UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center

Recent studies suggest that there could be significant value to electric vehicle (EV) drivers and power companies from incorporating EVs into the state’s electrical power grids, known as Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI). However, the benefits could be highly variable depending on the location of the utility territory, vehicle type and battery capacity, the relevant timeframe, and whether the connection involves only managed charging or includes bidirectional charging permitting vehicle to grid (V2G) power transfer, and other factors. Various studies conducted to date generally conclude that the opportunities for V2G could have two to three times the value of managed (or “smart”) charging. However, there are considerable additional complications for grid integration, including variable and site-specific implementation costs. Some savings such as deferring distribution system upgrades can be very significant but are also site-specific and depend on the level of curren and projected demands for electric power on the individual distribution feeder lines, and are therefore difficult to predict.

California’s 116 community colleges, attended by 1.9 million students, serves the largest and most diverse student body in California higher education. Transportation plays an important role in student community college access and retention, but the cost and accessibility can create a barrier to success. Community college students spend more on transportation than their counterparts at both public and private four-year institutions, largely due to the lack of on-campus or nearby affordable housing. The absence of high-quality public transit forces students to commute by private vehicle and manage the associated costs of gas, maintenance, and parking. However, these transportation challenges for community college students are frequently overlooked. To better understand the mobility challenges students face accessing community colleges and provide potential policy strategies to overcome these challenges, we interviewed local transportation agencies, community college administrators, and students at five California community colleges between September 2022 and October 2023. We also reviewed state legislation on student transportation to understand current and past policy attempts to address community college transportation challenges.

Carpooling allows travelers to share a ride to a common destination and can include several forms of sharing a ride, such as casual carpooling and real-time carpooling. Because carpooling reduces the number of automobiles needed by travelers, it is often associated with numerous societal benefitsincluding:1) reductions in energy consumption and emissions, 2) congestion mitigation, and 3) reduced parking infrastructure demand. In recent years, economic, environmental, and social forces coupled with technological innovations are encouraging shared and pooled services. Shared mobility is changing how people travel and is having a transformative impact on mobility. This chapter reviews key trends impacting the mobility marketplace including the growth of shared mobility and key demographic indicators, such as an aging population and Millennials entering the workforce. For decades, carpooling has been used as a strategy by numerous public agencies and employers as a strategy to address a range of climate, environmental, and congestion mitigation goals, while simultaneously increasing roadway and parking capacity. This chapter discusses how employers and public agencies can support carpooling.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are proliferating in California, with over 1.8 million operating in the state. Modern EVs have considerably larger battery packs than early models, in many cases 80-100 kWh for 250-300-mile driving ranges. Charging power for EVs is also increasing. With the appropriate wiring, residential charging at Level 2 has reached up to 19.2 kW though 7-10 kW is more typical, making EVs among the most demanding household power loads. These charging loads can stress local electricity distribution feeders, particularly in the early evening when power use typically peaks. 

Microtransit is a technology-enabled transit service that typically employs shuttles or vans (Figure 1) to provide on-demand transportation with dynamic routing. While many rides are dispatched and paid via a smartphone, many services also provide a telephone booking option. A few services accept cash payment and street hails (similar to taxis). Variations of microtransit can include fixed schedules and routes and larger or smaller vehicles. Typically, microtransit services are operated by or provided on behalfof a government entity or nonprofit organization, although privately operated microtransit programs also might exist.

To better understand inequities in EV charging costs, we compared charging costs at public EV DCFC stations to the cost for single-family housing (SFH) residents charging at home for three California electric utility service areas, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG&E) and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), and for three specific urban areas - Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose. We used a combination of observed pricing data from PlugShare, a crowd-sourced database of public EV charging, and public DCFC pricing data from electric vehicle service provider (EVSP) websites, as well as electric utility tariff information from their respective websites.

Throughout the U.S., app-based gig drivers provide valuable services for courier network services (CNS) like Instacart, Uber Eats and DoorDash, and transportation network companies (TNCs) such as Uber and Lyft. In California, gig labor classification is governed among other things by Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), which passed in 2019, and Proposition 22 (Prop 22) adopted in 2020. AB 5 established the ABC Test for worker classification in California labor law. The ABC Test results in most app-based drivers being classified as employees, who are due full labor rights and benefits in California. However, gig drivers were exempted from the ABC Test when California voters approved Prop 22. As a result, under Prop 22, most CNS and TNC drivers in California are classified as independent contractors. Understanding the nuances of California labor law as it applies to app-based gig drivers is critical to addressing areas such as: worker flexibility, the need for high-quality jobs, and driver pay variability due to the lack of transparency with algorithm-based platforms. To better understand evolving CNS and TNC labor policy, we conducted interviews with experts (n=8) across the U.S. representing labor, academia, and regulators between June 2022 to February 2024 and examined policy approaches of other cities and states on this issue.

The goal of the “Advanced Network Analysis of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Automated Vehicles for Goods Delivery” (ATLAS) project is to examine the costs and energy system impacts of using hydrogen (H2) fuel cell electric vehicles (FCVs) for medium-duty goods delivery applications, with human drivers and some degree of automated operation in the future. Direct goods delivery to residences and commercial operations is an expanding transportation element that has been growing at approximately 9% per year in recent years, with an estimated $343 billion global industry value in 2020. 

Suburban areas have lower density development than urban areas, which may make them less accessible for the growingpopulation of low- and moderate-income suburban residents, particularly those without a personal vehicle. This research examines factors that lead these households to move to suburban areas and identifies accessibility barriers they face. We use a mixed-methods approach with Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data from the U.S. Census, online/in-person surveys (n=208), and interviews conducted in English and Spanish (n=25) with households in Contra Costa County with an income of less than $75,000. To understand key differences in housing and transportation choices between urban and suburban residents, these data were compared to survey and interview data from low-income Oakland residents from 2020-2021. We found that low- and moderate-income households choose to live in suburbs due to rising rents and otherrequirements (e.g., credit score, rental history) in urban areas, and a desire for home ownership and safer environment for children. Yet lack of tenant protections is leaving them vulnerable to rising rents in suburban areas. Transportation costs are higher in suburbs due to longer commutes and higher reliance on personal vehicles. Despite higher levels of carownership in the suburbs, households often go without a car due to maintenance issues or inability to make car payments. When faced with the lack of an automobile, suburban households have few quality transportation alternatives.

The growth of carsharing in North America since the service was first introduced in 1994 has had notable impacts on travel behaviour, including vehicle ownership and modal shift. Existing forms of carsharing (e.g., roundtrip, one-way, and peer-to-peer) alter the conventional cost structure of driving from one of fixed cost to variable cost. Multiple studies have shown that overall, carsharing users increase public transit and non-motorized modal use, with some users also selling their vehicle or postponing future vehicle purchases as a result of being a carsharing member. These modal impacts have led to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions associated with driving. Further, research has shown that carsharing may provide additional accessibility to individuals without a personal vehicle. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the travel behaviour impacts of carsharing and findings on the demographics of carsharing users.