systematics Gian-Claudia Sciara, University of Texas, Austin Moderator: Asha Weinstein Agrawal, San José State University 2:30 p.m. :: Marty’s Influence on Transportation and Planning Scholarship Evelyn Blumenberg, UCLA Genevieve Giuliano, University of Southern California Jonathan Levine, University of Michigan Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, UCLA Moderator: Brian Taylor, UCLA 3:45 p.m. :: Marty’s Influence on Policy and Practice Maria Mehranian, Cordoba Corporation Ryan Russo, [...]

California’s Housing Crossroads

UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center 850 Willow Creek Rd, Lake Arrowhead, CA, United States

California's Housing Crossroads The 32nd Annual UCLA Lake Arrowhead Symposium High land costs, a shortage of homes, and income inequality have led to a cost-burdened population facing one of the nation’s worst housing crises, which is acutely felt in coastal job centers and near public transportation infrastructure. Housing policy is complex, but the solutions to the housing crisis don’t need to be. At this year's UCLA Arrowhead Symposium, we’ll focus on how to make these solutions happen in California. This invitation-only symposium is the go-to event for an in-depth examination of the interconnected planning and policy issues around transportation, land use, and the environment. Regular registration fee of $1,195 includes access to programming, 2 nights lodging, all meals and receptions, use of venue facilities. For more information about the event, along with scholarship opportunities to attend, please visit www.uclaarrowheadsymposium.org.

The Spatial Dilemma of Sustainable Transportation and Just Affordable Housing

UCLA Housing, Neighborhood and Health Series: The Spatial Dilemma of Sustainable Transportation and Just Affordable Housing Tuesday, Jan. 24 11:30 a.m. PST Zoom webinar California’s intense affordable housing crisis has highlighted the fundamental linkage between land use, transportation, climate policy, and equity. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the main contributor to climate change, is a priority policy goal for the state of California, and cutting vehicle miles traveled is a key mechanism for achieving this goal. In order to equitably achieve this reduction, it is critical that affordable housing options be situated in areas that facilitate less driving, through reliable access to public transit, walkability, and proximity to employment. These elements, among others, can combine to create more sustainable communities. We hope you can join us for this research seminar where Dr. Ong will discuss his project that examines the spatial distribution of tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) units and Low-income Housing Tax Credit units to understand whether geographic patterns and trends are consistent with climate change and equity goals. Find reports and briefs associated with this project here. Featured Speaker Paul Ong, PhD Research Professor, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Director, UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge Gilbert [...]

Biking while Black – Documentary Screening and Discussion

James Bridges Theater 235 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, United States

Biking while Black - Documentary Screening and Discussion Tuesday, Feb. 7, 20236:30 - 8:15 p.m. PSTJames Bridges Theater In a 30-minute documentary, BIKING WHILE BLACK: CONTINUING TO RIDE THROUGH DECRIMINALIZATION, DISENFRANCHISEMENT AND GENTRIFICATION incorporates narratives to dig deeper into solution-based storytelling and features the actions being taken by some of our leading Black bicyclists and BIPOC community-based organizations. Cast members are paving new roads to tackle the myths, the community safety conditions in Los Angeles, and celebrating Black joy on two wheels. Black and BIPOC lives continue to have an unseen connection to the realms of hope and resilience. Some of the key revelations that were spoken of during our interviews were on uplifting and educating our youth to become leaders and navigators in bicycling education and mechanics, safety education, and engagement, paired with mobility justice advocacy. The film connects these perspectives to transportation planning through speaking with agencies on the need to acknowledge, hire, and collaborate with community leaders who have been doing the work to help keep their multi-generational community members safe and informed. This second episode expands on the nine-minute short film, BIKING WHILE BLACK: HOW SAFE ARE BLACK LIVES BICYCLING? Post-screening discussion with director Yolanda Davis-Overstreet, [...]

Accessibility, Social Equity, and Contemporary Policy Debates

California Nanosystems Institute, UCLA Campus 570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Part of the Martin Wachs Distinguished Lecture Series and Meyer and Renee Luskin Lecture Series. Robert Cervero works in the area of sustainable transportation policy and planning. He has consulted on numerous transportation and urban planning projects worldwide, most recently advising long-range planning in Dubai and Singapore. His most recent book, Beyond Mobility, won the 2019 National Urban Design Best Book Award. Dr. Cervero was a member of Berkeley’s city and regional planning faculty from 1980 to 2016, where he twice served as Department Chair, was the inaugural holder of the Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Urban Studies, and directed both the University of California Transportation Center and the Institute of Urban and Regional Development. More recently he has held visiting faculty appointments at Tongji University in Shanghai and NYU-Abu Dhabi. During his doctoral studies in urban planning at UCLA, he worked under the supervision of his long-time mentor, Martin Wachs. Martin Wachs’ seminal 1973 paper on accessibility as a social construct continues to influence urban planning policy and practice a half-century later. It also shaped a generation of research on, broadly speaking, the ‘transport-land use connection’, including my own. This talk probes a number of policy initiatives that implicitly [...]

Luskin Summit 2023: Our Research in Action

UCLA Faculty Club 480 Charles E. Young Drive E, Los Angeles, California

UCLA ITS research will be featured at this year's Luskin Summit, during a morning breakout session CALIFORNIA'S ZERO EMISSIONS VEHICLE PLANS— NECESSARY, BUT INSUFFICIENT California plans to phase out new gasoline vehicle sales starting in three years and will eliminate all sales by 2035. It’s a necessary step toward public health, equity and climate goals. But is it sufficient? The Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA will lead a panel discussion about the consequences of rapid transportation electrification without addressing driving activity — and who is most likely to get left behind. Information about the other breakout sessions and speakers can be found on the registration site. OPENING AND CLOSING SESSIONS Quality of Life Index Former public official and current UCLA professor Zev Yaroslavsky will unveil the results of his eighth annual poll of Los Angeles County residents on their satisfaction with their lives across nine categories. Closing Session on Homelessness Ever-rising homelessness has been designated as an emergency by both the city and county of Los Angeles, yet roughly 70,000 unhoused people continue to sleep outside or in vehicles. Mayor Karen Bass and other elected officials have pledged to work together to address this complex issue in [...]

UCLA Downtown Los Angeles Forum: Transforming Transportation

The California Endowment 1000 Alameda St., Los Angeles, CA, United States

This in-person event showcased new research, analysis, and future research plans in TRACton: A Research Agenda For Just and Sustainable Transportation, a research and policy agenda that is a product of collaborative agenda-setting between UCLA researchers and members of community-based and advocacy organizations. Speakers and attendees pondered some of the pressing questions affecting transportation and land use in California: How does a research agenda developed in collaboration by researchers and community advocates differ from the status quo for transportation research? With an impending fiscal cliff and the continuing slog of post-pandemic ridership recovery, how will California transform public transit to achieve the state's strategic vision of transit oriented development with less reliance on personal automobiles. Climate change, housing affordability, unsafe roads, and the impending Olympic games all motivate the need to advance the pace and scale of transportation change. But achieving scale and agility require significant changes in public sector managerial approaches. What can transportation professionals do differently to transform transportation? How can transit agencies overcome labor shortages that impair services and ridership? What is known about racial injustices in siting freeways? What can communities do to repair the resultant harms? [...]

Human Transit, Book Talk by Jarrett Walker

2355 Public Affairs Building 337 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Join us to celebrate the revised edition of Jarrett Walker's Human Transit, Revised Edition: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives. The new edition will deepen its explanations about the basic principles of public transit, informed by his work as a network planning consultant. New topics include the problem with specialization; the role of flexible or “demand response” services; how to know when to redesign your network; and responding to tech-industry claims that transit will soon be obsolete.  Finally, he added a major new section exploring the idea of access to opportunity as a core measure of transit’s success. RSVP HERE

TransportationCamp LA 2024

UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs 337 Charles E Young Drive E, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Register Today See Sponsorship Opportunities TransportationCamp LA is an open venue for sharing and learning about the region’s transportation issues and successes. TransportationCamp LA aims to be an open, forward-thinking event that brings together people of all facets of the transportation world. TransportationCamp is not a formal conference — rather, as an unconference, it is driven entirely by attendees’ interests and experiences. At TransportationCamp, there is no set agenda prior to the event. Sessions are determined at the beginning of the day and are drawn from proposals and ideas that attendees submit. A session can be any format: a presentation, an open discussion, a demonstration, a panel, or even a group exercise or game. TransportationCamp covers urban transportation issues in all their forms, including economic, social, public health, and environmental impacts.Session topics in the 2019 TransportationCamp LA ranged from “Congestion Pricing & Increasing Transit Ridership,” to “Mobility with Kids Under 5,” to “Latest Buzz from Cycle-friendly Cities” and change every year to reflect the latest research and questions of the moment. Have thoughts on mobility and access for carless households in LA, or battery replacement and disposal strategies for transit agencies? Get your own session [...]

$40

Ciclovía at 50: Changing Street Cultures Across the World

A Mini-Symposium from UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies December 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia, the original “open streets” event. Ciclovías close streets to cars and open them to people-powered mobility, creating what co-founder Jaime Ortíz Mariño calls the “world’s largest outdoor classroom.” The ciclovía covers over 75 miles every Sunday in Bogotá, and has spread to over 450 cities around the world. In this online event, we will hear from organizers in different cities about what the model has meant for their street cultures. Scholars will share their research on the event and its participants. Experts from the fields of public health and transportation will talk about the challenges and opportunities in funding non-infrastructure programming like this. Explore what cities around the globe have learned from the model, its role as a catalyst in changing street cultures in particular cities, and how ciclovías can help shift people to sustainable transportation. Session 1: Ciclovía Legacies In the first half of the mini-symposium, we'll focus on telling the story. A moderated discussion with ciclovía creators will reflect on the goals of open streets models and how ciclovías have changed transportation culture in specific cities. Following this, [...]

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