Environment

Zero-Emission Bus Implementation Guidebook for California Transit Fleets

Lipman, Timothy, PhD
Rogers, Emily, MS
2023

Transit bus operations in California are experiencing new challenges due to economic conditions and the ongoing global pandemic. A confluence of factors has created a focus on this critical public-needs serving industry, due to state and local efforts to reduce emissions of pollutants and climate-changing gases. Transit bus operations in California provide essential and additional useful services that offer critical mobility to needy populations (elderly and handicapped) as well as many other groups for whom transit buses provide the most economical, convenient, and low-emission options....

Transit to California’s National Parks: An Assessment of Visitation and Sociodemographic Barriers

Zhuang, Winnie
2024

California boasts nine national parks that are home to a plethora of recreational, cultural, and professional opportunities. It is no surprise that national parks draw in millions of recreational and non-recreational trips from across the country and internationally, however how visitors choose to arrive at these federal lands is a major consideration for land management, policy, and infrastructure decisions. According to the National Park Service’s Visitor Use Statistics, an overwhelming majority of visitors arrive by automobile. Alternative transportation options to national parks in...

Airports and the General Conformity Process

Amin, Ratna S.
2001

Air quality conformity refers to the process wherein federally supported plans, programs and projects are shown to meet the air quality requirements of the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) and the applicable State Implementation Plan (SIP). Transportation conformity refers to actions approved or funded by the Federal Highway Administration or the Federal Transit Administration. General conformity refers to projects approved or funded by other federal agencies. Airport projects are usually subject to general conformity rules. The general conformity process has provoked several contradictory...

Linkages Between Transportation Planning and the Environment

Wachs, Martin
1999

Transportation investments have historically been among society’s most important contributors to environmental improvement, but today transportation programs and projects are more often of concern as sources of major environmental problems. Over the past thirty years, since the enactment of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and the first Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), the relationship between transportation planning and environmental policy making has continuously become ever more complex and problematic. Until about 1835, when early public transport was just being...

Mitigating Exposure and Climate Change Impacts from Transportation Projects: Environmental Justice-Centered Decision-Support Framework and Tool

Horvath, Arpad, PhD
Greer, Fiona, PhD
Apte, Joshua, PhD
Rakas, Jasenka, PhD
2023

California must operate and maintain an effective and efficient transportation infrastructure while ensuring that the health of communities and the planet are not compromised. By assessing transportation projects using a life-cycle perspective, all relevant emission sources and activities from the construction, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life phases can be analyzed and mitigated. This report presents a framework to assess the life-cycle human health and climate change impacts from six types of transportation projects: (1) Roadways; (2) Marine ports; (3) Logistical distribution...

Integrating Traffic Network Analysis and Communication Network Analysis at a Regional Scale to Support More Efficient Evacuation in Response to a Wildfire Event

Soga, Kenichi
Comfort, Louise
Zhao, Bingyu
Lorusso, Paola
Soysal, Sena
2021

As demonstrated by the Camp Fire evacuation, communications (city-to-city, city-to-residents) play important roles in coordinating traffic operations and safeguarding region-wide evacuation processes in wildfire events. This collaborative report across multiple domains (fire, communication and traffic), documents a series of simulations and findings of the wildfire evacuation process for resource-strapped towns in Northern California. It consists of: (1) meteorological and vegetation-status dependent fire spread simulation (cellular automata model); (2) agency-level and agency-to-residents...

Vehicle Manufacturing Futures in Transportation Life-cycle Assessment

Chester, Mikhail
Horvath, Arpad
2011

Vehicle manufacturing effects are critical life-cycle components in the total costs of vehicle travel and future manufacturing processes should be evaluated for travel forecasts. With efforts to introduce lightweight materials, increased fuel economy, and new technologies such as electric vehicles, understanding the energy and environmental effects of these expected vehicles is critical. Current vehicle manufacturing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions are summarized from existing research for passenger (conventional gasoline vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, aircraft, high-speed...

Vehicle Manufacturing Futures in Transportation Life-cycle Assessment

Chester, Mikhail
Horvath, Arpad
2011

Vehicle manufacturing effects are critical life-cycle components in the total costs of vehicle travel and future manufacturing processes should be evaluated for travel forecasts. With efforts to introduce lightweight materials, increased fuel economy, and new technologies such as electric vehicles, understanding the energy and environmental effects of these expected vehicles is critical. Current vehicle manufacturing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions are summarized from existing research for passenger (conventional gasoline vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, aircraft, high-speed...

How Well Do New K-12 Public School Sites in California Incorporate Mitigation Measures Known to Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled?

Vincent, Jeffrey M., PhD
Maves, Sydney
Thompson, Amy
2022

California law (SB 743) requires school districts to measure the impact of school construction on the production of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and identify feasible mitigation measures that eliminate or substantially reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) generated. This study analyzes 301 new schools constructed between 2008-2018 with respect to four VMT mitigation measures identified by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) known to minimize VMT (proximity to high quality transit areas, proximity to roads with bicycle facilities, walkability scores, and...

Summary of Interviews with California Metropolitan Planning Organizations About Senate Bill 375 and the Sustainable Communities Strategies

Amini, Jazmin
Kerchof, Clay
Mathews, Laurel
Thompson, Mathew
2021

In July and August of 2020, a research team of four graduate students from UC Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning conducted interviews with directors and other high-level staff representing several of California’s metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to gather information on the achievements and challenges associated with the implementation of SB 375. Key takeaways from this effort include: 1) MPOs are not requesting additional authorities or oversight of local land use decisions; 2) MPOs use funding as “carrots” to incentivize local plans to align with regional goals...