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Traffic collisions are just one example of the negative externalities resulting from motorized transportation, along with noise, congestion, localized air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Although some crashes involve only non-motorized modes, most pedestrian and bicycle crashes involve automobiles and other large motorized vehicles. While reducing pedestrian and bicycle collisions should be a priority everywhere, reducing them in Southern California has unique importance. In 2016, California had the 10th most pedestrian fatalities per resident in the United States, and SCAG anticipates an increase in walking and bicycling throughout the region over the next few decades.This study supports the State of California and SCAG’s objectives in decreasing traffic fatalities while increasing active transportation by identifying high-collision areas, ranking which factors predict crashes, and demonstrating that these areas tend to be low-income communities and communities of color. The research team will use linear regression models and geographic information systems software to meet their objectives.

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As part of the city’s Vision Zero policy goal put forth by Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2015 to eliminate traffic related deaths on city streets, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) has reconfigured a number of stretches of roadway in the city, removing lanes and installing what are commonly known as “road diets.” 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. This negative response has largely centered on claims of large increases in congestion and travel times along the streets where the LADOT has removed lanes.To examine this issue the research team will survey existing literature on road diets and their congestion impacts, analyze 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 observe current conditions of ten intersections within the selected street segments to assess potential ongoing delay and congestion in the study corridors.

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California has dual policy goals to reduce vehicle dependency and make housing more affordable. Parking requirements can hide the cost of storing a vehicle in housing costs, making driving seem to be a more attractive option for vehicle owners than using alternative modes of transportation.While researchers have already identified the link between driving behavior and bundled parking, no study has studied this link using a national-level data set that includes detailed data on a household’s travel behavior and whether that household’s housing cost includes parking. In this study I will use data from the 2013 American Housing Survey to determine whether the presence of bundled parking influences a household’s transportation mode choice. I hypothesize that the presence of bundled parking will reduce vehicle use. This provides further evidence for the already strong case against parking requirements.

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In the last ten years transit use in Southern California has fallen significantly. This report investigates that falling transit use. The project examines patterns of transit service and patronage over time and across the region and considers an array of explanations for falling transit use: declining transit service levels, eroding transit service quality, rising fares, falling fuel prices, the growth of Lyft and Uber, the migration of frequent transit users to outlying neighborhoods with less transit service, and rising vehicle ownership. While all of these factors probably play some role, the research concludes that the most significant factor is increased motor vehicle access, particularly among low-income households that have traditionally supplied the region with its most frequent and reliable transit users.

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The 85th percentile rule is a widespread rule of thumb used for setting speed limits on public roads. Developed in the 1960s for use on rural two-lane highways in the US, this rule has been increasingly criticized as an inappropriate method for setting speed limits, especially in urban areas. The reasons behind the acceptance and continued use of this rule vary and are not uniform between engineers, law enforcement officers, and legislators.This study will explore the research and evidence to support using the 85th percentile rule for setting the speed limit, particularly in urban areas. The study will review the evolution of the rule and its application in cities primarily using interviews conducted with engineers, law enforcement officers, local political leadership, and legislators in the City of Los Angeles.

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This capstone project was completed in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Urban & Regional Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

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Researchers have been developing innovative methods for integrated traffic management and communications networking systems for autonomous transportation systems. These models provide for optimal on-ramp merging and adaptive formation of vehicular flows across highway lanes, with the goal of achieving high vehicular flow rates while reducing queueing delays. To effectively control vehicular flows and formations across the highway, researchers have developed new data communications protocols and algorithms.The research team proposes to translate its models and techniques to the design of autonomous transportation systems when aided by interconnected roadside unit (RSU) stations that form a backbone network infrastructure. The research team’s methods will be used to determine the best configuration of joint traffic management and data networking mechanisms, described by the locations and interconnection features of the RSU stations and the backbone network infrastructure that they form.

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