Projects

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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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Program Area(s):

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.

Principal Investigator:

Funding Source:

Program Area(s):

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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The project’s ultimate goal is threefold. First, we will deliver a broad but accurate and relevant snapshot of vulnerable travelers in California. Second, we will use that information to carefully consider how different forms of congestion pricing might improve or degrade equity. Third and most important, we will use lessons from other safety net programs, and particularly those operating in the utility industry in California, to propose specific safeguards for poor and marginalized populations that can be built into congestion charging programs. We examine the fairness implications of congestion pricing and propose policy mechanisms to mitigate its potential unfair outcomes. Our project first empirically establishes the broad contours of travel by vulnerable populations in California’s major metropolitan areas. We then examine particular forms of congestion charging, and evaluate how they might affect equity. Finally and most importantly, we draw on models of the guardrails instituted by other public utilities to illustrate ways to have congestion pricing while still protecting low-income travelers.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has forced a series of social distancing measures upon Angelenos and prevented public access to many traditionally community spaces. Fears of infection have disincentivized many from public transit, severely limiting the mobility of those without cars. This project will look to see how closure of local streets may substitute public recreational space and promote active transportation. My project will analyze the current “Slow Streets” program by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, which attempts to slow local traffic in select streets to create recreational opportunities in the city. I look to analyze the effects of Slow Streets in two capacities – public perception and mobility impact.

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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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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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In response to the increasing need to socially distance on the streets, many cities nationwide — and especially in California — have installed Slow Streets that prohibit thru traffic on roads. However, because Slow Streets are new, few cities have extensive data about resident responses to these new walkways. SFMTA has issued a questionnaire to better understand resident attitudes and understandings of Slow Streets. This project will perform a qualitative and quantitative analysis to provide insight into the responses from San Francisco residents.

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In California, driving is cheap and housing is expensive, and both these facts impede the state’s progress toward sustainability, safety and affordability. Efforts to solve these problems, however, often operate on parallel tracks: bold plans to increase housing production say little about congestion, and plans to address congestion rarely discuss the housing crisis. While these omissions are often understandable, they create a situation where policy proposals to solve one problem often flounder on concerns about the other one. Proposals to allow more development, even near transit, encounter resistance from neighbors concerned that development will bring congestion. Similarly, proposals to price roads encounter resistance based on the concern that California is already extremely expensive, and people have to live far from where they work because of the housing crisis. Somehow this policy gridlock must be resolved, if California will meet its stated goals of reducing VMT, reducing emissions, and building millions of units of housing.

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Over 3,500 people have died on California’s streets and highways each year since 2016, despite commitments at the state, regional, and local levels to reduce this toll. A growing number of safety experts have pointed to high speed limits as a serious obstacle to increased traffic safety. The basic rule for setting motor vehicle speed limits in California, and across the U.S. is the “85th Percentile Rule.” This rule is deeply ingrained, both practically and legally in transportation engineering practice, but is now being scrutinized by those committed to improving traffic safety. This research synthesis will review the history and evolution of the 85th percentile rule in traffic engineering practice, and critically analyze and summarize research to date on its effects.

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For decades evaluation of the benefits and costs of new- or re- development in urban areas has centered on the effects of development on nearby traffic flows. Historically, and in most states outside of California, the level-of-service (LOS) scale has been used to approve or disapprove commercial developments. The logic of such an evaluation model is that smooth traffic flows are a primary goal of urban areas, which has the effect of discouraging the sorts of densely developed places that are more easily accessed by foot, bike, shared mobility, and public transit. To overcome the traffic flow focus of traffic impact analyses, the California legislature passed SB 743 in 2013, which mandated a change in the way that transportation impacts are analyzed under CEQA. New CEQA Guidelines were created to replace LOS with a new focus on how proposed developments affect vehicle miles of travel (VMT). This translational project will build on prior research, as well as the burgeoning literature on operationalizing access into transportation planning and engineering to develop and test some new analytical tools to evaluate the access impacts of developments.

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This research models vehicle travel and emissions in an effort to answer the question: What are the potential environmental impacts of congestion pricing?

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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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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.