In our newly released mini lecture, Dr. Alan Jenn, Assistant Professor in the UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, explains how the grid will handle increasing electric vehicle (EV) load, what that means for vehicle owners and ratepayers, and how clean EVs actually are.

In September, UC Davis convened the new cohort of the Environmental Justice Leaders in Residence Program (EJ Leaders Program) for a two-day meeting aimed at deepening conversations and collaborations between the Leaders, academics, NGOs, and government representatives. Of note was the depth of day one’s lunch conversation with researchers and government leaders about community-university-government partnerships. An evening reception was well-attended by leaders and staff from government agencies including the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Caltrans, US EPA, and many others. The NCST is proud to be a sponsor of the EJ Leaders Program.

The 2024 Environmental Justice Leaders in Residence at a reception for the program in September. The six new cohort members are pictured, with program director Sarah McCullough of the UC Davis Feminist Research Institute on the far right.

Meet the University of Vermont's Meg Fay, a Civil and Environmental Engineering M.S. student!

Meg's research interests span transportation, health and equity. They are currently conducting a national analysis to evaluate the impact of EV adoption on air quality and environmental justice across U.S. communities. Using high-resolution, census-block-level forecasts, they examine how EVs and internal combustion vehicles will affect near-road emissions exposure and disparity, and attempt to answer the following question: Are EVs the answer to our equity problems?

Meg has been honored with a 2023 Voss Undergraduate Environmental Research Fellowship, 2024 WTS Vermont Graduate Scholarship, 2024 Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship, and 2024 Thomas J. Votta Graduate Scholarship for the Environment. They hope to work in a way that serves the public and continue to explore the intersection of public health and the built environment.

Congratulations on your achievements, Meg!

Upcoming NCST Webinar: Using Cycling Impedance to Assess the Potential Benefits of New Cycling Infrastructure

This Thursday – November 21, 2024 @ 10:00 - 11:00 AM PST | Online

Reid Passmore | Ph.D. Candidate and Researcher at Georgia Tech

Impedance functions measure the relative difficulty of travel, primarily through travel time. They play a crucial role in deciding which transportation infrastructure projects get funded (e.g., projects that reduce impedance the most), yet there is little research on how to measure cycling impedance specifically.

In this webinar, Georgia Tech Ph.D. Candidate Reid Passmore will share his dissertation research on developing cycling-specific impedance functions using cycling trajectory data for the BikewaySim calculator. Planners, engineers, and advocacy groups can use the framework to evaluate proposed cycling infrastructure and prioritize projects that stand to reduce the most cycling impedance.

Opportunities for Improving Transit Travel Through Standardized Payments

Dr. Susie Pike | Director of the UC Davis Transit Research Center

Challenges faced by transit agencies with cash payments, an increasingly cashless society, and the expanding offerings of digital payment options have spurred increased interest in open-loop payments among transit operators. Pioneering transit agencies are adopting open payment systems that accept credit cards, debit cards, and smartphone/watch-based transactions. In this webinar, Dr. Susie Pike, Director of the UC Davis Transit Research Center, sheds light on the challenges facing small to medium transit agencies in the transition of California’s transit systems to open-loop payment systems, and some of the opportunities that may make adoption of these systems more feasible.

METRANS Fall 2024 Research Seminar: Stochastic Ride Sharing System with Flexible Pickup and Drop-off

Dr. Maged Dessouky | Dean's Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at USC

Ridesharing systems can significantly improve the efficiency of transportation systems by utilizing unused spaces in a vehicle while at the same time providing cheap, flexible, and convenient commute options to urban passengers. However, a big obstacle in planning a carpool ridesharing system is the uncertainty that is inherent in the system. The purpose of the research discussed is to provide a ride-sharing planning scheme that will consider multiple sources of uncertainties to provide a robust travel plan while at the same time reducing travel time for the commuters. The method proposed can help transportation officials and rideshare planners design more robust rideshare systems to alleviate traffic congestion in California.

The NCST's Leadership Council is an influential group of leaders from government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and professional associations across the country. The Council's feedback helps guide, frame, and champion NCST research. 

The NCST convenes the Leadership Council annually to provide opportunities for feedback, collaboration, and networking. These meetings enable the NCST's executive team to learn about the most pressing transportation research and policy needs from a broad set of stakeholders across the country. This year, the Leadership Council convening took place on November 14th, in Davis, California.

NCST kicked off 12 new research projects this Fall. Projects range from the identification of innovative technologies, best practices, and policy interventions to drive decarbonization efforts in marine ports, to the collection of real-world driving data in the mountainous and largely rural state of Vermont to determine how plug-in electric vehicle use and performance differ across these contexts, to the exploration of the role of pricing in demand for micromobility and other transportation modes and much more. These projects were made possible through funding received from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the University Transportation Centers program.

In California’s evolving transportation landscape, exploring the impacts of transformative transportation technologies on disadvantaged communities is crucial. This study evaluates the distribution of benefits and costs of Shared Autonomous Electric Vehicles (SAEVs) across diverse populations by using high-resolution spatial and temporal analyses. The research highlights the importance of vehicle electrification and grid decarbonization in emissions reduction while emphasizing the need for policies ensuring equitable distribution of SAEV benefits to promote inclusive and sustainable mobility.

Learning Drivers' Utility Functions in a Coordinated Freight Routing System Based on Drivers' Actions

Dr. Petros Ioannou & Dr. Zheyu Wang | University of Southern California

Traffic congestion is a major problem emerging from the growth of urban areas and city populations. This research presents a coordinated freight routing system designed for optimizing network utility and reducing traffic congestion through personalized routing guidance and incentive mechanisms. The system customizes incentives and payments for individual drivers based on current traffic conditions and their specific routing preferences. This study highlights the potential for a coordinated routing system to enhance urban traffic efficiency by dynamically adjusting incentives based on drivers' choice data and drivers' behavior.

Bikesharing and other micromobility services can improve connectivity between affordable housing communities and transit

UC Davis researchers conducted a case study in Sacramento, California, to explore bikesharing as an option for connecting affordable housing residents with transit services.

From Research to Reality: University Transportation Centers as Technology Transfer Hubs

The NCST leadership team contributed an article to the October-December 2024 Edition of TR News, which is the Transportation Research Board's bimonthly magazine featuring articles on innovative and state-of-the-art research and practice in all modes of transportation. The recently published article, entitled “From Research to Reality: University Transportation Centers as Technology Transfer Hubs,” was written by NCST’s Policy Director, Sara Schremmer, with contributions from NCST Director Dr. Susan Handy, METRANS Director Dr. Marlon Boarnet, and Dr. Atorod Azizinamini, Director of the Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center (UTC) at Florida International University. The NCST is highlighted as a national UTC that excels at informing policy in the public and private sectors through innovation, collaboration, and communication.

The National Center for Sustainable Transportation is a consortium of leading universities committed to advancing an environmentally sustainable transportation system through cutting-edge research, direct policy engagement, and education of our future leaders. Consortium members: University of California, Davis; California State University, Long Beach; Georgia Institute of Technology; Texas Southern University; University of California, Riverside; University of Southern California; and University of Vermont.