Shade, safety for transit riders focus of ITS capstone project awards

Each year, the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies supports graduate student capstone projects that address pressing transportation questions and are undertaken on behalf of real-world clients. The project topics for this year covered a wide range, including outdoor dining programs, demand-based parking, school transportation and safety.

In addition, UCLA ITS recognizes students who have made significant research discoveries and produced exceptional final products. Eight projects were recently acknowledged for their valuable contributions to their clients and the transportation field.

The top prizes were awarded to Anne Yoon MURP ’23 for her project on bus shelter distribution in unincorporated Los Angeles County, and to Greer Cowan MURP ’23 and Pearl Liu MURP ‘23, who analyzed gender-based harassment in public transit settings in San Francisco.

Anne Yoon

Bus shelters have gained significant attention by transit advocates in Los Angeles and beyond due to their critical role as shade-providing structures, particularly with the increasing prevalence of extreme heat and the considerable time spent waiting for buses.

For her capstone project, Yoon worked in partnership with Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who represents the 2nd District in Los Angeles County. Mitchell’s office was interested in the distribution of bus shelters across the district and unincorporated areas in L.A. County, as well as the process of building and funding new bus shelters.

Yoon analyzed L.A. Metro bus stop data and neighborhood characteristics, including heat exposure, access to shade, wait time, and socioeconomic and transit-related conditions. She also examined the implementation process followed by Public Works for installing bus shelters in unincorporated areas.

Her research found that the 2nd District has the greatest need for bus shelters compared to the rest of the county. The 2nd District has the greatest number of boardings (35% of the county’s total), and unsheltered riders (nearly 40%). Unsheltered stops in the 2nd District have the highest boarding levels and are more likely to be in neighborhoods with higher socioeconomic and transit-related needs, and with less access to shade.

Based on her findings, Yoon recommends that the district prioritize Florence-Firestone, an unincorporated area which was found to be in greatest need of bus shelters across the county’s 2nd District, and collaborate with Public Works to collect data on bus shelters and develop an equity-focused prioritization scheme for future placements.

Yoon said that if equity is truly a priority for public agencies, then there’s no excuse but to assess where bus shelters do and don’t exist.

“I hope this report shows that developing a baseline understanding is not only fundamental to prioritize investments but doable in practice, especially if there is curiosity, will, and an honest commitment to creating a dignified transit experience,” she said.

Greer Cowan

Pearl Liu

Sexual harassment on public transit remains a prominent issue, particularly for women and LGBTQ+ riders, which leads those affected to feel unsafe and shift their travel behaviors. Data collection and analysis on harassment incidents can help transit agencies work to make all riders feel more comfortable in transit environments.

Cowan and Liu aimed to provide this type of data analysis for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which recently launched its Safety Equity Initiative. They surveyed more than 1,600 Muni transit riders and conducted a hotspot analysis to determine spatial concentrations of harassment incidents across the city.

Among the findings: More than one-third of riders reported experiencing harassment in the past six months, and 32% reported feeling safe at night while riding Muni. Cowan and Liu also uncovered significant differences across perceptions of safety and incidents of harassment by gender, race, and whether or not a rider had access to a private vehicle.

The researchers also found concentrated areas of harassment incidents in downtown San Francisco and Mission Terrace. Whereas incidents of harassment for men mainly concentrated in downtown San Francisco, women and gender minorities had harassment hotspots in multiple city locations.

Cowan and Liu recommend that SFMTA publicize how to report harassment, engage with community members about potentially implementing transit ambassadors or police patrols, install more lighting at stops and stations, improve bus infrastructure, and offer more frequent transit service across more hours of the day, particularly in the areas with more concentrated harassment incidents.

“The recognition from ITS with this award is extremely encouraging and I’m confident it will bring further focus to the topic of gender-based harassment on transit, which our findings show is a highly prevalent issue that transit agencies are facing today,” Cowan said.

Liu added: “It has been an incredible opportunity to work on a gender equity project, and it has developed a solid framework for my future work outside of academia.”