METRANS Participates in Virtual Annual Sustainability Summit 2020 |
|
Environmentally conscious government, business, and nonprofit leaders gathered online for a virtual summit to discuss pressing crucial topics including international climate policy, California’s strategy in the face of growing natural disasters, and regionalization of the energy grid. The 14th Annual Sustainability Summit was hosted virtually this year on September 21st - 22nd. Sponsored by the Los Angeles Business Council, the USC Price School of Public Policy, and the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, the Summit featured fireside chats and panels examining pivotal sustainability issues such as equity in climate goals, workforce education, clean and affordable water access, and the future in clean and renewable energy sources for urban development and transportation. Global and national leaders in policy and industry presented at the panel, including Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), assistant whip for House leadership; and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
|
|
The fireside chat on Day 2, Educating the Future Workforce to Create a Sustainable, Equitable Region, featured USC President Carol L. Folt, alongside Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Together, they discussed the interconnectivity of climate and how policy changes in one part of the world can greatly affect the air or water quality in other parts of the world. They expressed their desire for urgent environmental change and their hope in the future generation of students who, as Folt noted, are not patient and want big change NOW. This immediate call to action was echoed by Garcetti as he said, “We are being called to reach beyond our grasp. When we reach beyond our grasp, maybe, just maybe, we may [be able to] hold it, but even if we don’t, those who come after us will. Now that it’s cheaper than ever. [There are] no longer any excuses. There is momentum. This decade must be the decade of action.” The final panel of the summit, The Future of Clean Transportation, included METRANS Director Genevieve Giuliano along with other California transportation experts, like Secretary of the State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) David Kim, Mary Nichols from the California Air Resources Board and more, as they discussed current and upcoming developments in the industry.
The 14th Sustainability Summit concluded with a rapid-fire speed round as the panel expressed their thoughts on what a post-COVID world would look like. Dr. Giuliano said, “People generally want to go back to business as usual after a crisis…however, if they have experienced things that made their life better, then they might adapt those too. I see the possibility of a big increase of people working from home because it is positively affecting a lot of people.”
|
|
PSR Researcher Sarah McCullough Discusses Equity Within the Transportation Field in Caltrans Webinar |
|
Dr. Sarah Rebolloso McCullough shared insights on how to prioritize equity in transportation in uncertain times as part of a recent Caltrans Planning Horizons webinar titled “Moving from Equity to Justice in Transportation in a Time of Crisis.” She discussed ways to create transportation systems that contribute to greater racial justice during the monthly educational forum that highlights emerging trends in the transportation arena hosted by the Transportation Planning Division of Caltrans.
McCullough presented preliminary findings from her PSR-funded project with her graduate student researcher C. Sequoia Erasmus. During the webinar, both McCullough and Erasmus noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color with higher rates of infection and fatality, and protests regarding police brutality have raised questions of equity within transportation. Focusing specifically on the transportation industry, they discussed ways that the pandemic has raised questions of community engagement in transportation planning decisions, while police protests have raised question of street ownership.
In the PSR-funded research, McCullough and Erasmus are using qualitative interviews with Black, Indigenous, and other professionals of color in the transportation field, to document and outline challenges they faced as well as propose solutions the transportation sector could implement.
When discussing equity in relation to sustainable and active transportation, Dr. McCullough commented that “[this] needs to be a huge part of the future of transportation, and we believe that we cannot achieve those things without making equity a part of that future.”
|
|
METRANS, PSR, TRB Committees Host Goulias for
Travel Behavior Research Webinar
|
|
On September 24, 2020, METRANS, the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center (PSR) and the TRB Standing Committee AME20, Women and Gender in Transportation, launched their respective Fall 2020 Webinar Series with a collaborative event. Titled “Taxonomy of Daily Travel and Time Use Patterns Using Sequence Analysis to Explore Schedule Fragmentation and Gender Roles,” this first event showcased the travel behavior research of Dr. Konstadinos (Kostas) G. Goulias, Professor of Transportation in the Geography Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The event was also co-hosted by the TRB AEP30 Standing Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values. “We are delighted to start the fall seminar series with one of the world’s experts on travel behavior research,” noted METRANS and PSR Director Dr. Genevieve Giuliano. “Having the two TRB committees join METRANS as co-sponsors was “an added pleasure,” added Dawn Hood, Associate Director of Development and Finance for the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies and Chair of the TRB Women and Gender in Transportation Committee. These collaborative efforts allow “important research findings” to be shared with a wider audience and “spark continued conversation about women and gender in transportation,” she expressed. |
|
Transportation You Committee Hosts a Virtual Girls' Empowerment Day |
|
The Transportation You Committee, housed within WTS-LA, hosted a Virtual Girl’s Empowerment Day on September 14, 2020, to introduce high school girls to professional development skills as well as pique their interest in STEM fields, with a special focus on transportation. Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) is an organization focused on the development of the transportation industry and its professional women through the sustaining and advancing of women’s careers within the transportation sector. One of the largest WTS chapters, WTS-Los Angeles arranges various events and programs within the community for future and young professional women, such as professional development, mentoring programs, and outreach to high schools and universities. The Virtual Girl’s Empowerment Day program was co-sponsored by METRANS, USC Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Price Associated Students of Planning (ASPD), and the METRANS Transportation Student Organization (MTSA). The attendees of this event included approximately 100 female students from Dorsey, Westchester, Azusa, and GALA high schools. The overall goal of this selection of high schools was to create a diverse and engaging environment on a virtual platform.
Through the course of the event, the Transportation You Committee exposed student-participants to multiple routes of professional development within the transportation sector. The Empowerment Day included ice breakers led by USC undergraduate and graduate students, a panel of speakers from USC and the transportation industry, as well as breakout sessions for more in-depth learning. The Girl’s Empowerment Day served to recognize the benefits of introducing women to various career paths, even outside of the transportation industry. With that in mind, this Empowerment Day aimed to provide these students with skills for navigating the workplace and academia as women, as well as general strategies for overcoming commonly encountered challenges that can arise in various professional settings.
|
|
Researcher Cyrus Shahabi Implements Deep Learning Techniques to Provide Unprecedented Traffic Flow Predictions |
|
Traffic congestion is a hallmark of life in Los Angeles. The city that popularized drive-in culture and developed rapidly during the rise of the automobile was the first to become a sprawled metropolis. Unlike older cities, Los Angeles developed around the automobile, and the automobile today remains the dominant mode of transportation. As population and employment growth continues, so does traffic. Beyond the impact of lost time due to congestion, being stuck in traffic regularly has been associated with many negative psychological and physical health effects such as increased aggression and elevated engine exhaust exposure. The environmental cost of traffic is also significant, with increased idling time contributing to higher levels of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Given all of these costs, the need for better transportation is clear.
Public transit options have long been promoted as a cost-effective alternative to personal transportation, lessening the overall rates of traffic flow in densely populated urban areas. However, insufficiently developed systems with long wait times and inconsistent predictability hampers widespread use in many cities. To better understand the traffic-related factors that affect public transit performance, Cyrus Shahabi, Professor of Computer Science at USC; Yao-Yi Chiang, Associate Professor of Spatial Sciences; Min Mun, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC); and Luan Tran, Doctoral Candidate in Computer Science, spearheaded a PSR-funded project, “Deep-Learning Traffic Flow Prediction for Forecasting Performance Measurement of Public Transportation Systems.” Their work uses Deep Learning techniques to model traffic flow and create a fuller picture of congestion in Los Angeles.
|
|
PSR Researcher Scott Samuelsen Assesses the Impacts of Alternative Urban Bus Technologies in Southern California |
|
In order to accomplish California’s ambitious climate target of full carbon neutrality by 2045, state leaders are making great strides by implementing clean energy policies to target the largest emission sources. According to 2018 data, 40% of California’s emissions were reported to come from transportation, stimulating the state’s push for a transition to electric vehicles in conjunction with carbon-free electricity. As transit agencies seek to meet these state carbon goals, they are looking to alternative technologies such as battery electric buses (BEBs) and hydrogen fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) to replace the conventional buses currently in circulation. Switching away from fossil fuels is an important step in improving air quality and reducing transportation’s impact on the environment, but there is still the question of which innovation has the greater environmental impact and more feasible cost. In the PSR-affiliated project, “Life Cycle Assessment of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Deploying Alternative Urban Bus Powertrain Technologies in the South Coast Air Basin,” UC Irvine Professor Emeritus Scott Samuelsen, Assistant Professional Researcher Brian Tarroja, and Graduate Student Analy Castillo Munoz, set out to assess these monetary costs and environmental impacts in the area covering Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles counties. Their detailed study considers the entire life cycle of a bus in order to help agencies “cost-effectively meet environmental objectives in California.”
|
|
Recently Completed Research Projects
|
|
METRANS researchers from our member institutions have recently completed the following projects in the three topical areas of: integrated management of freight and passenger systems, sustainable and efficient urban freight transportation, and urban mobility. To learn more about specific projects, please click on the title to access the research briefs and reports. |
|
CSULB Center for International Trade and Transportation Town Hall Meeting
A COVID-19 Supply Chain Report Card: Balancing Perception & Reality
Tuesday, October 6th at 10:00 am PT
|
|
PSR Research Seminar:
Knowledge Networks for Infrastructure Systems: Bridges as Case Studies
featuring Lucio Soibelman (USC)
Thursday, October 15th at 12:00 pm PT
|
|
PSR Research Seminar:
Cost-Sharing Mechanisms for Ride-Sharing Knowledge Network
featuring Maged Dessouky (USC)
Thursday, October 22nd at 12:00 pm PT
|
|
Mobilize Virtual Summit:
Building Collective Action for the Next Decade
October 26th, 28th, and 30th, 9:00 am ET
|
|
Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) Research Forum:
Future Urban Transport
October 27th and 29th, 9:00 am ET
|
|
PSR Research Seminar:
Street Network Models and Indicators for Every Urban Area in the World
featuring Geoff Boeing (USC)
Tuesday, October 27th at 12:00 pm PT
|
|
The METRANS Transportation Center was established in 1998 as the first University Transportation Center in Southern California. METRANS is a joint partnership of the University of Southern California (USC) and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).
METRANS' mission is to solve transportation problems of large metropolitan regions through interdisciplinary research, education and outreach. Its three primary objectives are: (1) fostering independent, high quality research to solve the nation's transportation problems; (2) training the next generation transportation workforce; and (3) disseminating information, best practices, and technology to the professional community
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
