Publications

This study examined the impact of replacing the Vermont state fuels tax with a revenue-neutral, mileage-based user fee using mileage and fuel economy data for over 300,000 registered passenger vehicles.

This dissertation introduces new novel data-driven coordination techniques through intelligent controlled charging applied to drayage trucks operations and indirect controlled charging by proposing innovative pricing strategies for LD, MD, and HD EVs.

This dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation into the co-optimization of vehicle trajectories and traffic signal timing at isolated signalized intersections.

In this dissertation, advanced eco-trajectory planning algorithms have been developed to address four challenges.

This dissertation focuses on the assessment of technical feasibility and economic workability of BEVs in a variety of heavy-duty on- and off-road applications.In the on-road HDV segment, battery electric trucks (BETs) have become commercially available in recent years, but their ability to operate at the same level as conventional diesel trucks was unclear.

This mixed-methods dissertation explores questions related to the governance landscape and the institutional and political factors that surround highway expansion projects.

This study investigates the potential ramifications of e-commerce on shopping behaviors, travel, and residential deliveries by the year 2050. The study underscores the significance of contemplating the implementation of clean energy fleets and effective transportation strategies to mitigate the negative externalities related to shopping activities.

The report explores the necessity to correctly estimate the preference for vehicle holdings of households as well as the vehicle miles traveled by vehicle body- and fuel-type to project future Vehicle Miles Traveled changes and mobile source emission levels. The report presents the application of a utility-based model for multiple discreteness that combines multiple vehicle types with usage in an integrated model, specifically the MDCEV model.

This project uses high-frequency data from the Los Angeles metropolitan area combined with an instrument that varies spatially and temporally to estimate the causal impact of an additional vehicle mile traveled on travel times. The researchers estimate that at peak times an additional trip reduces speed by, on average, 0.22%. They find the optimal toll at peak times is 33 cents per mile, with the toll being lower, even zero, off-peak.

This study explores interest in, and the challenges faced by transit agencies and operators in the adoption of open-loop payment systems.

This study helps understand how the anticipated emergence of CAVs will affect various aspects of society and transportation, including travel demand, vehicle miles traveled, energy consumption, and emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. The research team designed a set of future system configurations under the California Statewide Travel Demand Model framework to simulate scenarios for the deployment of passenger CAVs in California by 2050.

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. 

As e-retailers compete with increasingly consumer-focused service, urban freight witnesses a significant increase in associated distribution costs and negative externalities including greenhouse gas emissions advancing global climate change, as well as criteria pollutant emissions worsening local air quality and thus affecting those living close to logistics clusters. Thus, the author considers the potential of e-commerce to render economically viable, environmentally efficient, and socially equitable urban goods flow, which is pertinent to understand the opportunities and challenges associated with urban freight in light of the increasingly consumer-focused e-commerce distribution.

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.

In this dissertation, a cooperative framework for mixed traffic is proposed at both macroscopic and microscopic levels.

This report considers the role of local option sales taxes (LOSTs) for transportation in influencing spending patterns in regional transportation plans adopted by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs)in California’s four largest metropolitan regions.

The potential for automated vehicles (AVs) to reduce parking in central cities has generated much excitement among urban planners. However, a reduction in parking could be accompanied by increased demand for curbside DO/PU space with related movements to enter and exit the flow of traffic.This study uses a microscopic road traffic model with local travel activity data to simulate personal AV parking scenarios in San Francisco’s downtown central business district (CBD).

This project is to investigate how accessibility of city blocks is quantified through the transport systems and real traffic flow data from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. The authors investigate the reachability problem and provide a solution with a functional system that is capable of visualizing the reachability map (isochrone)