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.
Traffic congestion is a significant problem in major metropolitan areas in the United States. According to the Urban Mobility Report, in 2019 commuters on average lost about 54 hours in traffic congestion. The researchers developed three approaches to rideshare routing and evaluated their effectiveness in combating traffic congestion.
This policy brief summarizes the key findings and policy implications of recent research from UC Davis that assesses the landscape for freight automation and its potential labor impacts in the freight and warehousing sector.
The researchers synthesized their findings into a set of best practices for science communication and considered how scientific reputation affects engagement in the policy process.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis reviewed the empirical research on induced travel to understand the likely effects of adding roadway capacity in a variety of contexts.
With Calculator use increasing, the UC Davis researchers initiated a project to update the Calculator and improve its functionality based on recent data and empirical research.
The proliferation of digital devices and online services over the past decades has changed how people travel, enabling new mobility options and offering greater opportunities for e-commerce and telework. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers modified their plan to understand new trends, such as increased remote work, online/virtual meetings, and e-shopping, as well as changes in travel.
Researchers at UC Davis combined aggregate historical crash data analysis and micro transportation simulation to examine the safety impacts of four different intelligent vehicle technologies.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis developed a forecasting model to quantify the potential impacts of future e-commerce on emissions and transport activity under different scenarios with assumptions about penetration levels of various technologies (e.g., electrification, rush deliveries, crowdshipping, and automation/efficiency improvements).
The researchers assessed whether the LCA framework was useful in identifying whether a complete street delivered, or was likely to deliver, the intended performance and benefits, and the social and health conditions of the neighborhoods receiving the benefits.
Researchers at the University of Southern California developed a distributed algorithm for offering incentives to organizations to make socially optimal routing decisions designed to lower the traffic flow of congested roads without creating new congestion in other parts of the road network.
Researchers at the UC Davis surveyed households and bike-share users in the Sacramento region and used both behavioral modeling and market segmentation approaches to identify opportunities for increasing demand while improving access for low-income groups.
This brief discusses studies highlighting the institutional challenges the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach face while working with a multitude of stakeholders and regulatory bodies to address both environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis surveyed California residents about their personal attitudes and preferences, lifestyles, travel patterns, vehicle ownership, adoption and use of new mobility services, and personal and household characteristics, and this brief summarizes the results of multiple studies that have used this dataset to generate insights into the impact of ridehailing services on the use of other travel modes and on car ownership prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis reviewed 10 recent studies of the total cost of ownership of battery-electric trucks, now and in the future, compared to a baseline diesel truck to derive general findings that are robust across all the studies.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis evaluated three innovative mobility pilot programs in the San Joaquin Valley to understand the participant characteristics and outcomes of each pilot.
Researchers at the University of Southern California developed, analyzed, and evaluated an innovative approach to alleviate highway bottleneck congestion, which includes issuing variable-speed advisories and lane-change recommendations when needed to the upstream vehicles, as well as ramp control to manage incoming traffic, while accounting for inaccuracies in traffic data and road information and the complex behavior of human driving.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside aimed to establish a test method to determine brake activity of a heavy-duty vehicle under both dynamometer tests and on-road tests.
Microtransit can potentially offer greater efficiency and more equitable service than ride-hailing services, and it may fill gaps in traditional transit services. Aiming to fill this gap, in 2021, researchers at the University of California, Davis conducted focus groups and an online survey of SmaRT Ride adopters and users of other means of transportation in the Sacramento area.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis assessed the possibilities for and barriers to providing charging infrastructure for heavy-duty, long-haul trucks at rest areas in California.
A research team at the University of California, Davis examined the track record of the past decade for clues as to why cellulosic fuels that can have a significantly lower carbon footprint per unit energy failed to materialize at commercial scale, and looked forward to 2030 to point to how current policies are likely to still fall short in delivering low-carbon biofuels that can reach scales needed for these hard-to-decarbonize sectors.
