Transportation policy and planning comprises the whole context of economic, social, and political actions that determine the distribution of development, goods, and services. Economic development planning, environmental planning, housing and community development, and urban design are all linked by travel and transportation systems. Transportation access significantly affects quality of life, and differences in opportunities between rich and poor, men and women, young and old, and people of different racial, ethnic and social origins. Thus, the analysis of transportation policy includes questions of production and distribution – how efficiently are services provided, who pays, and who benefits? Such transportation questions in turn lead to more fundamental ones about the functions of planning and public policy.

The Transportation Policy and Planning program in Urban Planning gives students a broad overview of current transportation policy and planning issues. While the program emphasizes domestic urban transportation policy, all aspects of transportation policy and planning – inter-city, international, goods movement, and so on – are covered. Students learn about the relationships between transportation systems and metropolitan development patterns; they debate policies to address traffic congestion and urban sprawl; they explore proposals for high-tech traveler information systems within cities and high-speed rail systems between cities; they use travel forecasting models to predict travel behavior; they study the relationships between transportation access, poverty, and economic development; they learn about transportation finance at the federal, state, and local levels; and they examine policies and programs that aim to reduce the environmental costs of mobility.

Many of the transportation courses include field visits to meet with transportation policy experts at places like the Port of Long Beach, Union Station/Gateway Center, and the Los Angeles International Airport. Since 2000, student-initiated Comparative Transportation Policy courses have taken students to Berlin, London, and Mumbai (Bombay) for a week of field trips and meetings with local transportation and planning officials. In addition, the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies offers transportation policy research opportunities for dozens of students each year, sponsors an ongoing lecture series that brings important transportation speakers from government, research, and private industry to the UCLA campus, and provides fellowship support to over a dozen graduate transportation policy and planning student each year.