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.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology created a semi-automated process for developing an all-streets network to be used in TDM applications to more accurately model bicycle travel.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis and the non-profit organization Mobility Development reviewed evaluations of the travel, emissions, and equity effects of past US carsharing programs and analyzed the evolution of carsharing and its various business models.
Researchers surveyed all 50 state departments of transportation and conducted in-depth interviews with agency experts to understand the implementation status of complete streets asset management, identify what state transportation agencies need to improve their asset management plans, and develop a road map for implementing complete streets asset management.
UC Davis researchers adapted a previously developed GIS planning toolbox to be used outside of California, collaborating with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission to develop a case study for using this toolbox for EV infrastructure planning in the Greater Philadelphia region.
Researchers at UC Davis used the publicly available 2012 CHTS and 2017 NHTS California add-on data to examine the impact of methodological differences on the changes in mode shares over this five-year period and conducted a preliminary investigation into the role of demographic and other factors in these changes.
Concrete is also responsible for over 8% of annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. As population and urbanization increase and existing infrastructure deteriorates, demand for production of concrete will increase, and with it, the environmental burdens from its production. The models used to determine environmental impacts of producing concrete have considerable uncertainty and variability. This makes it challenging to identify the most effective means of mitigating these burdens.
Researchers at UC Davis developed an initial methodology to evaluate implications of design decisions on the environmental impacts of concrete systems using a multi-criteria selection process to assist decision-makers.
Researchers reviewed the existing literature on autonomous vehicles (AVs) in shared and private ownership scenarios and assessed the benefits inherent to AVs (regardless of ownership model) as well as of the benefits and challenges of AV-sharing in rural areas relative to urban areas.
Policies developed to support drivers of used PEVs may ultimately attract a broader group of people into the PEV market, as used vehicles are less expensive than new ones. Researchers at the University of California, Davis used aggregated data at the zip code level to understand where buyers of second-hand PEVs are located, and to explore differences in the location and characteristics of regions with more original owners vs. second owners of PEVs.
Researchers examined the possibility of ride-sharing being able to mitigate traffic congestion by developing a two-stage algorithm to solve the routing problem with ride-share in real-time within a context where ride-sharing drivers are traveling toward their own destinations while making detours to serve passengers with flexible pickup and drop-off locations.
To understand current climate adaptation workforce development needs, researchers at the University of Vermont surveyed state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations about training needs and opportunities at their agencies and catalogued climate adaptation graduate and certificate programs at universities around the country to assess whether these programs aligned with identified needs.
Researchers at the University of Southern California looked at case studies of ten distressed malls in California’s metropolitan areas to assess their potential for mixed-use development, including housing.
California has set goals for transitioning the freight sector to near-zero-emission and zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). California offers several incentive programs to encourage adoption of ZEVs, but purchase decisions are driven by complex factors beyond simple purchase price. Researchers at UC Davis deployed a stated-preference survey of fleet and carrier companies to collect information about vehicle purchase preferences and how they might be influenced by various incentive programs.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis conducted a review of practices in curbside management, and they conducted simulations to evaluate the impact of different management and design strategies on travel time, congestion, vehicle travel, and emissions in residential, commercial, and mixed-use neighborhoods in San Francisco.
This policy brief examines the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles in California between 2014 and 2016, both spatially and temporally, to gain a better understanding of the technology diffusion process and the effect of technology exposure, while controlling for sociodemographic factors and the effect of PEV incentive programs on PEV adoption in the state.
This policy brief assesses state and local Transportation Network Company taxes across the United States and develops a method of comparing per-ride and percentage taxes in order to the examine the likelihood of these taxes encouraging more sustainable travel.
The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) will rely, ultimately, on the participation of all vehicle buyers. Researchers at UC Davis examined whether the gender similarities in prospective interest in EVs witnessed in California extended to other states that, while generally supportive of California’s EV goals and signatories to many of California’s air quality standards had less supportive policy frameworks, fewer EV sales, and less EV charging infrastructure in 2014.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis examined the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on telecommuting patterns among various socio-demographic groups in the United States.
This policy brief informs policymakers’ efforts to encourage more sustainable travel modes for millennials and sheds light on how millennials might respond to policy interventions.
Researchers at the University of Southern California developed a real-time, distributed algorithm for offering personalized incentives to individual drivers to make socially optimal routing decisions.
