ITS Berkeley

Mission and Mix: A Study of the Changing Tasks and Staffing Requirements the California Department of Transportation

Jones, David W.
Taylor, Brian D.
1987

This study examines the organizational capabilities and staff skills that will be needed to execute the changing mission of the . California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). It is an engineering development study in the sense that it is concerned with the professional know-how that Caltrans will need in the future. It is, at the same time, a strategic planning study in the sense that strategic planning is the art of positioning organizations to both meet and make change.

Charging up the Central Coast: Policy solutions to improve electric vehicle charging access in Watsonville

Sarode, Shruti, MS
Segal, Katie, MPP
Elkind, Ethan, JD
2023

California's goal to eliminate internal combustion engine sales by 2035 poses challenges for lower- and moderate-income residents, hindering their access to electric vehicles (EVs). Barriers include limited EV charging stations, exacerbated by lower home ownership and inadequate grid infrastructure in lower-income communities. To address this, UC Berkeley School of Law's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) partnered with the City of Watsonville. Due to its location, demographics, and ambitious policy goals, Watsonville represents a potential model and case study for...

How to Evaluate and Minimize the Risk of COVID-19 Transmission within Public Transportation Systems

Huang, Yiduo, MSc
Shen, Zuo-Jun, PhD
2022

During the COVID-19 outbreak, serious concerns were raised over the risk of spreading the infection on public transportation systems. As the pandemic recedes it will be important to determine optimal timetable design to minimize the risk of new infections as systems resume full service. In this study, we developed an integrated optimization model for service line reopening plans and timetable design. Our model combines a space-time passenger network flow problem and compartmental epidemiological models for each vehicle and platform in the transit system. The algorithm can help policy...

Who Has Access to E-Commerce During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Sacramento Region? Implications for Future E-Commerce and Shopping Tripmaking

Forscher, Teddy
Deakin, Elizabeth, PhD
Walker, Joan, PhD
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
2021

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about dramatic shifts in travel, including shopping trips. We investigated changes in eshopping for food and non-food items by supplementing an April to May 2018 household travel survey (n=3,956 households) conducted by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) with a May 2020 follow-on panel survey (n=313 households) during one week early in the pandemic. Results demonstrate that impacts from added pickups and deliveries in the SACOG region during the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic were limited and did not overwhelm curb management at...

Women and Cycling: A Case Study of the Use of San Francisco Bike Lanes

Deakin, Elizabeth
Bhamidi, Vidya
Funaki, Dorry
Colani, Tasha
2018

This paper presents a case study of the use of San Francisco bike lanes with a focus on women. Bike counts and intercept surveys of cyclists at three locations in San Francisco’s SoMa District were complemented by focus groups with cyclists, particularly women cyclists, and brief interviews with non-cyclists. Consistent with other US studies, we find that white men are disproportionately represented among the cyclists we observed, and that women bike less and bike shorter distances. However, at least in the SoMa sample, women are more likely to bike to work than men. Cyclists included...

A Report on the Future of Electric Aviation

Seeley, Brien A., MD
Seeley, Damon
Raka, Jasenka, PhD
2020

UC Berkeley has long been known as the home of important societal movements. In early October 2019, the electric aircraft movement came to UC Berkeley (UCB) courtesy of UCB’s Institute for Transportation Studies (ITS) and the College of Engineering. At what some have called the “Woodstock of Aviation”—the Sustainable Aviation Symposium (SAS) convened leaders of that movement from across the globe for two full days in UC’s Pauley Ballroom to explore how to solve important societal-enviro-economic issues in transportation with breakthroughs and innovations in high-tech physics, chemistry and...

Renaming and Removal of Harmful Names and Monuments on State Transportation Right of Way

Deakin, Elizabeth, PhD
Munoz, Jasmin
Son, Daisy
2022

The objectives of this study are to formulate policies and practices that can be used to identify place names that have derogatory or racist linkages and provide recommendations on how to rename or remove harmful names and monuments in the California transportation right of way (ROW). This study was requested by the California Department of Transportation and conducted through the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies Technology Transfer Program.

Small and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (SB/DBE) Issues in Caltrans Contract and Bid Process

Tommelein, Iris D. PhD
Gazzaniga, Tyler
2022

This Preliminary Investigation document, on one hand, outlines challenges encountered by SB/DBEs in the process of getting certified, entering into a contract, executing on projects or delivering services, and sustaining or growing their business. On the other hand, it summarizes OCR’s current ongoing efforts that are aiming to expand contracting with SB/DBEs. Along the way it identifies opportunities that warrant more in-depth investigation for OCR to target its programming and resource allocation as it aims to reduce obstacles or otherwise improve the ability of SBs/DBEs to successfully...

Calculating and Forecasting Induced Vehicle-Miles of Travel Resulting from Highway Projects: Findings and Recommendations from an Expert Panel

Deakin, Elizabeth
Dock, Fred
Garry, Gordon
Handy, Susan
McNally, Michael
Sall, Elizabeth
Skabardonis, Alex
Walker, Joan
Rheinhardt, Karl
2020

In the context of implementation of SB 743 (Steinberg, 2013), staff at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) have been developing guidance documents on how to calculate induced travel, working with their counterparts at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR). OPR’s technical advisory discusses two methods for estimating induced travel: an approach based on the application of travel models and an approach using elasticities drawn from the peer-reviewed literature (such as the National Center for Sustainable...

Advancing the Science of Travel Demand Forecasting

Walker, Joan L.
Chatman, Daniel
Daziano, Ricardo
Erhardt, Gregory
Gao, Song
Mahmassani, Hani
Ory, David
Sall, Elizabeth
Bhat, Chandra
Chim, Nicholas
Daniels, Clint
Gardner, Brian
Kressner, Josephine
Miller, Eric
Pereira, Francisco
Picado, Rosella
Hess, Stephane
Axhausen, Kay
Bareinboim, Elias
2019

Travel demand forecasting models play an important role in guiding policy, planning, and design of transportation systems. There is no shortage of literature critiquing the accuracy of model forecasts (see, for example, Pickrell, 1989; Wachs, 1990; Pickrell, 1992; Flyvbjerg, Skamris Holm, and Buhl 2005; Richmond, 2005; Flyvbjerg, 2007; Bain, 2009; Parthasarathi and Levinson, 2010; Welde and Odeck, 2011; Hartgen, 2013; Nicolaisen and Driscoll, 2014; Schmitt, 2016; Odeck and Welde, 2017, and Voulgaris, 2019), not to mention several high-profile lawsuits (Saulwick 2014, Stacey 2015, Rubin...