This study assesses the impact of high-speed rail on accessibility to employment and educational opportunities for the census tracts in the California Central Valley. The accessibility is assessed for driving only mode and transit only mode for the baseline scenario and driving plus HSR mode and transit plus HSR mode for the scenario after HSR start operation. The study plots the accessibility distribution for census tracts and calculate the spatial equality index of accessibility distribution to compare the accessibility before and after HSR starts operation, as well as the accessibility for communities of concern (CoCs). The findings include multiple aspects. Most importantly, it finds that HSR yields the greatest accessibility gains to the most vulnerable communities, which we term CoC Level 2 and Level 3 communities. This improvement is attained for both employment and education accessibility, and whether HSR access/egress is by driving or transit. Second, it is also the case that vulnerable communities have higher baseline accessibilities as a result of being located in urban areas. Third, HSR accessibility gains are restricted to higher travel time thresholds, generally 60 min or greater. Fourth, driving mode has consistently higher accessibility as well as accessibility improvement due to HSR than transit mode. Fifth, while the accessibility improvement brought by HSR is highly spatially uneven, HSR slightly equalizes the distribution of accessibility across census tracts under the driving + HSR scenario.

Related Publications

policy brief

California’s High-Speed Rail Yields the Greatest Accessibility Gains to the Most Vulnerable Communities

published journal article

Teleworkers and Physical Commuters During the COVID-19 Pandemic: the Change in Mobility Related Attitudes and the Intention to Telecommute in the Future

Publication Date

April 22, 2025

Associated Project

Assessing Temporary and Long-Lasting Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Travel in California

Author(s)

Jai Malik, Giovanni Circella, Xiatian Iogansen

Areas of Expertise

Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment

View published journal article

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted commuting habits, with many individuals shifting to telecommuting. This study examines the impact of disrupted commuting habits on psychological constructs, such as attitudes or active lifestyle. Using longitudinal survey data from the California panel study of emerging transportation, the study compares two groups (those who started telecommuting, N = 458, and those who continued physically commuting, N = 523) at two points (early pandemic 2020 and later pandemic 2021). Exploratory factor analysis was used to extract the latent psychological constructs and structural equation modeling was used to model the intention to telecommute in the future for each year. Results show that some psychological constructs (such as attitude toward sustainable modes) remain stable across groups and time, while others (such as concern about pathogens) depend on both group and stage of the pandemic. The intention to telecommute in the future remains high and is mainly dependent on individuals’ attitude toward it and their tech-savviness, rather than on a concern about pathogens or demographics. The findings may inform policies that promote sustainable and flexible mobility options, like telecommuting, that have the potential to enhance work-life balance in a post-pandemic world.

Related Publications

research report

Changes in Activity-Travel Patterns and Vehicle Ownership During the COVID-19 Pandemic in California

policy brief

Assessing the Shift to Remote and Hybrid Work in California throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

research report

Barriers to Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Transportation Part 2: Investigating Evolving Travel Behaviors in the Post-Pandemic Period in California

published journal article

Longitudinal Analysis of COVID-19 Impacts on Mobility: An Early Snapshot of the Emerging Changes in Travel Behavior

conference paper

Latent Class Analysis of Changes in the Use of Public Transportation in The Greater Los Angeles Region during the COVID-19 Pandemic

preprint journal article

Estimating the Electricity System Benefits of Scaling up E-Bike Usage in California

Associated Project

Quantifying the Electric Grid Cost Savings of Increasing E-Bike Mode Share

Areas of Expertise

Public Transit, Shared Mobility, & Active Transportation Zero-Emission Vehicles & Low-Carbon Fuels

View preprint journal article

Related Publications

policy brief

Shifting Future Electric Vehicle Trips to e-Bikes Could Help Reduce Electricity Demand at Critical Times in California

policy brief

Charging-as-a-Service is an Innovative Business Model that Could Help with California’s Vehicle Electrification Goals

Publication Date

April 1, 2025

Associated Project

Exploring the Role of Charging-as-a-Service in Overcoming Barriers to Zero-Emission Vehicle Adoption

Author(s)

Angela Yun, Matthew D. Dean

Areas of Expertise

Zero-Emission Vehicles & Low-Carbon Fuels

View policy brief

Abstract

Access to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is critical to advancing California’s EV adoption goals. The California Energy Commission has projected the state needs “nearly 1.2 million” chargers by 2030 “to meet the fueling demands of 7.5 million passenger plug-in electric vehicles.” Currently, California has about 152,000 publicly available EV chargers.

Innovative asset ownership models, like charging-as-a-service (CaaS), could help overcome some of the barriers to deploying and maintaining charging infrastructure. For example, CaaS providers could procure, install, maintain, and replace charging equipment for subscription customers. To better understand how CaaS solutions could expand EV use and charging access, this researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 CaaS companies, electric utilities, and customers to identify the perceptions, challenges, and opportunities of the CaaS business model in addressing charging station needs in California.

Related Publications

blog

How a Charging-As-A-Service Model Could Support and Expand Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

research report

Assessing the Charging-as-a-Service (CaaS) Model for EV Charging Deployment in California

policy brief

California’s High-Speed Rail Yields the Greatest Accessibility Gains to the Most Vulnerable Communities

Publication Date

April 1, 2025

Associated Project

Assessing and Improving the Equity Impacts of California High-Speed Rail

Author(s)

Kaijing Ding, Mark Hansen

Areas of Expertise

Public Transit, Shared Mobility, & Active Transportation

View policy brief

Abstract

A major criticism of California’s high-speed rail project is that it will mainly serve urban elites and that low-income people and people of color likely won’t be able to afford the fares. Also, the project may benefit the middle-income group the least since the proposed station locations, usually in or near city centers, will probably serve high- and low-income populations better than middle-income families. Besides these arguments, however, there are very few studies that have analyzed the equity impacts of California’s high-speed rail project. Current studies have either focused on benefits to California residents as a whole with little consideration to the specific opportunities for how high- speed rail will improve the lives of marginalized groups; or only studied the disproportionate adverse impacts received by marginalized groups.

Related Publications

research report

Assessing and Improving the Equity Impacts of California High-Speed Rail

research report

Enhanced Perception with Cooperation between Connected Automated Vehicles and Smart Infrastructure

Publication Date

April 1, 2025

Associated Project

Pilot Study: Smart Infrastructure for Automated Driving

Author(s)

Xin Xia, Letian Gao, Alfred Chen, Jiaqi Ma, Zhaoliang Zheng, Yunpeng Luo, Fayzah Alshammari, Hao Xiang

Areas of Expertise

Infrastructure Delivery, Operations, & Resilience Intelligent Transportation Systems, Emerging Technologies, & Big Data

View research report

Abstract

This project showcased how advanced infrastructure data supports connected automated driving systems in perceiving their surroundings cooperatively. The UCLA Mobility Lab established a smart intersection on the UCLA main campus, collecting infrastructure LiDAR data and combining it with sensor and global navigation satellite system data for research on cooperative perception. It also examined the system’s resilience to data spoofing attacks via the V2X channel from a compromised onboard unit (OBU), evaluating different attack scenarios to understand emerging security risks in V2X-based cooperative perception technologies.