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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 research project examines the impact of transportation on educational access, and how improving transportation can help to increase the socioeconomic and racial/ethnic diversity of private secondary schools in Los Angeles. The Geffen Academy is a private middle and high school located in Westwood, on the Westside of Los Angeles. I use student data from the Geffen Academy to assess the demographic profile of enrolled students, and compare the spatial distribution of students to existing transportation infrastructure. I conduct a travel survey of students to understand travel behavior to school. Finally, I research peer schools to gain insights on how other schools approach transportation as it relates to student body diversity. I find that a majority of enrolled students live within a few miles of the Geffen Academy, an area that is predominately white and higher-income. To increase access to the Geffen Academy, the school should focus on developing a carpool program to reduce the travel costs for families who live further away from the school’s campus.

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As the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) embarks on a one-year dockless mobility pilot program, both LADOT staff and the residents they serve have raised concerns over equity and access. Dockless mobility refers to dockless or free-floating bicycles, electric bicycles, and electric scooters available for short-term rental that have begun to proliferate in cities across the country. LADOT staff have permitted eight companies with an accumulated 36,000 vehicles. Because the distribution of scooters across Los Angeles neighborhoods is far from even, LADOT staff are currently using CalEnviroScreen 3.0 to identify disadvantaged communities where regulations incentivize operators to deploy their scooters. However, CalEnviroScreen 3.0 is a metric developed to identify communities likely affected by environmental injustices and as such prioritizes environmental exposure factors over those that may affect transportation access.

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In considering how transit riders must walk or bike near highways to reach transit stations, highway infrastructure becomes a significant barrier to transit access and an impediment to a safe and comfortable transit trip experience. As such, areas surrounding highways can be priority pathways for first/last mile improvements, which is in turn complicated by the California Department of Transportation’s management of highway right-of-way. In planning first/last mile infrastructure improvements, Metro’s First/Last Mile Planning program must coordinate with Caltrans to understand traffic and freight factors in a station area and implement any first/last mile interventions. This study examined three case study station areas for common first/last mile barriers at highways and interviewed staff to understand inter-agency coordination experiences. It finds that policies, such as criteria that dictate when to include Caltrans in planning processes, that seek to yield predictability in both inter-agency communication and first/last mile improvement design can aid in overall coordination at highway-adjacent sites.

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The Jordan Downs housing development is a public housing complex in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. In accordance with the Jordan Downs Relocation Plan undertaken by the City of Los Angeles Housing Authority, the housing complex is currently being re-designed and relocated to an adjacent property. This relocation presents a rare opportunity for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) to address transportation equity concerns in the design of surrounding roads and sidewalks. The purpose of this project was to answer the following two research questions: 1) What built environment factors influence perceptions of mode choice for residents of Jordan Downs and the surrounding Watts community?; and 2) How can LADOT best implement transportation investments to best address these perceptions?

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To prepare for the arrival of autonomous vehicles, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning is exploring land use strategies to optimize the potential safety and the environmental and access benefits of this new technology. In this study, I draw on academic literature, analysis of city General and Comprehensive Plans, and phone interviews with planners to analyze the potential impact of autonomous vehicles on local land use.

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This report analyzes ten peer cities across the state, country and globe with the goal of providing best practices and lessons learned for Los Angeles’ update of its street design guidance: Atlanta, Dallas, London, Mumbai, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Toronto, and Washington DC. Specifically, the report examines each city’s development and implementation of its street design guidelines through semi-structured interviews and an analysis of six priority complete streets design treatments. Treatments analyzed include corner radii, curb extensions, pedestrian refuge islands, raised crosswalks, roundabouts, and transit platforms. Based on my analysis, I recommend three policy guidelines for the City of Los Angeles: 1) prioritize street design regulations over recommendations, 2) choose flexibility over specificity, and 3) create unified documentation.

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Vision Zero, the dominant traffic safety framework in the United States, typically includes as a strategy increased enforcement of traffic laws. Activists concerned with overpolicing of communities of color are often skeptical of this strategy and have tried to push cities to minimize police involvement in traffic safety plans. To help planners understand this complex issue, my research will address the following question: “How have Vision Zero planning efforts addressed the relationship between traffic enforcement and communities of color?” People of color are disproportionately likely to be pulled over while driving, but planners continue to include traffic enforcement in Vision Zero plans. For this project I will interrogate the planning process through case studies of Vision Zero cities, interviewing planners, policy makers, and community members to address the following question: “How have Vision Zero planning efforts addressed the relationship between traffic enforcement and communities of color?”

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Investment in public transportation systems brings the potential for temporary and permanent neighborhood disruption, including displacement, gentrification, and changes in community character. This research seeks to develop a set of policy recommendations for Los Angeles Metro, which is increasingly involved in land use planning in station areas. First, the team will analyze Metro’s potential involvement and influence in the land market around stations, both on the property it owns and on property it does not own. The areas of analysis include 1) alternative ownership structures such as Community Land Trusts (CLTs) and limited equity corporations, that can take place on absorbed Metro-owned land, and 2) the incentives and planning tools Metro can utilize to further the goals of Metro Transit-Oriented Community at the station area level. Second, the team will evaluate land use policies, plans, and funding mechanisms that have relevance to Metro’s network of TOCs within a subset of the 29 cities that Metro’s rail and high-capacity bus network serves (with a list of prioritized municipalities to be developed in coordination with Metro).

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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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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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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.