As cities invest in bicycle lanes to encourage active transportation, it may also be important to ensure safe bicycle parking and other measures of theft prevention. The magnitude of the problem is largely unknown, but it may be substantial given the ease of breaking bike locks, the potential for resale, and the challenges for law enforcement. Also, studies have shown that bike theft can deter a person from bicycling more in the future due to the difficulty replacing the bike or because they are concerned about another theft.
To better understand the impact of theft on cycling behavior and assist cities to determine where and how to invest in bike infrastructure and other strategies to ensure that all Californians have access to bicycling, we conducted a survey of bicycle thefts and recoveries. The study producedsuggestions for the State’s Active Transportation Program, and other funding programs for bicycling.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most workers were tied to fixed locations and schedules, often necessitating long, stressful commutes that researchers have linked to reduced productivity, and lower overall well-being. During the pandemic, the need for social distancing, together with ongoing advances in communication technologies, led many firms and employees to embrace remote and hybrid work arrangements. Now, in the post-pandemic era, many employees prefer these arrangement and are resisting employers’ “return-to-office” mandates. What is the state of working from home and commuting post-pandemic? We examined this question using data from the 2022 National Household Travel Survey.
Access to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is critical to advancing California’s EV adoption goals. The California Energy Commission has projected the state needs “nearly 1.2 million” chargers by 2030 “to meet the fueling demands of 7.5 million passenger plug-in electric vehicles.” Currently, California has about 152,000 publicly available EV chargers. Innovative asset ownership models, like charging-as-a-service (CaaS), could help overcome some of the barriers to deploying and maintaining charging infrastructure. For example, CaaS providers could procure, install, maintain, and replace charging equipment for subscription customers.
To better understand how CaaS solutions could expand EV use and charging access, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 CaaS companies, electric utilities, and customers to identify the perceptions, challenges, and opportunities of the CaaS business model in addressing charging station needs in California.
A major criticism of California’s high-speed rail project is that it will mainly serve urban elites and that low-income people and people of color likely won’t be able to afford the fares.2 Also, the project may benefit the middle-income group the least since the proposed station locations, usually in or near city centers, will probably serve high- and low-income populations better than middle-income families.2 Besides these arguments, however, there are very few studies that have analyzed the equity impacts of California’s high-speed rail project. Current studies have either focused on benefits to California residents as a whole with little consideration to the specific opportunities for how high- speed rail will improve the lives of marginalized groups; or only studied the disproportionate adverse impacts received by marginalized groups.
Access to affordable and reliable transportation options is a significant issue in low-income, rural, and otherwise underserved communities across the United States. Carsharing is one promising option for households that are unable to afford a personal vehicle or have unreliable or insufficient access to a personal vehicle. California has developed multiple grant programs funding shared mobility start-ups (such as carsharing) in underserved communities. This funding is particularly beneficial in areas where private, for-profit carshare companies won’t or can’t operate.
The rapid growth in freight transportation, particularly heavy-duty trucks, poses significant environmental and public health challenges for communities near major ports and freeways. In areas such as those near the Port of Los Angeles and the I-710 corridor, communities are exposed to elevated levels of air pollution, noise pollution, and associated health risks. Traditional traffic data collection methods primarily concentrate on gathering traffic volume data for freeway segments or smaller areas, often overlooking heavy-duty vehicles across roadway networks and in local communities.
To better understand the environmental impact and spatial distribution of heavy-duty truck traffic, we employed a deep learning approach to analyze satellite imagery and publicly accessible spatial data. This approach allowed us to identify and categorize heavy-duty trucks and shipping containers along critical freight routes and analyze impacts on adjacentcommunities.
Sixteen percent of adults aged 62 and over in California live in poverty. Older adults also make up a large share of the state’s homeless population, primarily because low-incomeseniors on fixed incomes are being priced out of housing. These trends are especially concerning as California’s population continues to age. Understanding how housing affordability and access to transportation affect older adults is vital to supporting healthy aging.
Our research team surveyed the transportation needs and behaviors of 89 senior affordable housing residents at six sites in San Diego County. These sites varied by county region, public transit proximity, and neighborhood density. Of these respondents, 54 had experienced homelessness and 16 managed chronic health conditions; nearly all were considered very or extremely low-income based on area median income. We focused on travel for social events and errands since almost none of the respondents worked or attended school.
Transportation network companies (TNCs) have played an increasingly prominent role providing on-demand mobility for consumers across California. The California Public UtilitiesCommission (CPUC) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) have adopted and are implementing SB 1014 (Clean Miles Standard), which establishes an annual increase in the percent of zero-emission passenger miles traveled and greenhouse (GHG) emission reduction targets for TNCs. This regulation requires TNC drivers to acquire and operate an electric vehicle (EV).
Like much of the developed world, the U.S. is aging. Between 1920 and 2020, the number of people 65 and older in the U.S. grew almost five times faster than the population as a whole. Between 2000 and 2010, the 65+ population grew from 15.1 percent of the U.S. population to 16.8 percent (to 55.8 million people) between 2010 and 2020 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). Given this substantial growth, the mobility patterns of older travelers are consequential but have only been lightly studied post-pandemic. To address this gap, we analyzed data from the National Household Travel Surveys (NHTS) for 2001, 2009, 2017, and 2022 on the travel behavior of older adults in their 60s, 70s, and up compared with middle-aged and younger travelers. The NHTS contains information about trips taken by all household members on a designated survey day for a representative set of U.S. households.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, daily travel per person declined significantly in the U.S as activities that required leaving home were increasingly replaced by information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as smartphones, personal computers, streaming services, and social media. Trips for most purposes declined drastically in the spring of 2020 at the start of the pandemic, and public transit use in particular plummeted. With most of the disruptions of the pandemic over by early 2022, we investigated whether the travel effects of COVID-19 have persisted, especially among young adults (defined as those between the ages 15-29).
We focused on youth, as any long-term shifts in their travel behavior might persist for decades. These younger travelers are transitioning to adulthood by obtaining drivers’ licenses, joining the workforce, living independently, and so on. Youth travel may be affected differently by the pandemic than older adults as they are more likely to substitute ICTs for travel, so we examined how youth travel patterns and trends compare to those of middle-aged adults post-pandemic.
