Travel Behavior Changes Among Users of Partially Automated Vehicles

Status

Complete

Project Timeline

October 1, 2018 - December 31, 2019

Principal Investigator

Project Team

Project Summary

Current research on vehicle automation is primarily focused on fully automated vehicles, however partially-automated vehicles are already available on the market. These vehicles change the utility of driving (e.g., reduced driver fatigue, increased ability to multitask) and in turn have the potential to change travel patterns and increases vehicle miles travelled (VMT). These changes may have negative consequences for road networks and the environment. This project is one of the first to investigate the impact partially-automated vehicles are having on travel behavior. Researchers at UC Davis conducted in-depth interviews with 36 Tesla owners who have and use the Autopilot feature. Results from the interviews show that partial automation leads to consumers travelling by car more and that they are more willing to drive in congested traffic. These changes are due to increased comfort, reduced stress, and increased relaxation due to the partial automation system, and due to the lower running costs of a battery electric vehicle.

Investigating the Influence of Dockless Electric Bike-share on Travel Behavior, Attitudes, Health, and Equity

Status

Complete

Project Timeline

October 1, 2018 - September 30, 2019

Principal Investigator

Project Team

Campus(es)

UC Davis

Project Summary

Cities have implemented bike share systems as a strategy for expanding mobility options, increasing physical activity, and improving the sustainability of the transportation system. These systems have attracted substantial ridership, but the impact on overall levels of bicycling and other modes of travel have not been well documented, and evidence for in-equitable systems is widespread. Two recent technological advancements in shared mobility—electric assisted bikes and scooters, and dock-less parking—may help improve equity and expand the user base of traditional bike share systems. However, little is known about dock-less and e-bike share’s influence on travel behavior. The goal of this study is to examine the travel behavior and attitudes of users and non-users of Sacramento Area Council of Governments’ (SACOG) new dock-less electric-bike share system. This study includes the “after” phase of an already completed “before” portion of the “before-and-after” study of residents in the greater Sacramento area. By re-surveying residents (many of whom are not bike share users), this project will be able to measure how the bike share system influenced general travel behavior and attitudes. In addition, this project will survey bike share users twice over the course of a year. Survey questions will ask about travel behavior before the e-bike share (through retrospective questions), during early use of e-bike share, and late use of e-bike share.

Moving Metro Toward Transit Oriented Communities

Status

Complete

Project Timeline

September 1, 2017 - June 30, 2018

Principal Investigator

Martin Wachs

Project Team

Cameron Olson, Kay Sasaki, Nathan Serafin, Shayne Smith, Sarah Stockham, Warren Wells, Jaimee Lederman, Jasneet Bains, Krystian Boreyko, Katrina Brahmer, Dan Broder, Andrés Carrasquillo, Jordan Hallman, Matthew Hartzell

Project Summary

Investment in public transportation systems bring the potential for temporary and permanent neighborhood disruption, including displacement, gentrification, and changes in community character. This research seeks to develop a set of policy recommendations for Los Angeles Metro, which is increasingly involved in land use planning in station areas. First, the team will analyze Metro’s potential involvement and influence in the land market around stations, both on the property it owns and on property it does not own. The areas of analysis include: 1) alternative ownership structures such as Community Land Trusts and limited equity corporations, and 2) the incentives and planning tools Metro can utilize to further the goals of Metro Transit-Oriented Community (TOC) at the station area level. Second, the team will evaluate land use policies, plans, and funding mechanisms that have relevance to Metro’s network of TOCs within a subset of the 29 cities that Metro’s rail and high-capacity bus network serves. The findings of this task provide guidance for Metro and its stakeholders on how to navigate the complex network of policies, including land use regulations and statewide mandates, that affect TOC development. In Phase 1 of the project, the team examines state, regional, and city-level policies in preparation for the applied case studies in Phase 2, when a set of corridor and station-specific recommendations will be developed. The third task develops a typology that describes the different types of Metro rail and bus rapid transit (BRT) station areas in Los Angeles County based on existing use, access, and urban form on a continuum between low-density, outlying stations and high-density, central stations. The task also identifies station areas with high potential to transition along that continuum from less transit-supportive to more transit-supportive. Finally, the team will explore how Metro might improve upon existing practices of corridor planning by considering its connection with TOC planning policies.

Gaining Wait? Analyzing the Congestion Impacts of Road Diets in Los Angeles

Status

Complete

Project Timeline

September 1, 2017

Principal Investigator

Dylan Jouliot

Project Team

Project Summary

While numerous studies have shown road diets can greatly reduce the number and severity of collisions, especially for pedestrians and cyclists, the public response to many of the changes implemented in Los Angeles has been quite negative. Angry residents and commuters have organized protests of the roadway changes, initiated campaigns to recall city councilmembers who have supported the changes and even successfully lobbied to have road diets undone and converted back to their previous state. This negative response has largely centered on claims of large increases in congestion and travel times along the streets where the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) has removed lanes. The Active Transportation and Special Programs (ATSP) team of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Southern California region, has a strong interest in improving traffic safety in the region, and seeks research to determine if these proven safety improvement measures cause the delays and increases in congestion that opponents claim. To examine this issue the graduate student researcher surveyed existing literature on road diets and their congestion impacts, analyzed before and after LADOT daily traffic volume data for a number of street segments where the city installed road diets and nearby parallel segments where no change was made, and observed current conditions of ten intersections within the selected street segments to assess potential ongoing delay and congestion in the study corridors. The analysis finds an overall increase in traffic volumes on the selected road diet corridors of 8 percent, while volumes decreased very slightly on nearby parallel corridors. While the limitations of using daily traffic volume data to estimate congestion mean that these results do not disprove the possibility of increased congestion after road diet installations, the fact that more vehicles passed through road diet corridors without corresponding increases in volumes on nearby streets suggests that drivers did not divert to nearby streets as might be expected with increases in congestion and delay. Field observations of representative intersections for each of the four road diet corridors and their respective control corridors suggest that current lane configurations have not negatively affected peak-hour traffic flow or level of service on either the road diet or control corridor.

Travel Behavior Impacts of Transportation Demand Management Policies: May is Bike Month in Sacramento, California

Status

Complete

Project Timeline

July 1, 2018 - September 30, 2019

Principal Investigator

Project Team

Farzad Alemi, Jai Malik

Project Summary

Active modes of transportation like bicycling and walking are extremely beneficial to society. Encouraging more people to bike and walk helps reduce the amount of travel people may make by car (i.e., vehicle miles travelled) and in turn helps to reduce congestion and transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants. Bicycling and walking also have direct and positive health impacts. A number of steps have been taken to promote active transportation in cities and regions, including awareness campaigns, transportation demand management (TDM) policies, building new bicycling infrastructure, and the launch of bikesharing programs. However, it is often unclear how much impact a specific strategy can have on actual rates of bicycling and walking in a community or region. UC Davis is assisting the Sacramento Council of Governments (SACOG) in evaluating the impact of the agency’s ‘May is Bike Month’ campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to motivate residents working and/or living in the region to start using (or increase use of) bicycles as a mode of transportation. SACOG conducted a survey as part of the 2018 “May is Bike Month” campaign, which collected self-reported information from participants on the frequency of bicycling before and after the campaign, perceived barriers to bicycling, motivations for bicycling, travel habits, household and individual sociodemographic, place of residence of the participants. UC Davis is analyzing the survey data to gain a better understanding of the role land use characteristics and transit accessibility have on bicycling rates. This information will be used to understand the variables that affect individuals’ decisions to increase, decrease or not change the level of bicycling during and after the end of the ‘May is Bike Month’ campaign. This project helps SACOG identify the groups which are most and least receptive to the campaign, and ways these groups of individuals have reacted (in terms of changing their bicycling behavior) in response to the campaign. SACOG can use this information to make strategic changes to its annual “May is Bike Month” campaign in order to optimize the campaign’s effectiveness in future years, and/or coordinate the campaign with additional initiatives to promote bicycling in the Sacramento region.

Develop plan to measure performance of broader TDM program (SACOG TDM match)

Status

Complete

Project Timeline

July 1, 2018 - September 30, 2019

Principal Investigator

Mollie Cohen D'Agostino

Campus(es)

UC Davis

Project Summary

[No abstract found on website]

Transportation Plans: Their Informational Content and Use Patterns in Southern California

Status

Complete

Project Timeline

January 1, 2018 - December 31, 2018

Principal Investigator

Campus(es)

UC Irvine

Project Summary

Since 1937, “all cities and counties [have been] required to adopt master plans [called ‘general plans’ nowadays] … [and, in 1955] land use and circulation elements [became] required in the general plan” (California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, 2003). Recently, as the California Complete Streets Act (AB 1358) is implemented, “all cities and counties, upon the next update of their circulation element, must plan for the development of multimodal transportation networks.” Other state legislation (e.g., SB 375) has placed emphasis on internal consistency (e.g., consistency of a locality’s circulation element with other general plan elements or policies it has adopted) and cooperation among jurisdictions to achieve regional Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction targets and other goals set included in the Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) and Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). However, despite the state-level guidelines and requirements, general plan making rests with individual localities, and the content/structure of plans does vary markedly across cities. Little is known about the informational contents of these plans and their use patterns. This project reviewed the content of eight recently adopted general plans in Orange County and conducted a plan use survey and follow-up analysis of survey responses. All plans analyzed were found to convey a variety of information about their visions, goals, policies, and implementation strategies, but the plan content analysis revealed substantial variation in the way cities composed their general plans and integrated them with other plans/players. Compared to land use elements, circulation elements tended to focus more on their connections with other agencies than on internal consistency. The plan use survey yielded a low response rate which may indicate limited use of plans in the field. However, a majority of the survey responses were positive about the usefulness and usability of general plans.

Does Bundled Parking Influence Travel Behavior?

Status

Complete

Project Timeline

September 1, 2017

Principal Investigator

Miriam Pinski

Project Team

Campus(es)

UCLA

Project Summary

Parking requirements hide the cost of storing a vehicle in housing costs, making driving a more attractive option for vehicle owners than using alternative modes of transportation.This study uses data from the 2013 American Housing Survey to determine if the presence of bundled parking is associated with a household’s transportation mode choice. After controlling for differences in socioeconomic and built environment characteristics, the presence of bundled parking is found to be associated with a 27 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled. Bundled households drive approximately 3,800 miles more, spend nearly $580 more on gasoline, and emit 14.47 more metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. Bundled parking is also negatively correlated to transit use, and households with unbundled parking are significantly more likely to be frequent transit users. This provides further evidence for the already strong case against parking requirements.

Efficient Mobility Portfolio Schemes for Integrated, Intermodal, and Incentivized Shared Transportation

Status

In Progress

Project Timeline

January 1, 2018 - December 31, 2018

Principal Investigator

Project Summary

Flexible transportation options such as ridesharing, carsharing, and bikesharing can be effective feeders for public transportation service because these new options have higher accessibility to travelers’ origin and destination. The private sector that now plays an increasing role as a component of urban transportation can augment public transportation accessibility. In other words, Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) and Mobility Service Providers (MSPs) can be complementary modes to transit system by providing shared use of transportation capacity. This option requires a matching algorithm between drivers and riders. Implementing a comprehensive multi-modal multiple-option shared travel system in an urban area is required to improve efficiency of transportation systems. This integrated platform can identify various travel options and recommends travelers with tailored information. Some options might have a route consisting of multiple modes (i.e.: ridesharing- transit-bikesharing). Some options might suggest a detour, compared to the shortest path what user’s primary mode has. To compensate the loss of users’ utility by giving up their primary mode and to encourage use of alternative mode option, the optimal incentive scheme will be proposed. This proposal is to study the benefits of a smart mobility portfolio which is a trip planning system integrating multiple travel modes and including an incentive scheme. A smart mobility portfolio can provide time-dependent trip plans across multiple modes that include several options such as shared-cars, shared-rides, bikesharing, bus/rail transit and combinations of travel modes. Four main components of this system are: 1) to identify travel options for achieving efficiency under current traffic conditions and supply conditions, 2) to calculate proper amounts of incentive to attract people to choose one of the options, 3) to provide travelers with the best travel options among these alternatives, and 4) to examine the impact of the proposed method to entire transportation systems and to update the parameters in the model. Encouraging people to change their current travel behavior through the smart mobility portfolio platform, researchers expect the improvement of traffic network efficiencies and the contribution to eco-friendly environment by reducing traffic congestion.

Simulating Life with Personally-Owned Autonomous Vehicles through a Naturalistic Experiment with Personal Drivers

Status

Complete

Project Timeline

July 1, 2017 - December 31, 2020

Principal Investigator

Project Team

Project Summary

To date, little is known about how travel will change with self-driving vehicles. The biggest difference in using a self-driving car, and arguably the feature that will cause the most change in travel behavior, is not having to be behind the wheel driving the car or having to be in the car at all as it travels from one place to another. Existing behavioral studies exploring this unknown future are limited because they either focus on safety and human factors rather than travel behavior, assume travel behavior implications, or ask about hypothetical scenarios that are unfamiliar to the subjects. This project will explore the potential impacts of self-driving vehicle deployment on travel patterns and behavior through a naturalistic experiment. Households in the greater Sacramento area will be recruited to participate in a three-week travel study. All travel during this time will be monitored and tracked. At the beginning of the three-week period, participants will take part in a one-on-one entrance interview to receive an overview of self-driving cars and share their attitudes toward self-driving cars. During the second week, participants will have access to a professional driver for a set block of time. Having access to a driver will relieve participants from the duty of personally driving or physically being in a car when the car is making trips, while maintaining the other aspects of owning a personal vehicle (e.g. fuel and other vehicle costs). Upon completion of the three-period, participants will take part in an exit survey similar to the entrance survey in terms of (re)asking about attitudes toward self-driving cars in addition to being asked about their experience with the simulated self-driving car experience. This experiment leverages a framework that has already been beta tested providing evidence of value.