PATH | California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

On the PATH – This Week In Mobility

Justin Wiley — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 16:06:54 +0000

Transportation News Digest

The Bay Area and beyond are in motion. Here’s a quick take on what’s shaping the transit landscape!

Bay Area Ridership is still hurting – but there are bright spots

Bay Area transit systems are still recovering from pandemic-era ridership declines, with notable variations across agencies.

Bay Area Transit Agencies Get Ready For “Big Sync”

Several Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District buses in downtown Oakland on Aug. 8. Several bus and rail public transit agencies are rolling out a coordinate effort to facilitate transfers and scheduling.

Caltrans Announces Completion of California Bike Plan

The update lists opportunities to transform state highways into accessible and integrated community assets.

Tesla to roll out human-driven chauffeur service n Bay Area

Tesla plans to offer a chauffeur-style service operated by human drivers to a limited number of people in the San Francisco Bay Area, a California regulator said on July 25, contrary to a media report that the EV maker would offer a robotaxi service.

Test Track Update

We’re excited to share that the RFS test track is officially complete! Designed to support a wide range of mobility and infrastructure testing, the track marks a major milestone for the site and opens the door to new phases of experimentation and development. Whether you’re deep into a project or just getting started at RFS, the completed track is ready for action—and we can’t wait to see how teams put it to use.

Build Your Start-Up & Use Our Space @ RFS: Intake Form

Events in the Bay

Electrify Expo San Francisco
📍 Alameda Point
🗓️ August 23–24, 2025
Experience the latest in e-mobility! Test drive EVs, explore cutting-edge tech, and get expert insights at the GreenCars Garage. Get Tickets

2025 EPIC Symposium
📍 CNRA Headquarters, 715 P Street – Sacramento, CA
🗓️ Tuesday, October 7, 2025 · 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Hosted by the California Energy Commission, this annual event spotlights groundbreaking clean energy projects across the state. Register & apply to be featured!

Where Climate Meets Technology: Trellis Impact 25
📍 San Jose Convention Center – San Jose, CA
🗓️ October 28–30, 2025
A major convening on climate innovation, technology, and transformative solutions. Register

Add your event here! Want to feature your event in our next issue? Send us a pitch at [email protected]

Stay Connected!

Visit RFS: https://rfs.berkeley.edu/

Join our Slack for exclusive insights, networking opportunities, and AMAs: Richmond Field Station on Slack

Launch Your Start-Up & Build @ RFS: Intake Form

Follow RFS on LinkedIn & Instagram

That’s it for this week.

Keep showing up — and as always, keep moving forward!

The ITS & PATH Team

P.S. Sign up here for our Mobility Slack Community → to get daily updates and opportunities across the mobility space.

The post On the PATH – This Week In Mobility appeared first on PATH | California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology.

On the PATH – This Week in Mobility

Justin Wiley — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 20:24:59 +0000

Transportation News Digest

Here’s what moved the needle this week in mobility:

The Bay Area and beyond are in motion. Here’s a quick take on what’s shaping the transit landscape!

Richmond-San Rafael Bridge revised bike path plan submitted – The Mercury News

A new proposal rethinks the future of the 10-foot bidirectional bike and pedestrian lane, introduced in 2019 as a pilot project.

Alphabet’s Waymo picks up speed as Tesla robotaxi service expands

Tesla has notified the DMV of its intent to expand autonomous taxi service, bringing its controversial vehicles to Bay Area streets soon.

BART is Facing a Fiscal Cliff | Bay Area Rapid Transit

Facing a fiscal cliff, BART leadership calls on Silicon Valley giants like Apple and Meta to contribute to sustaining regional transit.

SFO objects to “Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport” 2nd renaming attempt

San Francisco airport officials publicly object to Oakland’s rebranding move, raising questions of regional identity and passenger confusion.

New Arrivals

We’re thrilled to welcome Traverse Aero, whose work on aerial mobility systems and next-generation transportation infrastructure will be based at RFS this summer.

Learn more about their work at: traverseaero.com

Build Your Start-Up & Use Our Space @ RFS: Intake Form

Events in the Bay

2025 California Power Summit
📍 Burbank Water and Power – Burbank, CA
🗓️ August 13–14, 2025
Industry leaders converge to discuss the future of California’s power systems and energy resilience. Learn More & Register

Add your event here! Want to feature your event in our next issue? Send us a pitch at [email protected]

Stay Connected!

Visit RFS: https://rfs.berkeley.edu/

Join our Slack for exclusive insights, networking opportunities, and AMAs: Richmond Field Station on Slack

Launch Your Start-Up & Build @ RFS: Intake Form

Follow RFS on LinkedIn & Instagram

That’s it for this week.

Keep showing up — and as always, keep moving forward!

The ITS & PATH Team

P.S. Sign up here for our Mobility Slack Community → to get daily updates and opportunities across the mobility space.

The post On the PATH – This Week in Mobility appeared first on PATH | California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology.

Smart and in charge Integrating zero-emissions vehicles into California’s electric grid

admin — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 14:20:10 +0000

See how PATH Faculty Director, Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Scott Moura’s team is electrifying UC Berkeley’s RSF parking garage with the Smart Learning Research Pilot for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (SlrpEV), which aims to provide a blueprint for the future of electric vehicles. Read the full story at Berkeley Engineering (link is external)

Berkeley Engineering

The post Smart and in charge Integrating zero-emissions vehicles into California’s electric grid appeared first on PATH | California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology.

PATH Receives Nine Caltrans Grants

admin — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 14:18:42 +0000

California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH) has been awarded nine projects by the Caltrans Research and Deployment Advisory Committee (RDAC) during this year’s proposal cycle, totaling $ 3,340,357.

“This is a high recognition of PATH’s contribution to meeting the California transportation goals to provide a safe, sustainable, integrated, equitable and efficient transportation system to enhance California’s economy and livability,” says Chief Operations Officer Zema Katsenlson.

Projects and PIs:

ADA Van as a Technology Demonstrator for Disabled Travelers

Alex Kurzhanskiy

Caltrans DRISI deserves to assume a leading position in transit automation, automated driving, connected automated vehicles (CAV), connected infrastructure and V2X. Presently, DRISI owns the connected infrastructure testbed at El Camino Real in Palo Alto, but does not have ideas how to effectively utilize it and demonstrate the benefits of the connected environment. This must change. Moreover, DRISI is supposed to showcase the emerging technologies and their applications for other Caltrans divisions and for policy makers. What will enable DRISI to master its role and fulfill its purpose?

Effects of Using Standardized Work Zone Data to Improve Work Zone Safety

Peggy Wang

Work zones play a key role in maintaining and upgrading our nation’s roadways. Unfortunately, work zone safety continues to be a concern for state transportation agencies across the US, for the safety of motorists who drive through the work zone and for workers who build, repair, and maintain our roadways. According to the national work zone safety data, in 2020, an estimated 102,000 work zone crashes happened, resulting in 44,000 injuries and 857 fatalities. In California, 88 fatal crashes happened, with a total of 96 fatalities. In specific, work zone intrusions are a growing concern for Caltrans due to their severe impact on the life of workers. The biggest share of work zone intrusion crashes occurs at lane closure operations.

Many transportation agencies face the challenge on how to gather and share work zone activity information with third parties effectively to improve work zone safety. Since 2019, USDOT has funded the Work Zone Data Exchange (WZDx) project (https://www.transportation.gov/av/data/wzdx(link is external)). This project focuses on the voluntary adoption of a basic work zone data specification, which enables Infrastructure Owner Operator (IOOs) to make harmonized work zone data available for third party use. Specifically, the project aims to get data on work zones into vehicles to help automated driving systems (ADSs) and human drivers navigate more safely and efficiently.

The PATH team conducted an automated vehicle (AV) Industry Survey Project in 2020, in which we surveyed and interviewed 20 companies regarding infrastructure needs for large-scale AV deployment. It was found that work zone and lane closure information is the most prominent digital information that AV companies need from the IOOs. Communicating the geographic information of work zones can greatly benefit the of Avs, thereby avoid work zone intrusions.

Prepare MMITSS for Deployment in California

Kun Zhou

The Multi-Modal Intelligent Traffic Signal System (MMITSS) has been developed under Connected Vehicle Pooled Fund Study (CV PFS) and several Caltrans sponsored research projects. The MMITSS software has been deploy in the California CV Test Bed1 along El Camino Real and is operational since 2018. To facilitate the MMITSS deployment in California, there is a need to document the existing MMITSS software that has been deployed in the California CV Test Bed, to improve MMITSS source code readability via better commenting, and to provide manual/user-guide for developers, management staff, and maintenance staff. There is also a need to develop a Software Over-The-Air (SOTA) update solution for updating the latest MMITSS software from Caltrans Traffic Management Center (TMC) to field intersections.

Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence-Based Video Data Collection Capabilities

Francois Dion

This project will evaluate the ability of emerging AI-powered sensors to satisfy Caltrans’ needs for general and freight traffic monitoring. This will be done by:

Conducting a literature review on emerging AI-based detection technologies.
Field-testing data collection from AI-based video detection sensors at select freeway and highway locations.
Comparing data extracted from AI-based systems to data captured by nearby WIM, Census, or other legacy sensors.
Evaluating the ability to extract gaps and other useful safety-related metrics.
Evaluating the ability to distinguish various categories of trucks.
Evaluating the ability to derive reliable origin-destination flow patterns or intersection turning movement counts from the collected data.
Evaluating the ability to establishing heat maps for freight traffic movements based on OD data collected from the video cameras.
Determining what legacy sensors could be replaced by AI-powered sensors and under which circumstances such a replacement would be beneficial.
Developing recommendations on when and where to use AI-powered sensors.

Estimated timeline to complete the research: 18 months to 24 months.

Connected Intersections: Improving Intersection Safety and Mobility through High Resolution Video Detection and V2X Communications

Qijian Gan

This research aims to demonstrate a novel approach to connected intersections on the California CV Testbed that leverages both V2X communications and advanced video detection technologies and has great potential to simultaneously improve intersection safety and mobility and support future deployment of CAVs. In the California CV Testbed, AI-powered video and radar sensors were newly installed at four intersections for testing purposes. In this project, we will analyze the data from these advanced sensors, integrate it into testbed’s existing V2X communications and traffic control systems, and develop algorithms and applications to improve the intersection safety and mobility.

The proposed tasks in this research project are as follows:

Quality analysis of the data from the AI-powered video and radar sensors.
Development of a data management plan (e.g., standardized data formats, cloud storage schemes, data processing workflows, etc.) for future large-scale deployment. Algorithm development to detect traffic violations (e.g., red light running, jaywalking, and illegal turns) and potential hazards (e.g., near-misses and intersection blocking) at intersection approaches. Software enhancement to the existing V2X communications system to enable real-time broadcasting/multicasting information like presence of pedestrians and bicyclists on crosswalks, traffic violations, and potential hazards to nearby road users.
Algorithm development to produce performance measures for multimodal traffic, including those from the ATSPMs and beyond (e.g., lane-based vehicle queues, pedestrian crossing time, pedestrian/bicyclist counts, lane blockages). Software enhancement to the existing Arterial Performance Measurement System (https://caconnectedvehicletestbed.org/apems(link is external)) to incorporate the new measures to support better evaluation of traffic signal performance.
Field testing to validate the enhanced safety features in the testbed.

The estimated time to complete this research is 24 months.

SIDRA Calibration for Roundabouts in California

Alex Skabardonis

UC Berkeley PATH proposes an 18-month project, led by Professor Alexander Skabardonis, that will develop an automatic calibration for SIDRA roundabout model that will be used to study roundabouts in California. The purpose of this project is to study calibration of roundabout models in the software SIDRA Intersection for single lane, hybrid, and multilane environmental factors. The aim is to evaluate and compare different calibration methods, including creating an automatic calibration procedure based on optimization. For further use of the SIDRA Intersection model general settings would be useful, there for the second part of the purpose has been to test the possibility of general settings with a few models of roundabouts with different characteristics.

Three methods for calibration of the model will be tested in this project, one automatic based on optimization and two manual ones. Studies of the software, the model, and the theory will be basis for which parameters that are chosen for calibration. The first step is to find a suitable optimization algorithm to use for the automatic calibration. The choice of method depends on how easy the method is to use, in terms of number of control variables, and accuracy and robustness of results. The calibration parameters will become decision variables in the optimization problem. The estimated timeline to complete the research, 3 years.

Strategies for Improving Safety and Efficiency of Interactions Between Surface Traffic and Trunkline Transit

Joshua Meng

While traditional grade crossing can separate transit and surface traffic/pedestrians, its operation significantly impacts the surface traffic and likely will result in reduced capacity of BRT system due to the need to minimize the disturbance to the traffic.

This research plans to focus on:

Understand that safety issues through analysis of hazardous activities involving interaction between transit and surface traffic,
Study ways to apply advanced ITS technologies to detect and manage hazards while optimizing the operation of all modes.
Compare the effects of treatments based on advanced ITS technologies vs traditional grade crossings vs. status quo.

This is an 18-month study with 6-month data collection at one or two intersections, and 12 months for data analysis and development of recommendations and report.

Use of Third-Party Data to Enhance Truck Monitoring in High-Traffic Networks

Francois Dion

This project will evaluate whether vehicle tracking data collected by third-party vendors could effectively be used to analyze truck movements in high-traffic urban/suburban networks. Using the Sacramento area as a test case, this will be done by:

Assessing the representativity of truck movements captured by third-party vendors by comparing predicted volumes to measurements from fixed sensors.
Determining the suitability for Caltrans’ needs of the truck classification(s) typically used by third-party vendors (usually based on gross vehicle weight).
Developing a method for merging truck data provided by third-party vendors with data collected by Caltrans from fixed classification stations.
Developing a method for assessing the reliability of extracted truck metrics.
Developing a method to calibrate data from third-party analytical platforms
Developing general guidelines on how to use third-party analytical platforms.

High Speed Data Distribution and Collection Prototype

Brian Peterson/Anthony Patire

This is a 12-month effort that will deliver a working small-scale prototype of California DTI. The primary concept of such a DTI is a system that spans from the sensor or infrastructure element on the road to a modern cloud based data and analytics system with tools that support real-time and long-term decision, policy, and results measurement and analysis.

The post PATH Receives Nine Caltrans Grants appeared first on PATH | California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology.

TSRC Supports NABSA Annual Shared Micromobility State of the Industry Report

admin — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 14:13:47 +0000

North American Bikeshare and Scootershare Association (NABSA), the nonprofit membership-based association representing public, private, and nonprofit organizations in shared micromobility, is pleased to present the fourth annual Shared Micromobility State of the Industry Report for North America(link is external)NABSA worked with Toole Design(link is external) and the University of California Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center(link is external) to help develop the report.

The report shows that in 2022, shared micromobility ridership re-established itself to pre-pandemic levels, and reached the highest number of cities with systems and highest number of deployed vehicles across North America to date. The ecosystem of shared micromobility vehicles continued to evolve, with e-devices (e-scooters and e-bikes) growing in usage and popularity. This report tracks the trends, growth, and success of shared micromobility and presents new research demonstrating the impact of the industry across North America.

Some exciting findings from the 2022 State of the Industry Report include:

At least 157 million shared micromobility trips were taken across North America in 2022.
In 2022 there were shared micromobility systems in 401 cities and 289,000 vehicles in operation – both the highest to date.
E-bikes continued to thrive in 2022 and were present in 55% of North American cities. The number of trips taken on e-bikes increased from 18.8 million in 2021 to 30.9 million in 2022.
By replacing short car trips and making new trips with shared micromobility, riders gained an additional 18.7 million hours of physical activity.
Shared micromobility offset approximately 74 million pounds (34 million kg) of CO₂ emissions by replacing auto trips.
Shared micromobility helped more people to access transit, with 64% of riders stating that they use shared micromobility to connect to transit and 23% of all shared micromobility were to connect to transit.

Read more and find the report here(link is external).

The post TSRC Supports NABSA Annual Shared Micromobility State of the Industry Report appeared first on PATH | California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology.

Gonzalez Named 2023 Network Science Society Fellow

admin — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 14:37:31 +0000

Congratulations to ITS affiliate, Marta Gonzalez, who was recently named a 2023 Network Science Society Fellow! She joins Nicholas Christakis, Aaron Clauset, Tina Eliassi-Rad, Ernesto Estrada, and Stanley Wasserman for the class of 2023.

The Fellowship Program of the Network Science Society recognizes researchers who have made outstanding and significant contributions to network science research and to the community of network scientists. The award is based on exceptional life-long individual contributions to any area of network science research and to the community of network scientists (locally and globally).

New Fellows were honored at the banquet of the NetSci International School and Conference on Network Science July 13, 2023 in Austria, Vienna.

Gonzalez is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and a Physics Research faculty in the Energy Technology Area (ETA) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

Her research focuses on urban sciences, with a focus on the intersections of people with the built and the natural environment and their social networks. Her ultimate goal is to design urban solutions and enable caring development in the use of new technologies.

Gonzalez has developed new tools that impact transportation research and discovered novel approaches to model human mobility and the adoption of energy technologies. She is a recipient of the prestigious Joseph M Sussman Prize for Frontiers in Built Environment best article award in 2021, the UN Foundation award in support of her research studying the consumption patterns of women in the developing world in 2016, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation award to study access to financial services in the developing world in 2016.

Education

Ph.D., Physics, Stuttgart Universität, Germany, 2006

M.Sc., Physics, Central University of Venezuela, Venezuela, 2001

B.Sc., Physics, Simon Bolivar University, Venezuela, 1999

The post Gonzalez Named 2023 Network Science Society Fellow appeared first on PATH | California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology.

2023 SB1 Projects Funded

admin — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 14:35:06 +0000

The Institute of Transportation Studies Berkeley (ITS Berkeley) is excited to award 16 projects through the State of California’s ongoing, annual allocation from the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (Senate Bill 1) and a one-time allocation in the 2021 State Budget for the Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative (RIMI).

ITS Berkeley received 27 proposals, requesting $3.1 million, and awarded 16 projects totaling $1.6 million. Proposals came from a variety of departments and centers across the university and awardees form a diverse group of research interests in transportation.

Designing Microtransit Services to Complement Public Transit

PI: Susan Shaheen, Transportation Sustainability Research (TSRC)(link is external) Center Co-Director

To answer the research questions noted above, our multi-campus, multidisciplinary team proposes an 18-month, multi-pronged and integrated approach. Our team (UC Berkeley (lead), UC Davis, and UC Irvine) has deep experience in conducting feasibility assessments and evaluations of shared mobility, smartphone apps, public transit linkages, and simulation modeling. Our team also has expertise in measuring public transit impacts, transportation equity, and job accessibility. This study builds on the collective past work of our team members. The proposed research examines microtransit use among individuals and will assess who uses the service, for what kinds of trips, and mode substitution. The proposed study also employs simulation models to assess how trade-offs between different service provisions (number of vehicles, types of routes, etc.) affect outcomes. Outcomes the research team will consider include passenger service quality (e.g. wait times and detour times), equity in the provision of service, and costs associated with the service, among others. In addition, these outcomes will be assessed with respect to different levels of fixed route transit. Throughout the duration of the project the team will consult with transit agencies and other entities involved in the provision of microtransit services in each use case and identify key areas for inclusion in performance metrics. A key consideration is the different service models and geographies served by the cases. In this proposal, three Via-supported microtransit case studies are deployed in different land use and built environments and focus on various uses cases, including locations in the Central Valley and East and South Bay. Some focus on blended models (e.g., paratransit and overall mobility integrated approaches and others on commuting). The Yolo County Transportation District (YCTD) operates microtransit services that connect remote rural areas to small urban centers, whereas the service operated by MARTA in Atlanta serves a large metropolitan area.

Clean Miles Standard (SB 1014): Advancing Equity in Electric Vehicle and Charging Access with an Emphasis on Part-Time Ridehail Drivers

PI: Susan Shaheen, TSRC(link is external) Co-Director

California’s SB 1014 (Clean Miles Standard) mandates an increase in zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) among transportation network companies (TNCs) by 2030. There are numerous implementation barriers to this policy including: electric vehicle (EV) costs, charging access, social equity, and labor concerns. Many TNC drivers represent underserved populations, and proposed policies do not distinguish between full- and part-time drivers. However, part-time
drivers make up more than half of all TNC drivers according to expert estimates from Shaheen’s ongoing STRP-funded project. Part-time drivers face economic circumstances distinct from full-time drivers including reduced TNC revenue, managing other jobs, and different travel patterns. Building on our current research (focusing on part-time drivers), this project aims to understand the equity barriers to EV access among part-time TNC drivers, as well as targeted business/policy opportunities to lower implementation barriers. We propose to conduct: 1) part-time driver focus groups (n=2-4); 2) part-time driver interviews (n=~10); 3) multilingual part-time driver surveys (n=500+); 4) expert interviews (n=up to 5) with state agencies and TNCs; 5) TNC trip and charging analysis from activity data; and 6) cost analysis of TNC EV acquisition/use. Finally, we will explore policies tailored to meet the electrification needs of both full-time and part-time TNC drivers.

Toward a Low Carbon California Corridor

PI: Mark Hansen, Civil and Environmental Engineering (link is external) Professor

The project aims to address the substantial carbon emissions generated by intercity travel along the California corridor, spanning from Sacramento through the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles and San Diego. We recognize the need for near term planning and policy actions to expedite the transition towards a low-carbon multimodal transportation system including low carbon air services, road vehicles, and high speed rail. The project’s main objectives are two-fold. Firstly, we will define technically achievable low carbon scenarios for the California Corridor, focusing on 2035 and 2045, evaluating their implications on carbon emissions, cost, level of service, equity, and job creation. Secondly, we will identify the necessary near-term policy and planning actions to actualize each
scenario. By integrating low carbon aviation, high-speed rail, and road transport, this study will contribute to the development of a long-term vision for a Low Carbon California Corridor.

RED-EV: Readiness of Electric infrastructure in Disadvantaged communities for Electric Vehicle charging

PI: Scott Moura, Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH)(link is external) Faculty Director

This research project, named “RED-EV: Readiness of Electric infrastructure in Disadvantaged communities for Electric Vehicle charging” examines the readiness of grid infrastructure in disadvantaged communities (DACs) to support transportation electrification. This project will provide actionable insights into infrastructure investment requirements, utility rate structures, charging control strategies, behavioral shifts, and targeted policy mechanisms to enable deep EV
penetration in California. Relative to existing studies, RED-EV incorporates data-driven geo-spatial models of mobility and distribution grid circuits/components, into an integrated assessment. The project outcomes will include (i) a final report, (ii) a two-page policy brief, and (iii) stakeholder workshops at the project kick-off and conclusion. Ultimately, RED-EV will provide both researchers and policymakers with critical insights to enable deep penetration of
zero-emissions vehicles in California by creating deeper insight into the misunderstood challenges and opportunities in DACs.

Applying Racial, Health and Mobility Equity to Transit-Oriented Development Research

PI: Charisma Acey, Institute of Urban & Regional Development (IURD)(link is external) Research Director

Low income communities of color in formerly redlined neighborhoods face persistent racial disparities and inequities in pollution exposure, access to transportation and safe streets, and inadequate provisions for health, safety, stable housing, clean air, education, and employment. To ensure that new transportation infrastructure investments benefit these communities without exacerbating existing environmental disparities, gentrification, and displacement, this research project employs a case study approach in East Oakland and Richmond, guided by Community Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) principles. The Applying Racial, Health, and Mobility Equity to Transit Oriented Development Research Project wil: 1) Apply a Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA) to examine how “race-neutral” transit-oriented development policies have impacted low income residents’ access to health, economic stability, housing, and social cohesion and belonging; 2) Utilize mixed methods research, including public agency data and community knowledge, to analyze the intersection of transportation, air quality, land use, housing, displacement and health outcomes at regional and neighborhood levels; and 3) Provide for a greater understanding of the regional and neighborhood level impacts of ports and transportation systems and policies.

Mapping the potential of hydrogen and fuel cell electric vehicles across transportation sectors in California

PI: Timothy E. Lipman, TSRC(link is external) Co-Director

This proposal extends recent UC Davis and other work on developing a hydrogen roadmap for California in several ways, and in the context of hydrogen system planning now being led by the ARCHES partnership. That GoBiz-led group is focused on a specific early rollout plan for trucks and buses and some ports vehicles, hoping that this spurs a much larger hydrogen vehicle rollout across modes and sectors. Investigating that broader rollout is the focus of this project, including links to other modes (ports/ships, airports/aircraft, rail, and LDVs). These modes need clarity on hydrogen use potentials, timing and cost, with identification of potential common infrastructure with the HDV sector; also what contributions each can make to system scale-up, cost reduction and sustainability. We will use various techniques (technical and cost comparisons of hydrogen use across modes, vehicle choice analysis of road vehicle uptake, spatial analysis of vehicle travel and relevant stationary uses, infrastructure siting, systems analysis of supply chains) to create new state-level scenarios and identify appropriate targets and milestones. We will create a more detailed roadmap for California’s roll out of a transportation-hydrogen system to 2030 and beyond. It will provide important inputs into ARCHES efforts to create a fully realized and self-sustaining hydrogen system.

Preferences for Infrastructure Investment: Evidence from California’s High-Speed Rail

PI: Cecile Gaubert, Berkeley Economics(link is external) Associate Professor

We study preferences and support for transportation infrastructure investment in the context of California’s High-Speed Rail (CHSR). We provide a detailed model of the expected economic benefits of the project and how they vary over space. The model combines value of time saved and indirect economic benefits. Combining the economic model applied to the initial CHSR design with geographic data on the 2008 Prop1a votes for the CHSR, we then estimate how much
constituents’ preferences are driven by economic benefits vs. political preferences for the project. In turn, we use these estimates to assess a range of possible future CHSR designs, both in terms of economic benefits and popular support. Finally, comparing the 2008 distribution of CHSR stations with alternative feasible placements, we estimate the planner’s preferences for redistribution and popular approval. We solve for the optimal CHSR design under alternative planner preferences. This allows us to identify stations whose initial placement seems to respond to political or distributional concerns, as well as to identify alternative optimal CHSR designs that implement more redistribution towards specific groups.

Lifecycle Emissions and Economic Analysis Tool for Hydrogen Production and Distribution Pathways for Road Transportation in California

PI: Timothy E. Lipman, TSRC(link is external) Co-Director

This project will develop a practitioner and policymaker facing analysis tool called the California Lifecycle and Techno-Economic Assessment for Hydrogen Pathways (CALTEA-H2) model. This public model, developed in a user-friendly spreadsheet format, will provide for a transparent analysis for a range of stakeholders to examine the energy and environmental impacts of hydrogen pathways for transportation modes in California. Along with full lifecycle emissions
impacts, including upstream feedstock and materials, the project will carefully assess both greenhouse gas and key criteria pollutant emissions. Criteria pollutants will also be assessed geographically within the state, including especially pollution impacts (and net benefits) for disadvantaged community (DAC) areas. Along with battery-based electrification for transportation modes, hydrogen and fuel cells are considered an important additional set of technologies for meeting California’s goals for carbon-neutral transportation by 2045, but with a lower level of general understanding that this project is designed to help inform.

Reviving public transit ridership to downtowns and employment centers: Public official, business leader, and commuter perspectives and strategies for moving forward

PI: Elizabeth Deakin, Department of City and Regional Planning(link is external) (DCRP) Professor Emerita

Many downtowns and other major activity centers in California are struggling, with reduced overall activity post-COVID and low transit ridership. This threatens the state’s ability to meet climate commitments and improve equity outcomes, expand economic prosperity, and maintain sound public finances. In this environment, some argue that the traditional employment-focused “central business district” is anachronistic and a more appropriate and resilient strategy for downtowns – and for shopping centers and business parks as well – is to become a mixed-use “central social district,” often with a significant increase in residential population. Often missing in such discussions are the impacts on local and regional transit ridership. This study will look at transit use, development patterns, and revitalization strategies in five San Francisco Bay Area downtowns of differing sizes, functions, and transit orientation. In each downtown
we will interview city officials, transit officials, and real estate experts to gather information on revitalization proposals. These will form the basis for scenarios for downtown change. We then will evaluate the scenarios through focus groups and additional interviews. We will develop policy recommendations for downtowns of various types that could support the greater concentration of downtown activities that attract significant levels of transit ridership.

Reoptimizing Public Transportation for Zero-Emission Suburban Services

PI: Michael Cassidy, Civil and Environmental Engineering(link is external) Professor

Modeling work will be pursued in consideration of California’s Innovative Clean Transit rule, with focus on suburban settings, where costs per transit trip served are high. The goal is to provide detailed and much-needed guidance that enable: (i) bus agencies to respond to ICT in ways that best fit location-specific needs of the state’s varied suburban communities; and (ii) policymakers to enact targeted subsidy schemes, worker compensation packages and other incentives that make the optimal responses viable for all stakeholders. Stakeholders can include shared mobility firms that are induced to operate large fleets of electric, shared-ride taxis in cooperative ways that serve society’s interests beyond their own. Teams at Davis and Berkeley will work with agency partners throughout the 2-year project, first to identify the varied costs of ICT and of inequitable responses. Mathematical models and computer simulations will be used to identify optimal short-run responses for bus agencies; and longer-run responses that establish the cooperative, socially optimal bus/taxi systems envisioned. Parametric tests will be used to produce an ICT guidebook of fully detailed system designs and smart incentives for zero-emission suburban mobility.

Transit System Vulnerability and Resilience

PI: Kenichi Soga, Berkeley Center for Smart Infrastructure(link is external) Director

Certain nodes in transportation networks are especially critical to system functionality, such as interchange stations where multiple lines with high utilization rates pass through. Accordingly, the seismic resilience of such nodes disproportionately impacts the ability of the urban centers in which they are located to recover following a disastrous earthquake. This collaborative project will develop a methodology to assess seismic hazard and risk at critical transit nodes, their recovery, and impact on the resilience and recovery performance of regional multimodal transportation systems. The project team involves multi-campus expertise on seismic hazards, soil-structure interaction, transportation network modeling, organizational communications, and system recovery, aiming to make a comprehensive assessment of the resilience of transportation systems from both structural and transportation perspectives. Apart from the technical modeling, the project will also engage public agency and private company stakeholders continuously through expert interviews and advisory meetings, to identify key scenarios and parameters, with the ultimate goal to build the capacity for the stakeholders for understanding the resilience from a system, multidisciplinary perspective.

Labor Unions in Sustainable Transport Policy

PI: Daniel G. Chatman, DCRP(link is external) Chair

Transit workers are widely unionized in California and these roles remain some of the highest paying, highest quality jobs available to workers without a college degree. At the same time, the state faces a shortage of transit workers. Unions—as well as supporting wage growth, worker protections and overall job quality—are also policy actors shaping both the future of industries and engaging with wider social, economic, and political questions, including transportation sustainability and equity. Unions’ role in a high road decarbonization tradition in transport remains relatively unexplored. Transit agencies and their workforce must contend with change and evolution of transit to meet goals of VMT reduction. This includes improved last mile connectivity, integration or competition with micromobility and TNCs, and the challenges of possible long-term changes in downtown office occupancy and declines in commuter travel.
This also comes in tandem with land use and urban planning policies, such as road pricing, transit-oriented development and parking regulations. This study will explore unions’ positions on these topics in California, and develop policy recommendations for engaging with transport workers’ unions as partners to reflect transport sustainability, workforce development, and broader social equity goals.

Customer-Oriented Open Data for Accessible Transit: A Case Study in Contra Costa County

PI: Huadong Meng, PATH(link is external) Assistant Research Engineer

Accessible Transit (AT) is a type of microtransit service designed for travelers with special needs, particularly seniors and people with disabilities who do not drive. Previous studies and policy discussions focused on consultation through stakeholder workshops, coordination meetings, and customer surveys.
However, there has been little effort to closely examine operational data for accessible transit service, including system capabilities, service performance, and customer satisfaction. This project aims to investigate the needs and the approach to establish an open data framework that enables responsive,
informative, and cooperative transit services. Based on the conclusions from previous studies and practices, the key challenges for this study arise
from the characteristics of “on-demand” and “customer-oriented” services that go beyond traditional fixed-route transit options and focus on accessibility. The study aims to find out how open data from both transit providers and travelers can benefit the entire transit system, as well as to identify the gaps. Additionally, an operational data portal is planned to be designed to reflect the complexity of demand, operations, and interactions between operators and passengers.
Given the unequal service capabilities of different mobility providers, the participation and engagement of stakeholders will be crucial for this project.

Developing an Equity-Focused, City-Scale Framework for Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Siting and Investment

PI: Kenneth Paul Alex, Berkeley Law Project Climate(link is external) Director

California policymakers have set ambitious targets to transition from gasoline-powered to electric vehicles, including policies to phase out new fossil fuel vehicles by the mid-2030s and to add over 85,000 megawatts of new grid capacity to support those vehicles, but access to of parking space at multi-family homes, and limited grid infrastructure. City governments need deliberate and strategic plans for infrastructure development—private and public—to ensure that these communities are not left behind in California’s EV transition. The proposed project would develop a comprehensive, open-source data analysis and mapping
framework for equity-focused electric vehicle (EV) and mobility infrastructure siting and investment for cities of all sizes throughout California. Building on an existing collaboration between CLEE and ERG through CLEE’s EV Equity Initiative, the project would identify, prioritize, and map criteria for potential infrastructure locations such as socioeconomic indicators and community demographics, pollution burdens, transportation and employment access, housing
types, and more. The result would be a prioritization framework that augments CalEnviroScreen and a set of mapping tools for civil society, local governments and the State to use in private sector engagement, community forums, and public decision-making.

A Data Science Primer for Transportation Professionals

PI: Jane Macfarlane, Smart Cities Research Center(link is external) Director

The transportation sector is experiencing a digital transformation as a consequence of advanced technologies that provide new sensing information and advanced algorithms for analyzing transportation infrastructure performance and design. This project addresses the workforce development needs of government organizations that seek to leverage these technologies, but lack the data science background necessary to evaluate new data sources and design data analytics for their own purpose. A key goal of this project will be to design a week-long professional development course for employees of government organizations that do not have computer science skills. It will provide an overview of data science specifically applied to transportation related problems. Real-world open-source transportation related data sets will provide a foundation for understanding how to evaluate quality and usefulness of datasets. Applied analytics will be demonstrated to support understanding of transformations and algorithms that can create valuable derived data for supporting decision making and strategy development. Attendees will be encouraged to bring data that they work with regularly so that useful results will be directly seen.

Regional-scale network and traffic resilience understood through Mobiliti

PI: Anthony Patire, PATH(link is external) Program Leader and Research and Development Engineer

This proposal is for a seed grant to engage with California stakeholders to prioritize what needs to be done to improve an existing tool to address practical questions about priority area H2: Infrastructure resilience, and F6: Reduced road and parking capacity. The existing tool, Mobiliti, is a cutting-edge software platform developed in the UC Berkeley Smart Cities Research Center, to simulate the movement of an entire population through a regional road network by leveraging high performance computing (HPC) and cloud resources. For the entire San Francisco Bay area (population ~8 million), the system can simulate one day of trips in under four minutes. This game-changing performance opens up new possibilities to ask “what if” scenarios and to iterate rapidly to develop new insights. Ideas for scenarios will be solicited from the City of San Jose and other California stakeholders. Analytics resulting from the scenarios will be presented and iterated upon. This experience will inform the development of a research roadmap. The roadmap will identify research gaps and promising applications; prioritize future development of Mobiliti capabilities and toolchain elements; define a series of Mobiliti scenarios for exploration; and, consider pathways toward
wider use of the Mobiliti platform.

The post 2023 SB1 Projects Funded appeared first on PATH | California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology.

Dai, Hansen Featured at the FAA Machine Learning Workshop

admin — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 14:23:13 +0000

On June 13, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the NEXTOR(link is external) consortium held a Machine Learning Workshop to stimulate thoughts and discussions on how the fast-growing machine learning techniques can be used for problems of interest to the FAA. Berkeley ITS faculty Mark Hansen and recent alumnus Lu Dai (’22) were moderator and panelist, respectively, for the FAA Machine Learning workshop. The workshop brought together more than 100 FAA employees, contractors and researchers to engage in a cross-disciplinary dialogue and discuss current research work, methodological approaches, and challenges to advance the application of machine learning in aviation research.

Dr. Lu Dai drew on her dissertation work – “Data-Driven Real-Time Predictive Risk Intelligence: A Case Study for Go-Arounds” – to share with attendees her research experience and perspectives on applying machine learning techniques for aviation research. The presented work includes anomaly detection algorithm to identify risky flight operations from unlabeled data, statistical models to quantify the factor contributions to the event occurrence, generative adversarial networks to augment the minority class, sequential learners to continuously monitor developing risks, and a data streaming pipeline for real-time deployment. This work has been included in the 2021 NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and is recently sponsored by Berkeley DeepDrive(link is external) to migrate the efforts for autonomous driving vehicle-to-vehicle conflict identification.

In addition to Dai’s talk, Dr. Alexander Estes from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Lance Sherry from George Mason University, and ITS alumnus Dr. Yu Zhang (’08) from the University of South Florida also offer their expertise and vision in the areas of air traffic management, dispatch operations, and multi-airport systems. After the presentations, Dr. Mark Hansen moderated a panel discussion.

“There was good interaction with the audience and positive discussions,” says Dave Knorr, one of the workshop organizers and the FAA Division Manager, “This workshop helps get folks thinking more about applications.”

——

Dr. Mark Hansen is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the UC Berkeley. He graduated from Yale with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Philosophy in 1980, and has a PhD in Engineering Science and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Hansen worked as a physicist at the Environmental Protection Agency. Since joining the Berkeley faculty in 1988, he has led transportation research projects in urban transportation planning, air transport systems modeling, air traffic flow management, aviation systems performance analysis, aviation safety, aviation environmental analysis, and air transport economics. He has taught graduate and undergraduate transportation courses in economics, systems analysis, planning, probability and statistics, and air transportation. Professor Hansen is the Berkeley co-director of the National Center of Excellence in Aviation Operations Research, a multi-university consortium sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration. He is former Chair of Transportation Research Board Committee AV-060, Airport and Airspace Capacity and Delay. He has served as Associate Editor of Operations Research and Transportation Research E. He is a recipient of the Frances McKelvey award for his research and teaching in aviation, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Nanjing, China.

Dr. Lu Dai holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in CEE from UC Berkeley, with minors in Machine Learning and Statistics. She was advised by Prof. Mark Hansen, and was a researcher affiliated with NEXTOR and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her research broadly focuses on developing data-driven learning algorithms and statistical models to solve real-world problems. She has collaborated with NASA, FAA, Lawrence National Lab, and ATAC Corporation on multiple research projects covering air traffic management, aviation safety, network modeling, urban transportation planning, system performance and reliability. Her dissertation research on Data-Driven Real-Time Predictive Risk Intelligence for Go-Arounds has been included in the NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program in 2021. Dr. Dai was named by MIT as the “Rising Stars in CEE” in 2021, and is the recipient of the FAA Young Scientists Grant (2018), the Robert P. Wadell Fellowship for Civil Engineering Innovation (2019 – 2021), the INFORMS AAS Best Student Presentation first-place winner (2021), as well as several Best Paper Awards from international conferences.

The post Dai, Hansen Featured at the FAA Machine Learning Workshop appeared first on PATH | California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology.