The 2018 Spring Speaker Series brought national experts to the UCLA Luskin School to discuss new research and best practices around public transit, transportation finance, innovative mobility, and much more. It took place during Professor Brian Taylor's Transportation Policy and Planning graduate course, but all events were open to the public.
UCLA ITS celebrated its 25 years of scholarship, education, and public engagement--reconnecting classmates, friends, and professors. See photos from this event.
2018 Fall Innovative Mobility Speaker Series Realistic Prospects for Vehicle Automation in the Years Ahead and their Implications for Mobility with Steven Shladover Extraordinary Innovation at Metro with Joshua Schank New Mobility: Lys Mendez and Marla Westervelt of Bird Robert Poole: Rethinking America's Highway Institutions Three Revolutions: Steering Automated, Shared and Electric Vehicles to a Better Future - Dan Sperling, UC Davis
Spring 2019 Lecture Series on Resilient, New Mobility Unintended Consequences of Autonomous Vehicles | Adam Millard-Ball, UC Santa Cruz Towards Resilient Infrastructure for a Changing Climate and Future | Mikhail Chester, Arizona State University Model Checking in a Time of Simulation | Timothy Brathwaite, Lyft Bringing Congestion Pricing to LA | Joshua Schank, Metro Building Traveler-Centric Methods to Design Safe and Functional Urban and Intercity Transportation Infrastructure | Megan Ryerson, University of Pennsylvania Representing the Underrepresented: Making the Case for Digital and Inclusive Data for Travel Activity Studies | Tierra Bills, University of Michigan Financing California's Transportation Infrastructure: A Capital Markets Perspective | Alex Zaman, Citi
The 12th annual Martin Wachs Distinguished Lecture, held at UCLA, was presented by David Levinson. The 30-minute isochrone has long defined people’s use of cities — from ancient times through the trams era to modern times. There are opportunities to use design to reduce the costs of travel and thus increase access for relatively little monetary outlay. This talk discussed both the measurement of accessibility, why it matters, and how it might affect traveler behavior, institutional behavior, and public policy.
TransportationCamp LA brought over a hundred transportation professionals, students and advocates to UCLA for an open mic conference. Attendees presented on topics ranging from transit planning to congestion pricing and data science. Many sessions looked into the advocacy and funding struggles of making sustained progress on effective and equitable transit and active transportation infrastructure.
The annual UCLA Lake Arrowhead Symposium hosted leaders and stakeholders from the public, private, non-profit, and academic sectors for thoughtful discussion around the connections and conflicts between transportation, land use, and the environment. For the past 28 years, attendees have tackled the local policies, influences, and consequences related to climate change. This year's theme was Routes to Opportunity: Connecting Equity and Transportation.
UCLA ITS held its annual Fall Lecture Series where researchers presented their work on transportation, land use, and urban planning policies. Topics include the future of rideshare and autonomous vehicles, a historical context on Los Angeles ports, and public policy associated with public transit.
Professor Emerita of City and Regional Planning and Urban Design, Elizabeth “Betty” Deakin presented the Martin Wachs Lecture, “Integrating Transportation, Land Use, and Environmental Planning for Social Justice and Carbon Reduction: Finding a Way that Works.” Deakin’s research focuses on transportation and land use policy and the environmental impacts of transportation.
UCLA ITS had 18 presentations from faculty, affiliated researchers and students at the TRB 99th Annual Meeting held in Washington D.C. UCLA faculty and students were awarded the Pyke Johnson Award for a paper on the mobility needs of aging adults, and several other students received recognition for their poster presentations and recent capstone projects.
InterActions LA discussed the opportunities to improve safety for women, girls, and other vulnerable populations as they travel throughout the Los Angeles region. Too often, people in these groups feel unsafe in public and this inhibits their freedom, independence and quality of life. This event presented new research by UCLA professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris on public transit safety from LA and around the world, along with real-world examples and thoughts for advancing safety for everyone. Participants had an opportunity to exchange their best ideas with each other and engage deeply on solutions to advance mobility justice for women, girls, and everyone.
The COVID-19 public health emergency has drastically changed every aspect of California life, including reducing personal travel by as much as half in many regions. As a result, transportation revenues are plummeting because user fees produce a large share of resources needed to operate California’s transportation system. Research by the Mineta Transportation Institute used simple spreadsheet models to estimate the impact of different scenarios for economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic on state-generated transportation revenues.
The role and usage of public transit in America has changed much over the past century, past decade, and even past few months in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. This session of the UCLA Luskin Virtual Summit series brought faculty affiliated with the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies to discuss the evolution of transit and its implications for the weeks, months, and years ahead.
The 2020 UCLA Lake Arrowhead Symposium found that smart policy and planning choices made as part of COVID-19 response and recovery can lead to more just, equitable, and sustainable transportation systems. Over the course of nine sessions, transportation practitioners and advocates looked at the economic, social, and racial dimensions of transportation in the pandemic along with new political opportunities for environmental justice and climate action in transportation.
Dr. Regan Patterson will present from her report for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which highlights ongoing challenges affecting African Americans in the transportation system and provides policy recommendations for how shared mobility, electric vehicles, and autonomous vehicles can equitably serve the Black community. She'll also discuss her research that focuses on the intersection of transportation, air quality engineering, and environmental justice.
What role can bicycling play in healing the intersecting harms of racial and climate injustice? Activists have learned that individual mode shift alone will not correct the extractive social effects of transportation governance and industries, but collective actions point toward regenerative possibilities. Professor Adonia Lugo will share ideas from her collaborations in mobility justice to argue for the significance of human-powered mobility in moving the transportation field toward a just transition.
While cyclists and pedestrians are vulnerable road users and face significant safety threats on roadways, environmental conditions in historically marginalized communities compound such vulnerability for people of color. Jesus Barajas takes a mobility justice perspective to contextualize street safety for cyclists and pedestrians. His research shows how identity shapes the way cyclists experience the streetscape, how safety has multiple meanings particularly for people of color, and how inequity in the distribution of infrastructure compounds police injustice in Black communities.
The Third Annual Emerging Scholars Transportation Research Symposium, hosted by the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center, will be taking place on March 2nd and 3rd online. This webinar will feature presentations by PSR students and researchers on their work. UCLA PhD candidates Hannah King and Teo Wickland will be presenting on their research as well as UCLA professor Dr. Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris. The event includes keynote presentations from Senator Fran Pavley and Dr. Susan Handy.
Columbia Law professor Sarah Seo's book "Policing the Open Road" is a thought-provoking look at how the automobile fundamentally changed the nature of police work, and thus the conception of freedom, in the United States. These themes are close to transportation studies, but too often ignored in transportation academia. These issues, moreover, will only become more salient as broader swaths of transportation academia seek to understand and study the role of race and ethnicity in freedom of mobility.
Multimedia artist Thompson-Hernández shares from his book, "The Compton Cowboys," and latest NPR podcast California Love. In Compton, California, 10 black riders on horseback cut an unusual profile, their cowboy hats tilted against the hot Los Angeles sun. They are the Compton Cowboys, their small ranch one of the very last in a formerly semirural area of the city that has been home to African American horse riders for decades. California Love is a new audio memoir about Walter's coming of age in Los Angeles.
This webinar is the first in a two-part series exploring the challenges and opportunities facing public transit. UC ITS experts will review the challenges facing public transit operators leading up to and amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, including changes in ridership, deepening fiscal issues, and growing social challenges related to homelessness, sexual harassment, and safety. The webinar will conclude with insights of a recent scenario planning exercise exploring how to build public transit back better in light of these many challenges.
This webinar is the second in a two-part series exploring the challenges and opportunities facing public transit. UC ITS experts will share key considerations for the recovery of public transit and for achieving the state’s broader vision for more sustainable, equitable, and cost-effective transportation. Topics to be addressed include: better serving the needs of mobility disadvantaged populations; leveraging new business models, technologies, and services to attract new riders; working more effectively with the private sector; protecting workers and jobs; and financing the future of public transportation.
The 2021 UCLA Arrowhead Symposium Series: Transit in Transition considers the current state of public transit in the United States and transit’s options for the future. The pandemic accelerated the pre-existing trend of declining ridership. Transit agencies have built fixed route and rapid transit infrastructure to serve commercial centers and downtowns, but expanding remote work brings uncertainty to recovery of demand in these areas.
Transit in Transition reconvenes at UCLA following a successful online series. This daylong event will continue to look at the challenges facing public transit in a time of intense uncertainty – with a focus on Los Angeles.
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 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.
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 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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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? [...]
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
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 [...]
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, [...]
Transit only works as well as the workforce behind it — those who operate vehicles; those who keep them in order, clean, and secure; and those who plan and manage the network. Frontline transit work can be especially satisfying and secure — but also stressful or unsafe. The pandemic laid bare these realities, as transit agencies across the country lacked workers, leading to canceled service in the short term and delayed service restoration in the long term. Ultimately, transit workforce issues are transit rider issues. Researchers, union organizers, and transit workers themselves will speak on the key workforce issues in the transit industry. Through both presentations and breakout discussions, speakers and participants together, from both the transportation and labor sectors, will work on ideas for how to improve transit work and secure it as a high-road job. Session 1: Introduction to Transit Labor: Current Issues and Coming Concerns Our opening conversation will explore the best practices and needed reforms to transform transit for the better. Join us in conversing with a research leader engaged in the big issues, solutions, and prospects for the future in transit labor, from operators to mechanics and white-collar employees. Session 2: Organizing to Improve [...]
Welcome to UCLA ITS This event is for UCLA students, faculty and staff only. RSVP Here The UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies welcomes incoming and returning students, faculty, and staff for the start of the 2024-25 academic year. We aim to support a community of transportation scholars and provide students with resources, such as travel and research project support and transportation programming. Thus, we want to begin the year with a celebration to help our community get to know one another and to welcome the transition from Brian D. Taylor to Adam Millard-Ball as the Director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies. Taylor has led UCLA ITS since 2001, playing a critical role in the institute’s expansion. Under his tenure, UCLA ITS has transformed from a small operation with limited staff and resources into a nationally influential research center with more than 75 scholars and staff conducting cutting-edge research in eight program areas. Incoming Director Adam Millard-Ball brings a wealth of experience in data science and climate change policy. He joined the UCLA Luskin School in 2021 and has recently served as acting director of UCLA ITS during the 2022-23 academic year. In that time, Millard-Ball oversaw the TRACtion: Transformative Research and Collaboration initiative, which [...]
