The National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) provides national leadership in advancing environmentally sustainable transportation through cutting-edge research, direct policy engagement, and education of our future leaders. The Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis (ITS-Davis) leads the NCST in partnership with California State University, Long Beach; Georgia Institute of Technology; Texas Southern University; the University of California, Riverside; the University of Southern California; and the University of Vermont.
The NCST was established in 2013 after being selected in a national competition to serve as one of five national transportation centers as part of the University Transportation Centers (UTC) program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). In 2016, the NCST successfully re-competed for the opportunity to continue serving as one of the U.S. DOT’s seven National UTCs and is addressing the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act research priority area of Preserving the Environment. In 2023, the NCST successfully re-competed for a third time and continues to serve as one of the U.S. DOT’s five National UTCs, addressing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) research priority area of Preserving the Environment.
To effect rapid and substantial change in the U.S. DOT’s research priority area of Preserving the Environment, the NCST’s research program is working toward equitable decarbonization of the transportation sector through high-priority projects that inform policy in the public and private sectors and that address the needs of diverse communities. The NCST addresses the challenge of accelerating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while enhancing transportation equity. Our work contributes to the fundamental policy transformation essential to accelerating decarbonization in a way that ensures that the benefits of the transportation system are broadly distributed and that the well-being of people in overburdened and historically disadvantaged communities is substantially improved. To address these challenges, the NCST’s research, education, and engagement programs are organized around the following high-priority themes:
The NCST receives funding from the U.S. DOT, the California Department of Transportation, the California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and sources in the States of Georgia, Texas, and Vermont.