Seminars

ITS Senior Fellow Fleisher Presents Policy 101 & Transit Integration Efforts at PATH

February 20, 2025

On February 11th, ITS Senior Fellow Arielle Fleisher, a transportation strategist at Waymo, gave a PATH presentation from a policy perspective and spotlighted Waymo's transit integration efforts.

Bio: Arielle Fleisher is a transportation strategist with a unique combination of public health, design thinking, and planning expertise. In her current role as the Policy Development and Research Manager at Waymo, she develops policies on the transportation issues that matter to cities, such as congestion, transit integration, equity and data-sharing. This role builds on her previous...

Conception and Development of the Alameda Corridor

February 7, 2025

Thank you to Robert Leachman, UC Berkeley Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Professor Emeritus, who presented Conception and Development of the Alameda Corridor at the Institute of Transportation Studies Transportation Seminar on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025.

Abstract: The Alameda Corridor is a 25-mile multi-tracked, grade-separated rail line stretching from the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to connections with main-line railroads near downtown Los Angeles. The speaker’s 1984 consulting report for the Southern California Association of Governments proposed the Corridor...

Urban Policies to Shape a World with Automated Vehicles

February 5, 2025

Thank you to Steve Buckley (MST/MCP ’01), Vice-President of Planning & Advisory Services at Kimley-Horn, who presented “Urban Policies to Shape a World with Automated Vehicles” at a special TRANSOC hosted seminar on Jan. 31, 2025.

Abstract: Steve is passionate about cities, transportation and planning and how emerging technologies can be used to support people-focused planning goals. For the past decade he has been challenging the transportation industry to proactively shape how automated vehicles fit into our cities and our existing...

Compositional Design of Complex Systems: From Autonomy to Future Mobility

February 4, 2025

Thank you to Gioele Zardini, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rudge (1948) and Nancy Allen Assistant Professor, who presented Compositional Design of Complex Systems: From Autonomy to Future Mobility at the Institute of Transportation Studies Transportation Seminar on Friday, January 24, 2025.

Abstract: When designing complex systems, we need to consider multiple trade-offs at various abstraction levels and scales, and choices of single components need to be studied jointly. For instance, the design of future...

The Use of Technology To Improve Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety

October 25, 2024
VIDEO available

Thank you to Linda Hill, Distinguished Professor, Director of Transportation Research and Education for Driving Safety, and Associate Dean for Community Relations at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, UC San Diego, who presented The Use of Technology To Improve Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety at the Transportation Seminar Oct. 25, 2024.

Abstract: Commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) are a crucial part of the U.S. economy, moving 72 percent of freight by weight. Though only comprising 5 percent of vehicles on the road, CMVs...

Transportation Planning in a Time of Transition

November 1, 2024

Thank you to Kate Gordon, CEO, California Forward, who presented Transportation Planning in a Time of Transition at the Transportation Seminar Nov. 1, 2024.

Abstract: The world is in an unprecedented time of transition. New and emerging geopolitical, economic and climate forces are converging at the state-local level to affect every aspect of decision-making. Gordon’s talk will focus on how all these forces are driving California’s leadership on the move away from fossil fuel extraction and toward the electrification of the transportation...

Emerging Aviation Technology: Autonomy

October 18, 2024
VIDEO available

Thank you to Lina Yang, Head of Intelligent Systems, Supernal, who presented Emerging Aviation Technology: Autonomy at the Transportation Seminar Oct. 18, 2024.

Abstract: Urban air mobility (UAM) enables highly automated, cooperative passenger- or cargo-carrying air transportation services in and around urban areas. In order to increase the volume of UAM operation, the key is to understand and enable the “highly automation.” The highly automation does not just apply to vehicle automation but to whole ecosystems, including air traffic services (...

Vertiport Planning for Urban Air Mobility

October 24, 2024

Thank you to Kai Wang, Associate Professor in Smart Transportation, School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, who presented Vertiport Planning for Urban Air Mobility at the Transportation Seminar Oct. 24, 2024.

Abstract: Electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicles enable Urban Aerial Mobility (UAM). This paper optimizes the number, locations and capacities of vertiports in UAM systems, while capturing interdependencies between strategic vertiport deployment, tactical operations and passenger demand. The model includes a “tractable part...

Advancing Towards a Smarter and More Sustainable Transportation System

October 11, 2024

Thank you to Corey Harper, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, who presented Advancing Towards a Smarter and More Sustainable Transportation System at the Transportation Seminar Oct. 11, 2024.

Abstract: Transitioning to more livable and sustainable smart cities requires improving today’s transportation system to be smarter, safer, and more resilient. In this talk, Dr. Harper will discuss how emerging trends in transportation could change the way we envision our cities and communities and the importance...

Perspectives on Transportation Equity

October 4, 2024

Thank you to Jesus Barajas, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, who presented Perspectives on Transportation Equity at the Transportation Seminar Oct. 4, 2024.

Abstract: Dying in a traffic crash was the fourth leading cause of death in 2019. Pedestrian and bicycle fatalities have been rapidly increasing over the last dozen years, with particularly sharp increases in deaths since the onset of Covid-19. Federal and state level safety policies have adopted a Safe System approach to address the safety...