rural communities

In rural areas, cost-effective transit service is challenging due to greater travel distances, lower population densities, and longer travel times than in cities. UC Davis partnered with the eight San Joaquin Valley Metropolitan Planning Organizations to identify and support development of three innovative mobility pilot concepts for the region.

This policy brief summarizes findings from and policy implications of research that developed a methodology that provides an ordinal measure of demand-side food access.

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.

Rural residents face significant mobility challenges because travel destinations are far, opportunities like jobs and access to essential needs are limited, and rural roadways are more dangerous than their urban counterparts. UC Davis researchers used US Census microdata and conducted interviews to describe socioeconomic and mobility characteristics of carless households and residents in rural California to understand barriers to access and travel adaptations among individuals with limited access to a vehicle.

This paper examines mechanisms for autonomous vehicle-induced increases in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) – some of which are expected to have a disproportionately larger impact on rural VMT – and outlines five methods that have been used to study VMT changes: travel demand equalization; travel demand elasticity; travel demand models; and stated and revealed preference surveys.

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.