METRANS  News Brief
July 7, 2020
METRANS Funds 15 New Research Projects  
  
A major cornerstone of the METRANS mission is fostering independent high-quality research. METRANS works toward this mission by promoting and funding rigorous academic research in transportation. Recently, METRANS and its partners granted funding of close to $1,500,000 for 15 new research projects. Each partnership, while having specialized research interests, helps to contribute to the overall body of knowledge on mobility and transportation. 
METRANS and its partners under the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center funded projects for 2020 which focused around the following four themes:  
1) technology for improved mobility,   
2) improving mobility for disadvantaged populations,  
3) improving resilience and protecting the environment, and   
4) managing mobility in high-growth cities and regions.   

Ten projects were funded, addressing traffic analysis, highway systems, vehicular pollution, economic displacement and long commutes, and long-term/large-scale forecasting of public transportation performance. 

METRANS focuses on sustainable freight and new mobility under the National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST). Five projects were funded, addressing transit job access and ridership, truck parking demand, dynamic routing for ridesharing systems, incentive systems for new mobility services, and travel behavior in e-commerce.   

Descriptions of all the new projects are available at  https://www.metrans.org/metrans-research .  

The METRANS research community looks forward to seeing the data-driven results of these projects in the coming years.
Dr. Giuliano Shares ZEV Research in CED Clean Air Webinar 
On June 9, 2020, the California Environmental Dialogue (CED) hosted a webinar that focused on Clean Air policies within California, the reduction of toxic air emissions, and the funding of air quality programs. The CED is a coalition of businesses, public sector boards and associations, environmental groups, and educational institutions that engage in an ongoing discussion about the environmental protection of California and its diverse residents. This group actively discusses environmental policy pertinent to Californian stakeholders and publishes reports with the aim of identifying effective strategies for environmental protection that also positively influence California businesses.  

METRANS Transportation Center Director, Dr. Genevieve Giuliano, joined the discussion to share the center’s recent research related to zero-and near-zero emission (ZEVs) heavy duty trucks in the short haul trucking industry. This research has led to findings such as: 
  • the challenges of using ZEVs in the heavy truck market given current state of the technology  
  • the effectiveness of natural gas hybrid near-zero vehicles in the near term 
  •  the importance of advances in battery technology, infrastructure investments, and subsidies for the development of these projects  

Findings of this research indicate that zero and near-zero heavy duty trucks are promising for reducing small particulate and greenhouse gas emissions. Their use could help California achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals and contribute to cleaner port communities. 
METRANS Researchers Ioannou and Monteiro Shape the Future of Autonomous Vehicles 
Autonomous vehicle technology is rapidly progressing, and many leading automotive manufacturers have announced their intent to bring vehicles to the market that allow for autonomous driving in the upcoming years [1]. One major motivation for introducing autonomous vehicles to the general public is a projected reduction of fatal traffic accidents [2]. The U.S. DOT has found 94% of all fatal crashes to be caused by human error, and there is potential to significantly reduce this share of fatalities. While increased vehicular safety is a motivator, ensuring safety of autonomous vehicles also represents a technological challenge. This is the primary reason why functionalities like autonomous lane changes are not yet offered by most established automotive manufacturers [3]. Especially in dense traffic, changing lanes automatically is still an open challenge [4]. As part of the effort to overcome this challenge, METRANS researchers Petros Ioannou and Fernando V. Monteiro from University of Southern California (USC), conducted a research project examining how “vehicles communicate with each other and negotiate the creation of safe spacings in order to merge without taking any safety risks”[4]. 

Click here to read the article in full.
METRANS Associate Director Contributes Leadership in
TRB Women & Gender in Transportation Committee
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is an active and vital part of the greater transportation research community, as it seeks to promote innovation and progress in transportation. METRANS’ longstanding commitment to rigorous research in transportation, mobility, and sustainability is demonstrated in part by their history of membership and collaboration with TRB. This collaboration can be no better illustrated than by the involvement of Dr. Victoria Deguzman.
METRANS Associate Director of Education and Professional Development, Deguzman, is an active member of the TRB; currently serving as leader for the Women & Gender in Transportation Young Member Subcommittee. More recently, Deguzman was awarded a new posting as the Transportation Research Board Secretary of the Women & Gender in Transportation Committee. The Women & Gender in Transportation Committee is concentrated on identifying emerging women’s issues in the use of transportation, working to “define research needs related to these issues,” as well as “stimulate, gather, and disseminate relevant research findings , ” according to their scope.  Deguzman’s past work with the Women & Gender subcommittee makes her an excellent fit for this promotion, and METRANS congratulates her on this exciting step in her career.  
METRANS Researcher Addresses the Transportation Industry’s Future in Research Board’s Centennial Project 
This year, the Transportation Research Board (TRB) is celebrating its 100 th  anniversary. TRB produces publications and online resources that “provide innovative, research-based solutions to improve transportation” and helps develop solutions to problems facing transportation professionals. 
To commemorate its hundredth year, TRB has started the “Tell Us ‘Our’ Story” centennial initiative featuring people’s responses to a series of questions to “illustrate the myriad of individual contributions that are the key to TRB’s success.” The board publishes a new question for respondents to answer every month and will later post these responses on its website, social media channels, and its 2021 Annual Meeting venues. For example, the June 2020 question is: “What is your vision of TRB 100 years from now?” Other questions concern the impact TRB’s research and solutions have had on people’s lives, people’s motivations for volunteering for TRB, and more. 
Dr. Geraldine Knatz, Professor of the Practice of Policy and Engineering at the University of Southern California and METRANS researcher, was featured in one of TRB’s blurbs. In her answer to this month’s question, she alludes to transformational technologies such as artificial intelligence and TRB’s role to “imagine this reality sooner... and ensure that it is leading the way for the next 100 years.” TRB posted Dr. Knatz’s full response on their  website

Dr. Knatz’s research is similarly focused on potential innovations in the transportation industry—in 2015, she published a study in which she considered how ports can retain their market shares through cooperation.  
The “Tell Us ‘Our’ Story” initiative will last until January 2021. TRB welcomes all stories “small or large, profound or light-hearted, sobering or humorous.” The responses to these questions and TRB’s year-long celebration will help the board begin its next . 
METRANS Researcher, DaBlanc, Examines Mobility Questions within the COVID Context    
Of the many distinguished researchers connected to METRANS, Laetitia Dablanc, the Paris Team Leader for the MetroFreight Center of Excellence stands out as a major contributor, having enjoyed a longstanding relationship with the Volvo Research and Education Foundation (VREF) and gaining international recognition for her work in the field of city logistics. Dablanc’s reputation as an eminent scholar in the fields of urban freight and logistics, freight planning and policy, and logistics sprawl has led her to be invited to visit USC as a VREF summer visiting scholar for the past 5 years. Recently, Dablanc’s research on “Testing the ‘Freight Landscape’” gained international acclaim and was awarded Best Paper of 2018 by the Urban Freight Committee of the Transportation Research Board.   

Click here to read the article in full.