The NCST produces two-page Policy Briefs to help summarize and synthesize findings from its research and to highlight the policy and/or practice implications in an easy-to-understand, accessible style and format.
The Safe Systems Pyramid presented in this policy brief is a tool that incorporates public health principles to evaluate transportation safety policies and interventions. The Safe Systems Pyramid can help transportation practitioners and decision-makers prioritize projects for safety and communicate priorities to the public.
In this project, researchers from the University of California, Davis reviewed key, rapidly implementable strategies to mitigate emissions from cement and concrete used in state funded infrastructure projects.
This policy brief summarizes findings and provides policy implications from research examining ways that companies might adapt to increasingly consumer-focused trends in e-commerce towards rush delivery within strict time windows (expedited logistics).
Researchers from the University of California, Davis gathered surveys from a small sample of transit agencies (N = 21) and found that agencies are interested in open-loop payments, agencies and passengers would likely support it, but that it also presents challenges for agencies and passengers. This policy brief summarizes the findings from that research and provides policy implications.
University of Vermont researchers analyzed national survey data on transportation burdens to evaluate the differences in who experiences transportation burdens in rural versus nonrural areas, the factors that drive these differences, and how to improve mobility and access in rural populations.
This policy brief summarizes findings from the University of Vermont project where researchers sought to answer the question: is the relationship between travel and the built environment the same in urban and rural areas.
A team at the University of California, Davis, conducted a case study in Sacramento, California, to explore bikesharing as an option for connecting affordable housing residents with transit services. This brief summarizes the findings from that research and provides implications for the field.
Researchers examined what makes a feebate policy work and how this strategy can be leveraged to shift US vehicle markets. This research included a review and analysis of feebate mechanisms in European countries.
UC Davis researchers and urban design experts considered factors affecting public micromobility use -- such as secure parking availability and other environmental design features -- in this case study of the Bay Area Rapid Transit heavy rail system. This brief includes ways to integrate micromobility in public transit to improve first- and last-mile connectivity for riders.
Senate Bill (SB) 743 (2013) and its related regulations eliminated automobile level of service (LOS) and replaced it with vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as the primary transportation impact metric for land development projects. The LOS-to-VMT shift was expected to create many challenges for transportation analysts. With those concerns in mind, researchers at the University of California, Davis investigated how local governments have been implementing the LOS-to-VMT shift.
In the U.S., mileage fees, or road user charges, are being explored as an alternative to motor fuel taxes, often called “gas taxes.” Researchers from the University of Vermont Transportation Research Center used data from over 360,000 Vermont vehicles to assess the financial and equity impacts of replacing the Vermont state gas tax with a revenue-neutral mileage fee of 1.5 cents per mile.
To mitigate climate change and air pollution, multiple US states and other countries have been crafting policies aimed at shifting sales from conventional vehicles to plug-in electric vehicles. A key to developing these policies is understanding how financial incentives affect consumers’ decisions to purchase or lease PEVs. To better understand this, researchers at the University of California, Davis, analyzed survey responses from approximately 2,800 California PEV owners.
In this study, researchers from the University of Southern California investigated the adoption of battery electric heavy-duty trucks (BEHDTs) in the short-haul freight movement sector and the drayage industry.
An increasing diversity of vehicle types, paired with a growing demand for PEVs, has major implications for vehicle miles traveled (VMT), air pollution, and emissions. To better understand what is likely to happen, researchers predict household vehicle preference and VMT by vehicle body and fuel type.
Transit-oriented development—higher-density residential or mixed-use development centered around high-quality transit stations—has emerged as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases while increasing housing supply. Researchers at the University of California, Davis completed in-depth case studies of 11 California cities to understand their mix of strategies and how they have needed to reconcile sometimes competing policy goals in advancing transit-oriented development.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis collected GPS-based travel diary data from individual micromobility users from 48 cities in the US and examined their travel behavior and micromobility use patterns. This policy brief summarizes the findings from that research and provides policy implications.
As yet, little is known about the efficacy of e-bike incentive programs in changing travel behavior. To understand the potential of these programs in this area, UC Davis researchers analyzed survey data from rebate recipients in Northern California and evaluated rebate programs for effects of e-bike ownership on travel behavior.
A research team at the University of Southern California collaborated with Lime, an e-scooter company, to analyze Slow Streets programs in the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland. Using two statistical approaches, they examined dockless e-scooter travel at four different times of day and overall weekly and monthly averages of dockless e-scooter trips.
Researchers at UC Davis studied methods and web-based mapping and quantitative analysis tools available to regional and local governments to evaluate the land use efficiency and equity of their policies and plans. The team reviewed 11 web-based tools on their incorporation of VMT, gentrification, equity, land use, and tool accessibility.
By 2030, the state is targeting 90% of passenger miles traveled on TNCs to be fueled by electricity. To support this objective, UC Davis researchers developed an online tool to help gig drivers understand their potential cost savings from EVs.
