Safety

California’s Freeway Service Patrol Program: Management Information System Annual Report Fiscal Year 2019-20

Mauch, Michael
Skabardonis, Alex
2021

The Freeway Service Patrol (FSP) is an incident management program implemented by Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol and local partner agencies to quickly detect and assist disabled vehicles and reduce non-recurring congestion along the freeway during peak commute hours. The first FSP program was piloted in Los Angeles, and was later expanded to other regions by state legislation in 1991. As of June 2019, there were fourteen participating FSP Programs operating in California, deploying 338 tow trucks and covering over 1,806 (centerline) miles of congested California freeways. The...

Wildfire Evacuation Planning Can Be Greatly Enhanced by Considering Fire Progression, Communication Systems, and Other Dynamic Factors

Soga, Kenichi, PhD
Comfort, Louise, PhD
Zhao, Bingyu, PhD
Lorusso, Paola, MSc
Soysal, sena
2021

Wildfires have become a perpetual crisis for communities across California. For life-threatening wildfires, mass evacuation often becomes the only viable option to protect lives. Yet, looking back at recent events, including the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, there are significant challenges associated with the evacuation process, such as multi-agency coordination, agency-resident communication, and management of extraordinarily high amounts of traffic within a short period of time. Currently, emergency planners use evacuation models that are typically based on existing...

Mobility Challenges Facing Older Adults: A Contra Costa County Case Study

Ragland, David R.
McMillan, Tracy
Doggett, Sarah
2019

Meeting the mobility needs of an aging population is one of the most substantial challenges facing California in the coming decades. The number of residents age 60 and above will grow to 13.9 million by 2050, representing over 25% of the state’s population. Meanwhile, the number of residents age 85 and above is expected to increase by over 70% between 2010 and 2030. Many older adults, who have primarily been auto dependent, will reduce or stop driving due to medical and non-medical reasons. Declines in age-related physical functions may also reduce the ability to walk to access goods and...

Intelligent Intersections Reduce Crashes and Will Support the Safe Introduction of Autonomous Vehicles

Kurzhanskiy, Alex
Varaiya, Pravin
2018

Intersections are dangerous. In the U.S., approximately 40% of all crashes, 50% of serious collisions, and 20% of fatalities occur in intersections. Intersections are challenging due to complex interactions among pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles; absence of lane markings; difficulty in determining who has the right of way; blind spots; and illegal movements (e.g., vehicles running red lights). Many cities have developed Vision Zero plans seeking to eliminate traffic injuries and deaths through modifications to road infrastructure, such as adding bike lanes and pedestrian refuge islands....

A Case Study: Testing Wildfire Evacuation Strategies for Communities in Marin County, California

Soga, Kenichi, PhD
Comfort, Louise, PhD
Li, Pengshun, MSc
Zhao, Bingyu, PhD
Lorusso, Paola, MSc
2024

Many small, resource-strapped communities located in areas vulnerable to wildfire don’t have resources to conduct dedicated evacuation studies and many do not consider the impact of background traffic (i.e., normal traffic rather than evacuating traffic) on evacuation. In response, we explored the performance of several generalizable evacuation strategies with background traffic for representative communities in Marin County, including the Ross Valley, Woodacre Bowl, Tamalpais Valley, and an area near Highway 101 and Ignacio Boulevard in Novato (hereafter referred to as ‘Novato...

Role of Trust and Compassion in Willingness to Share Mobility and Sheltering Resources in Evacuations: A Case Study of the 2017 and 2018 California Wildfires

Wong, Stephen D.
Walker, Joan L., PhD
Shaheen, Susan A, PhD
2020

Advances in the sharing economy – such as transportation network companies (e.g., Lyft, Uber) and home sharing (e.g., Airbnb) – have coincided with the increasing need for evacuation resources. While peer-to-peer sharing under normal circumstances often suffers from trust barriers, disaster literature indicates that trust and compassion often increase following disasters, improving recovery through additional resources and support. We hypothesize that trust and compassion could trigger willingness to share transportation and sheltering resources during an evacuation.

Electric Two-Wheelers in China: Analysis ofEnvironmental, Safety, and Mobility Impacts

Cherry, Christopher R.
2007

Electric powered two-wheel bicycles, while extremely popular in China, have been recently banned by policy makers due to safety, congestion, and environmental concerns. This study investigates the tremendous growth of electric two wheel bicycles in China and compares and quantifies their environmental and safety impacts with the impacts of alternative modes of transportation, such as traditional bicycles, public transportation, or personal cars. The research also analyzes the benefits of electric two wheel bicycles, such as increased mobility and access to opportunities. Additionally, the...

What Can You Do with a County Road that You Can’t Afford to Maintain?

Jones, David
2017

Many rural county road networks were created at a time when funding was greater and rural populations were often larger than they are today. Eventually, surface treatments such as chip seals or thin asphalt were applied to many of these gravel roads to provide them with an all‐weather surface. These treated surfaces were also desirable because conventional gravel roads are dusty, often develop wash boarding quickly, and have high rates of gravel loss—which result in unsafe and uncomfortable conditions and greater damage to vehicles and crops. A solution to this problem is called ‘unpaving...

User Acceptance and Public Perception Regarding Automated Driving Systems

Motamedi, Sanaz
Wang, Pei
Chan, Ching-Yao
2018

Fully Automated Driving System (ADS) is one of the most innovative and fundamentally disruptive changes in transportation. This technology has the potential to resolve or mitigate current transportation problems, including reducing traffic accidents, congestion, energy consumption, and pollution. However, the extent of these impacts will depend heavily on public perception and widespread adoption of ADSs. To gain a better understanding of user acceptance and public perception related to ADS, extensive interviews were conducted with Tesla end-users who have experience using partial ADS (i.e...

Electric Bike Use in China and Their Impacts on the Environment, Safety, Mobility and Accessibility

Cherry, Christopher
2007

Chinese cities have a long legacy of bicycle use due to relatively low incomes, dense urban development, and short trip lengths. Because of tremendous economic growth resulting in increased motorization and spatial expansion of cities, trips are becoming longer and more difficult to make by bicycle. As a result, electric powered twowheelers have risen in popularity over the past five years. Touted as environmentally friendly vehicles, they are capable of traveling 450 kilometers on a single charge and emit zero tailpipe emissions. However, many cities are banning electric twowheelers from...