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July 15, 2025
Asilomar Conference Grounds
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July 15-18, 2024
Asilomar Conference Grounds
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August 12-13, 2025
UC Davis
| | Registration is required for all upcoming events. | |
ITS-Davis at TRB 2025
January 2025
| Following last year’s historic showing, ITS-Davis again had a strong representation at the Transportation Research Board’s 104th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC this year. Braving snowy conditions, students and researchers participated in nearly 70 lectern sessions, poster presentations, and workshops. In addition, policy staff, students, postdocs, researchers, and faculty from ITS-Davis and other NCST-affiliated universities participated in high-level meetings with congressional offices. | |
EJ Leaders Program Reception
January 2025
| | | | ITS-Davis celebrated the 2024 cohort of the EJ leaders program with a capstone event that included presentations and a networking reception. Each EJ Leader partnered with a UC Davis researcher to engage in a 10-month shared learning project. The reception was an opportunity to share their project outcomes, the most impactful takeaways from the program, and discuss how they will implement these lessons in their communities throughout California. | |
4th Annual Transit Research Symposium
April 2025
| | In April, the Transit Research Center hosted its 4th Annual Transit Research Symposium, bringing together over 120 researchers, students, transit agencies, local governments, state agencies, and policymakers to present research and discuss key topics in transit. This year's event focused on inner-city rail, restoring ridership, transit user groups, and innovations in transit and included keynote speeches by Jeff Morales and Christy Wegener. | |
The California Concrete Pavement Conference
April 2025
| | As part of California’s first conference on the design and construction of sustainable long-life concrete pavement, the UC Pavement Research Center hosted industry professionals, researchers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders to discuss recent innovations in the design and construction of durable and sustainable concrete pavements. | |
California Africa Climate and Economic Forum
April 2025
| | As part of SF Climate Week 2025, ITS-Davis joined with the California State Transportation Agency and the Bay Area Council to host a forum focused on deepening collaboration between California and Africa. With a spotlight on transportation decarbonization, this forum focused on areas of shared interest ripe for policy sharing, academic exchange, investment, and trade. The forum brought together leaders from Kenya, Nigeria, the State of California, and ITS-Davis to uplift and explore future pathways for sustained and meaningful climate and economic engagement. Participants included UC Davis Chancellor May, California Lieutenant Governor Kounalakis, California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin, and San Francisco Mayor Lurie. | |
Susan Handy Receives Honorary Doctorate from TU Delft
In January, TU Delft, the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, conferred an honorary doctorate degree to NCST Director and UC Davis Professor of Environmental Science & Policy Susan Handy for her extensive contributions to smart and sustainable mobility, noting that she “has a strong societal research focus: cycling, walking, e-activities, accessibility, health, equity, and wellbeing, with substantial theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions.” They commended her excellence as a presenter and collaborator and invited her to give a presentation to an audience in Delft. (video recording here)
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University Transportation Centers Outstanding Student of the Year Awards
The University Transportation Centers (UTC) program's Outstanding Student of the Year (OSOY) awards honor students from participating UTCs for their notable research contributions as well as their academic performance, professionalism, and leadership. Congratulations to Sarah Dennis, who was selected as the National Center for Sustainable Transportation’s OSOY, and to Xiatian (Summer) Iogansen, who received the Pacific Southwest Region’s OSOY!
| | | | Xiatian (Summer) Iogansen | |
Paper Awarded at TRB 2025
The Transportation Research Board Standing Committee on Women and Gender in Transportation (AME20) gave the 2025 AME20 Best Research Paper Award to a paper by Kari Watkins, Musharrat Jahan, Susie Pike, and Candace Brakewood entitled “Mind the Gender Gap: A Case Study Analysis of Transit Policies and Design Guidelines for Gender Inclusive Transit Planning.” Watkins was invited to give a talk summarizing the paper at the meeting of the Committee on Women and Gender in Transportation held during the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting.
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Junshan Zhang selected as National Academy of Inventors Fellow
Junshan Zhang, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and faculty director of the Mobility Science Automation and Inclusion Center (MoSAIC) at ITS-Davis, was selected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Paul Sanberg, President of the NAI said: “Each of these individuals are tackling real-world issues and creating solutions that propel us into the future. Through their work, they are making significant contributions to science, creating lasting societal impact, and growing the economy.”
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Alissa Kendall leads with curiosity and collaboration
Before meeting her, one might be intimidated by Alissa Kendall’s achievements—over 100 publications, roles as professor and chair of the Energy Graduate Group, and the 2023 Outstanding Faculty Award. But in speaking with her, one is struck by her humility and an inspiring worldview that is caring, open-minded, and down-to-earth.
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Kendall works in industrial ecology, evaluating the environmental impacts of “systems”—a product, process, or policy. As a result, her research spans transportation, infrastructure, energy, and agriculture. She found this path almost by accident. After earning a bachelor’s in civil engineering and planning to work in that field, she was unexpectedly hired by Ford Motor Company. “Unexpected” because, as perhaps only a 21-year-old would, she told them in the interview, “I would not work for a company that is polluting the world, but would work for you if I got to work on advanced vehicles.”
The job at Ford involved calibrating gauges by driving electric cars until they ran out of power—sometimes on empty, wintry Detroit roads. Driving past power plants and factories made her wonder whether driving electric vehicles was truly better for the environment if you considered all the related energy and emissions. She did some back-of-the-envelope calculations and thought, “We should do this with every technology.” Then she found out people were already doing just that: “The whole industrial ecology field existed but I’d never heard of it.”
Today, Kendall conducts rigorous life cycle analyses, assessing the environmental impacts at every stage in a product’s life—such as an electric vehicle’s materials, production, energy use, maintenance, recycling, and disposal. The social and environmental impacts of products like concrete, electric vehicles, and biofuels are vast and unpredictable. Kendall sees her role this way: “I am most qualified to do the quantitative analysis and provide information to communities … I think democratizing information and trying to help people have a say in what happens next is the big point.”
Her care for humanity also shapes her approach to education. She meets with advisees weekly, believing this mentorship fosters connection, keeps projects running smoothly, and builds future leaders. She celebrates excellence in others, saying, “One of the greatest pleasures is watching my advisees become experts, advance the field, and do great things. No particular research project or product can ever have as much impact as somebody else going into the world and doing good work.”
Kendall also exemplifies open-mindedness. In teaching she looks for and presents case studies of innovations from around the world, not just in wealthy places. She explains, “Every place comes at a problem with a different history, a different land use pattern. There is a lot to learn from how solutions are created in places that are lower-resourced.” For her, openness, listening, and a concern for others are central to civil engineering’s mission: “It comes from the idea of civilization engineering—it’s all about keeping people safe.”
| | GLOBAL SOUTH CENTER FOR CLEAN TRANSPORTATION | | Mexico: The Global South Center for Clean Transportation at ITS Davis hosted an inter-ministerial senior delegation from the Government of Mexico in January, with strategic engagements in Washington DC and California. The purpose of this visit was to enhance US-Mexico bilateral cooperation and identify key areas of mutual interest including zero-emission vehicle transitions, infrastructure, public transit, industrial policy, and strengthening sub-national cooperation. The delegation met with key stakeholders from national and sub-national governments, research organizations, and industry leaders. | | Nigeria and Kenya: The Global South Center has been working with California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin on the California-Africa Climate and Economic Partnership, which is focused on clean transportation and energy. In December, the Global South Centre Director Aditya Ramji joined a trip led by the Secretary to Nigeria and Kenya. Following the the California-Africa Climate and Economic Forum in San Francisco, ITS-Davis hosted a delegation of ambassadors and transportation officials from Kenya and Nigeria to discuss how new research can deepen the ties between California and Africa. | The Electric Vehicle Research Center at ITS-Davis organized a meeting of the International EV Policy Council at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in January. This network of researchers, initially created by ITS-Davis researchers and others, consists of experts from multiple counties who meet regularly and write articles, based on scientific literature, that can help national, regional, and city policymakers support electric vehicle adoption. The council published two review papers in the last year here and here. | INDIA ZEV RESEARCH CENTRE | In December, the ITS-Davis India ZEV Centre—in partnership with the US SPEC Office, ClimateWorks, the World Resources Institute, and the International Council on Clean Transportation—hosted an Indian delegation on the development of greenhouse gas regulations in India for heavy duty trucks. The delegation was led by the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India. The visit included meetings in California with CARB, a site visit of the hydrogen fueling facility at the Port of Oakland, meetings in Michigan with the EPA, and in Washington DC with the U.S. Department of Energy and State Department. | EUROPEAN TRANSPORT AND ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE | |
Pierpaolo Cazzola, co-director of ETERC, has presented on various topics at meetings in the European Union. These have included presentations on:
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energy and mobility transitions, at an online event hosted by the European Commission (video);
- low-carbon fuel policies to decarbonize shipping in the Mediterranean (Paris);
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a report on the global vehicle fleet, at a meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (Geneva);
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and a report on greener micromobility, at the Irish Sustainable Mobility Policy Research Network (Dublin).
| 3 REVOLUTIONS FUTURE MOBILITY PROGRAM | The 3 Revolutions Future Mobility Program hosted a meeting with California state-level policymakers and expert transportation researchers from Sweden to explore the future of mobility and mobility-as-a-service in California and its complex interactions across various societal domains. This is the second part of an ongoing research collaboration, Transatlantic Cooperation for Leveling Up Mobility as a Service, which is funded by the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems. | NATIONAL CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION | |
The National Center for Sustainable Transportation, led by ITS-Davis, coordinated several meetings with congressional offices during the week of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in January. Students and faculty from ITS-Davis and multiple universities met with policy staff to share research highlights, learn about the policymaker’s transportation priorities, and remind the offices that they can reach us anytime for information and updates to inform policymaking. Meetings were held with: the offices of Senators Sanders (D-VT) and Schiff (D-CA), and with California Congresspersons Matsui, LaMalfa, Garamendi, DeSaulnier, and Bera.
The National Center for Sustainable Transportation also hosted its 11th Annual Capitol Hill Research Briefing, “Federal Policy Opportunities for Improving the Electric Vehicle Charging Ecosystem.” There were 61 attendees including legislative staff, representatives from private industry and labor unions, and academics from universities in the US and other countries.
| The Co-Secretary Generals of World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS), Daniel Sperling and Giovanni Circella, hosted the WCTRS President’s Reception during the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2025, which brought together over 100 members and partners to celebrate WCTRS member's achievements in 2024. | | While at TRB, researchers from the EV Research Center at held a briefing at the Department of Energy and, along with Alissa Kendall, were invited to share their research on Critical Minerals and supply chains for electric vehicles at Booz Allen Hamilton. | | Jesus Barajas, ITS-Davis affiliate and assistant professor of Environmental Science and Policy, served on a National Academies consensus study panel for a report on data, tools, and metrics in surface transportation investments. (press release; coverage in Science). | | |
Where Do EV Drivers Want To Fast Charge? Stated Preferences for Public Fast Charging
As California advances toward higher electric vehicle (EV) sales goals public fast charging stations will be needed in greater numbers. This webinar explores EV driver preferences for public fast charging stations, including preferences for charging speed, cost sensitivity, and preferences for amenities—such as restrooms and coffee shops. The webinar provides insights to optimize charging infrastructure investments, improve user experience, and accelerate ZEV adoption.
US-Mexico Used-EV Trade: circularity and end-of-life policy opportunities
The transition from internal-combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to electric vehicles (EVs) is reshaping long-standing trade flows of used vehicles. This webinar explores this emerging dynamic within the used-vehicle trade ecosystem between the US and Mexico. Researchers share insights gathered from interviews with key stakeholders, highlight critical findings, and offer actionable policy recommendations.
Using High-Performance Computing to Understand Extreme Weather Impacts on Vulnerable Transit Riders
Dr. Fizzy Fan presented findings from her innovative modeling techniques and the application of high-performance computing to assess the impacts of extreme weather on vulnerable communities. Her research investigated the relationship between physical vulnerability, weather conditions, and travel behavior, offering valuable insights to help planners address the adverse effects of extreme weather and improve accessibility for all.
Using Cycling Impedance to Assess the Potential Benefits of New Cycling Infrastructure
Ph.D. candidate Reid Passmore of Georgia Tech shared his dissertation research on developing cycling-specific impedance functions—which measure the relative difficulty of travel — using cycling trajectory data for the BikewaySim calculator.
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Designing Electric Truck Incentives for India
Ramji, Das, Ladha, and Palia
Addressing European Research and Innovation Challenges for System Transitions in Energy and Mobility
Geels, Cazzola, Kivimaa, Ketter
Can Governments Streamline Environmental Impact Analysis to Promote Transit-Oriented Development? Evidence from California
Affolter, Volker, Marantz, Pike, DeLeon
Exploring Microtransit Adoption and Its Impacts on Transportation Access for Underserved Populations
Xing, Pike, Waechter, DeLeon, Lipatova, Handy, Wang
Assessment of California MPO Travel Demand Forecasting Models
Handy, Kim, Volker
Framework to Quantify the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Build-Out and Maintenance of Global Roadway Networks
Filani, Azhar Butt, Harvey, Fulton
US-Mexico Second-Hand Electric Vehicle Trade: Battery Circularity and End-of-Life Policy Implications
Kendall, Olguín
Shifting Manufacturing: Electric Vehicle Supply Strategy Using the Model for International EV Trade
Parés Olguín, Busch, Chandra, Tal
Managing Competing Sectoral Demands for Energy Resources
Kopf, Craglia, Cazzola
More publications can be found by searching the ITS-Davis publications database.
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