ITS Berkeley

MAKING DO: How Working Families in Seven U.S. Metropolitan Areas Trade Off Housing Costs and Commuting Times

Cervero, Robert
Chapple, Karen
Landis, John
Wachs, Martin
Duncan, Michael
Scholl, Patricia Lynn
Blumenberg, Evelyn
2006

This report explores how working families in seven major metropolitan regions (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas–Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Baltimore–Washington) tradeoff housing and commuting costs, and how their tradeoffs differ from those of wealthier families. It is organized into five sections. Beyond this brief introduction, the report consists of five parts. Section 2 introduces the PUMS (Public Use Microdata Sample) database, upon which this analysis is based, and presents the procedures used to identify the seven case study metropolitan regions....

Earmarking in the U.S. Department of Transportation Research Programs

Brach, Ann
Wachs, Martin
2005

US Department of Transportation research funds historically have been awarded on the basis of competition and merit review. Over the last fifteen years, however, transportation research programs have seen dramatic growth in earmarking, a practice in which Congress designates research funds for specific institutions named in legislation. This paper discusses driving forces for and potential risks associated with this practice and presents data on earmarking trends from five USDOT agencies.

Synthesis of State-Level Planning and Strategic Actions on Automated Vehicles: Lessons and Policy Guidance for California

Wong, Stephen
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
2020

This synthesis provides a summary and comparative analysis of actions states across the United States are taking inresponse to automated vehicles (AVs). The research focuses on state-level stakeholder forums (e.g., task forces, committees) and state-level strategic actions (e.g., studies, initiatives, programs) initiated by a state legislature, agovernor, or a state agency. The analysis found that AV stakeholder forums and strategic actions address a diverse set offocus areas, but they pay minimal attention to the implications of AVs on the environment, public health, social equity, land...

Supercharged? Electricity Demand and the Electrification of Transportation in California

Burlig, Fiona, PhD
Bushnell, James PhD
Rapson, David PhD
Wolfram, Catherine PhD
2020

The rapid electrification of the transportation fleet in California raises important questions about the reliability, cost, and environmental implications for the electric grid. A crucial first element to understanding these implications is an accurate picture of the extent and timing of residential electricity use devoted to EVs. Although California is now home to over 650,000 electric vehicles (EVs), less than 5% of these vehicles are charged at home using a meter dedicated to EV use. This means that state policy has had to rely upon very incomplete data on residential charging use. This...

A Futures Market for Demand Responsive Travel Pricing

Fournier, Nicholas, PhD
Patire, Anthony, PhD
Skabardonis, Alexander, PhD
2023

Dynamic toll pricing based on demand can increase transportation revenue while also incentivizing travelers to avoid peak traffic periods. However, given the unpredictable nature of traffic, travelers lack the information necessary to accurately predict congestion, so dynamic pricing has minimal effect on demand. Dynamic toll pricing also poses equity concerns for those who lack other travel options. This research explores a potential remedy to these concerns by using a simple “futures market” pricing mechanism in which travelers can lock in a toll price for expected trips by prepaying for...

Low-Income Student Bus Pass Pilot Project Evaluation: Final Report

McDonald, Noreen
Librera, Sally
Deakin, Elizabeth
Wachs, Martin
2003

In August 2002, AC Transit began offering free bus passes to low-income middle and high school students. At the same time, the agency reduced the cost of its monthly youth pass from $27 to $15. This dramatic reduction in costs for student riders resulted from a grassroots advocacy campaign that successfully focused local political attention on school transportation in an area where school busing had largely been eliminated for middle school and high school students. The creation of the program drew together state and local elected officials, youth advocates, schools, and transportation...

Matroid Intersection and its application to a Multiple Depot, Multiple TSP

Rathinam, Sivakumar
Sengupta, Raja
2006

This paper extends the Held-Karp’s lower bound available for a single Travelling Salesman Problem to the following symmetric Multiple Depot, Multiple Travelling Salesman Problem (MDMTSP): Given k salesman that start at different depts, k terminals and n destinations, the problem is to choose paths for each of the salesmen so that (1) each vehicle starts at its respective depot, visits atleast one destination and reaches any one of the terminals not visited by other vehicles, (2) each destination is visited by exactly one vehicle and (3) the cost of the paths is a minimum among all possible...

Assessing the Functionality of Transit and Shared Mobility Systems after Earthquakes

Soga, Kenichi, PhD
Comfort, Louise, PhD
Zhao, Bingyu, PhD
Tang, Yili (Kelly), PhD
Han, Tianyu
2024

Located within the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, California's transportation infrastructure, especially in the Bay Area, is susceptible to earthquakes. A review of current research and stakeholder interviews revealed a growing awareness of emergency preparedness among local jurisdictions and transit agencies in recent years. However, many have yet to formalize and publish their recovery plans. This study introduces an agent-based multimodal transportation simulation tool to enhance post-earthquake transportation resilience. Integrating a road network simulator with a metro...

Environmental Justice & Transportation: A Citizen's Handbook

Cairns, Shannon
Greig, Jessica
Wachs, Martin
2003

Environmental justice is an increasingly important element of policy making in transportation. It is not specific to any mode of transportation, particular community, or single policy issue. It is fundamentally about fairness toward the disadvantaged and often addresses the exclusion of racial and ethnic minorities from decision making. The federal government has identified environmental justice as an important goal in transportation, and local and regional governments must incorporate environmental justice into transportation programs. Because ideas about justice differ between...

A Variable Formulation of Kinematic Waves: Solution Methods

Daganzo, Carlos F.
2003

This paper presents improved solution methods for kinematic wave trafficc problems with concave flow-density relations. As explained in part I of this work, the solution of a kinematic wave problem is a set of continuum least-cost paths in space-time. The least cost to reach a point is the vehicle number. The idea here consists in overlaying a dense but discrete network with appropriate costs in the solution region and then using a shortest-path algorithm to estimate vehicle numbers. With properly designed networks, this procedure is more accurate than existing methods and can be applied...