All Research Products

The National Center for Sustainable Transportation's primary output from research is reports and white papers. Many projects also produce a Project Brief to summarize and highlight the policy and/or research findings and implications. NCST research also produces journal articles, conference papers, books, dissertations, theses, presentations, and posters. The NCST has also created various tools that can be used by policymakers and practitioners, such as models, calculators, and planning tools.

Understanding Real-World Brake Activity: A Key to Assessing Non-Tailpipe Emission Sources

Research Product Type
Research Report
This study investigates the impact of vehicle brake activity on mobile-source particulate matter (PM) emissions at signalized intersections using a multi-modal data collection approach. The research integrates LiDAR-based trajectory detection, roadside camera monitoring, drone surveillance, and in-vehicle sensor data to analyze braking behaviors and their associated emissions.

Dataset: Median Barriers

Research Product Type
Data
This is the dataset for project "Wildlife Connectivity and Which Median Barrier Designs Provide the Most Effective Permeability for Wildlife Crossings" (UCD-CT-FAST-085).

Wildlife Connectivity and Which Median Barrier Designs Provide the Most Effective Permeability for Wildlife Crossings

Research Product Type
Research Report
Because of their position in the center of the traveled right-of-way, median barriers could affect wildlife movement across the right-of-way, decreasing wildlife connectivity. This project team coordinated and met with staff from several Caltrans Districts to gain understanding of their issues related to median barriers and wildlife permeability.

The Safe Systems Pyramid

Research Product Type
Policy Brief
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.

Advanced Battery Technologies: Bus, Heavy-Duty Vocational Truck, and Construction Machinery Applications

Research Product Type
Research Report
This study provides a comprehensive review of current research on lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries, evaluating their development status and the challenges to commercialization. A key objective of this study is to assess the progress of advanced battery development and its influence on the further commercialization of buses, vocational trucks, and construction machinery.

Sensitivity Testing of Induced Highway Travel in the Sacramento Regional Travel Demand Model

Research Product Type
Research Report
This report uses the state-of-the-practice transportation demand model, the Sacramento Council of Governments SACSIM19 model, to examine (1) the model's representation of induced travel, (2) the influence of variation in key inputs on vehicle travel and roadway congestions, and (3) the effect of changes in induced travel-related input variables on the comparisons of scenarios with and without highway expansions.

Caltrans 2024 Sustainable Freight Academy

Research Product Type
Research Report
This report summarizes the Caltrans 2024 Sustainable Freight Academy, which consisted of presentations from goods movement professionals and subject matter experts and allowed participants to develop their skills in grant writing by applying lessons learned from the course.

The benefits of active transportation interventions: A review of the evidence

Research Product Type
Research Report
This study reviews the benefits of active travel infrastructure (e.g., painted bicycle lane, pedestrian refuge island) and programmatic interventions (e.g., bike share program), synthesizes the effects by outcome categories and provides a summary of the effects, and quantifies the effects where possible.

Challenges Are Present, But California Transit Agencies Are Open to Open-loop

Research Product Type
Policy Brief
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.