METRANS  News Brief
August 3, 2020
CCNY Professor Alison Conway Considers
Complete Streets in a Pandemic
For many, the world as they know it has come to a standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses have shuttered, schools have moved to remote learning, and stay at home orders are in place across the country. Millions of people have lost their jobs or been furloughed, and millions more have migrated to working from home in an effort to “flatten the curve.” Yet essential pillars of the economy such as food delivery and emergency services march on. Maintaining supply chains against the backdrop of the global pandemic has been a consistent challenge in these last few months, with demand sharply increasing on essentials such as face masks, hand sanitizer, and grocery staples, and plummeting on luxury items and other nonessentials. The public has never been more cognizant of goods distribution and the factors that must be managed to maintain consumer needs and yet efficient movement of goods and people has always been the cornerstone of the industry. MetroFreight researchers such as Alison Conway have spent years exploring innovative ways to improve delivery systems, increase sustainability, and managing the competing needs of personal and commercial transit. 

To read more, click here .
To Drive or To Thrive: Manville Argues for Limiting
Parking Lots in Silicon Valley
Parking is a perennial concern for city-dwellers when considering travel and work. Many residents know the feeling of having to factor in parking time and accessibility when deciding whether to embark on a day trip, try a new restaurant, or even visit a friend. A low-cost parking lot located near one’s place of employment is considered a workplace perk for many and being relegated to street parking is a non-starter for most searching homeowners or renters. The density of businesses and homes is such that personal vehicle travel is often burdensome for those living in urban centers, and residents are encouraged to employ alternate means of transportation such as ride-sharing or public transit, especially in high-traffic areas such as universities or business districts. However, ironically enough, the opposite problem may be occurring in California's Silicon Valley. Michael Manville, Associate Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA, recently published a report funded by the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center (PSR-UTC) on the strict parking requirements the region’s cities have and the economic impact that these requirements may have on future land development in the area.

To read the full article, click here .
The 2020 PortReport:
Researching Port Governance Practices Globally
University of Southern California Professor of Practice and former Director of the Port of Los Angeles, Dr. Geraldine Knatz, in collaboration with Dr. Mary Brooks and a team of international transportation policy experts, recently published a PortReport on “Transparency in Governance: Seaport Practices. ”This report is the fifth installation of the PortEconomics series that serves to increase the visibility of port practices and initiatives on a global scale. The PortReport, “explores the levels of standards and transparency in the governance of [public] ports,” in Europe, North America, and South America. The report analyses governance and transparency methods by diving into publicly available information on port practices. Key actors in port governance, such as government departments involved in port policy-making, port authorities, and port regulators need to be transparent about their behavior, policies, and practices as a way of enhancing economic performance and accountability to their stakeholders, particularly the community that hosts the port.

To read more, click here .  
Reynolds "Reimagines Urban Mobility"
at CoMotion Miami Live
On June 30th,  Seleta  Reynolds, METRANS Advisory Board member and General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), participated on a panel at the  CoMotion Miami Live , an annual digital gathering of global mobility and transportation leaders, to discuss “Reimagining Urban Mobility for a Changed World.”

The CoMotion Lab (C-Lab) is a conference of international, national and regional stakeholders whose mission is to attract innovative ideas and technologies from around the world, test them through local pilot projects, and develop policy recommendations in various focus areas...

To learn more, click here .
METRANS Associate Highlight: HDR
METRANS is thrilled to announce HDR as its newest METRANS Associate Partner. For over the past hundred years. HDR has provided engineering innovation, environmental progress and foundation-building construction services throughout the United States and worldwide. Its multidisciplinary international teams address challenges in transportation, energy, urban development, and more.
 
HDR projects have been named the nation’s best overall engineering achievement four times in the past decade by the American Council of Engineering Companies, and the company is consistently highly ranked in industry engineering and architecture surveys. HDR’s work within the field of transportation has strengthened the interpersonal ability to connect by improving physical transportation systems and providing custom mobility solutions that creates strong, vibrant, and resilient communities... 

To read more, click here .
METRANS Alumni Spotlight Series:
Kristine O'Brien
University of Southern California Alumna, Kristine O’Brien, approaches the one-year anniversary of her promotion to Senior Vice President of Global Government Affairs with Airlines for America. Kristine has over 10 years of experience in the field of trade and transportation and has always had a specific passion when it came to the air industry. After working her way up from United Airlines to the Ports of Long Beach, Kristine moved to Washington D.C. to work with Senator Charles E. Schumer and the U.S. House of Representatives, equipping her with an extensive portfolio of experience with the trade and transportation industry and federal policy. Dr. Genevieve Giuliano recalls, “Kristen was one of those students you knew would succeed. She had great curiosity, worked hard, and was obviously very talented. We are proud she is one of our alumni and wish her the best!” 
Deguzman Participates in Transportation YOU
Webinar for Dorsey High Students
In June 2020, METRANS Associate Director of Education & Professional Development Victoria Deguzman, partnered with Ashlien Savage, Human Resources Manager at Foothill Transit, to present a webinar to female students at Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. The presentation was part of an initiative through Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) Los Angeles Chapter’s  Transportation YOU  committee, which seeks to empower and encourage young female students from underrepresented backgrounds to consider transportation-related careers. Deguzman and Savage, as Transportation YOU Committee members, are involved in local activities to mentor teenage girls and spark their interest in math, science, and technology. 
Recent TRB Webinar Addresses
Traffic Trends in the Time of COVID-19
On June 2nd, transportation leaders from the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center (PSR-UTC) convened to discuss traffic trends and safety in a COVID-19 world, the first partnership of its kind.   
 
In this webinar, Daniel Carter, Mena Lockwood, and Sanhita Lahiri from the North Carolina and Virginia Departments of Transportation (DOT) highlighted emerging trends in traffic patterns during statewide “Safer at Home” mandates. One of their findings indicated that the amount of total crashes had decreased by 50% in North Carolina, yet fatal and severe crashes had increased by 6%. While more research needs to be done to explain this increase, preliminary data indicates that it was related to a rise in single-vehicle collisions (i.e. drivers colliding with physical road barriers). 
Due to the networks of both organizations, this event was able to draw an audience of over 1,100 attendees. "I think the size of the event spoke to how much these new traffic conditions are on peoples' minds,” stated Moderator Dr. Fraser Schilling, who was representing UC Davis' Road Ecology Center. Schilling described this event as “a learning experience for everyone” and reported being pleased that the webinar had such an enormous outreach, pulling in an audience of “planners to traffic safety and operations professionals." 
 
Click here for a link to the full webinar. 
Learn More About Our Completed Research Projects
METRANS researchers from our member institutions have recently completed the following projects in the three topical areas of: integrated management of freight and passenger systems, sustainable and efficient urban freight transportation, and urban mobility. To learn more about specific projects, please click on the title to access the research briefs and reports.




 






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