UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies

Welcome to UCLA ITS
2024-10-08 17:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, 337 Charles E Young Drive E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Welcome to UCLA ITS
This event is for UCLA students, faculty and staff only.
RSVP Here
The UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies welcomes incoming and returning students, faculty, and staff for the start of the 2024-25 academic year. We aim to support a community of transportation scholars and provide students with resources, such as travel and research project support and transportation programming. Thus, we want to begin the year with a celebration to help our community get to know one another and to welcome the transition from Brian D. Taylor to Adam Millard-Ball as the Director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies.
Taylor has led UCLA ITS since 2001, playing a critical role in the institute’s expansion. Under his tenure, UCLA ITS has transformed from a small operation with limited staff and resources into a nationally influential research center with more than 75 scholars and staff conducting cutting-edge research in eight program areas. Incoming Director Adam Millard-Ball brings a wealth of experience in data science and climate change policy. He joined the UCLA Luskin School in 2021 and has recently served as acting director of UCLA ITS during the 2022-23 academic year. In that time, Millard-Ball oversaw the TRACtion: Transformative Research and Collaboration initiative, which brought together academic researchers and community advocates to identify barriers to a just and sustainable future for Los Angeles.

Wachs Lecture: Zero Fatalities, Zero Pollution, and Zero Disparities
2025-04-28 | UCLA James West Alumni Center, 325 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Lessons in Leading Mission-Based Innovation in Transportation: Zero Fatalities, Zero Pollution, and Zero Disparities
Part of the Martin Wachs Lecture Series and Luskin Lecture Series
During this session, Robert Hampshire will share several in-depth case studies of national significance on the role of innovation in roadway safety, aviation safety, supply chain disruptions, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) drones. Based on firsthand experiences from leading the US Department of Transportation research and technology enterprise, he will highlight the role that a mission-focused approach to innovation can play in addressing some of our most important societal challenges. In order to eliminate transportation fatalities, pollution and carbon emissions, and to serve all travelers, a collaborative multi-stakeholder, multi-industry approach is required. He took this approach during his time as a political appointee and senior leader in the US Department of Transportation during the Biden-Harris administration.
About the Speaker
On January 20, 2021, Hampshire was sworn in and performed the duties of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the United States Department of Transportation, and served as the department’s Chief Science Officer, becoming the first to fill the role in over 40 years.
In this role he led the $2B research and technology portfolio of USDOT and agenda across all modes of transportation. His office included the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Cambridge, MA), Transportation Safety Institute (Oklahoma City, OK), Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, the SMART grant program, University Transportation Centers grant program , Advanced Research Projects Agency for Infrastructure (ARPA-I), Climate Change Center, Office of Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) and Spectrum management, ant the Highly Automated Safe System Center of Excellence (HASS COE).
On Jan 21, 2025, Hampshire returned to his faculty position at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. His research applies a blend of public policy, operations research, data science, and systems approaches to analyze novel transportation systems such as smart parking, connected vehicles, autonomous vehicles, ride-hailing, bike sharing, car sharing, as well as, pedestrian and bicyclist safety. His research focuses on environmental impacts, equity, and access to opportunities. His work has been cited widely, and covered by major press outlets. He has worked extensively with both public and private sector partners worldwide. He has also been a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University and a visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hampshire received a PhD in operations research and financial engineering from Princeton University.

Abundance Policy for Transportation and Housing
2025-05-06
Abundance is an emerging policy framework that emphasizes addressing affordability through increasing supply, overcoming regulatory burdens, and promoting innovation. Housing policy researcher Paavo Monkkonen and transportation policy researcher Juan Matute from UCLA participate in the Abundance Policy Research Consortium, a UC Berkeley-based group working to develop an evidence-based, fundamentals-first policy agenda for California focusing on expanding access to 12 human essentials. In this event, these policy experts will present frameworks for identifying scarcity problems and policy levers to improve housing and transportation affordability and supply.
Nine in ten Californians live in megaregions with populations of 1 million or more. They are no strangers to the impacts of traffic congestion on their abilities to meet their areas of need: accessing jobs, education, healthcare, and other goods and services. California is in a cycle of auto-dependence that makes it hard for people to travel by car and hard to build new housing and buildings that bring people closer to their needs. Matute will present his view that escaping this scarcity trap and getting California moving again will require a targeted package of mobility abundance interventions.
California built fewer housing units in the 2010s than in any decade since the 1940s, when World War II constrained materials and labor. California has the highest rate of unsheltered homeless population and the second highest housing costs in the country. The political challenges to expanding California’s multi-family zoning beyond its current 5% of residential land area are well known. Professor Monkkonen will present reforms to zoning, building codes, and exaction as well as policies for development financing, co-ownership models, and new mechanisms to improve neighborhood support, which, taken together, will tilt the political balance towards support for more Californians in urban neighborhoods of California.
Speakers

Housing Data AnalystAaron Barrall

Deputy DirectorJuan Matute

Professor of Urban Planning and Public PolicyPaavo Monkkonen

NACTORyan Russo

Housing Data AnalystAaron Barrall
Aaron is a housing data analyst at the Randall Lewis Housing Initiative for the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, assisting faculty, students, and staff with data analysis and visualization. Before joining the Lewis Center, he worked as a private-sector urban planner, where he developed comprehensive land-use and housing plans. He has also held environmental-related roles at state and local government agencies.

Areas of Work:Housing Access, Environmental Justice

Deputy DirectorJuan Matute
Juan Matute, Deputy Director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), leads research initiatives that bridge the gap between academic inquiry and practical transportation decision-making. As Deputy Director, Juan Matute leads UCLA ITS’s annual UCLA Arrowhead Symposium on urban and regional planning and is the Program Manager for the national Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles.

At UCLA ITS, Juan spearheads research projects that delve into public transit, transportation finance, and governance. His interdisciplinary approach, rooted in problem-solving and systems thinking, enables him to unravel complex transportation challenges and develop effective solutions.

Juan’s dedication to public service extends beyond UCLA. He actively serves on various state, regional, and city committees, contributing his expertise to initiatives such as the Transit Transformation Task Force, Open Data/Big Data – Smart, and Connected SCAG Region Committee. Juan’s involvement in working groups and boards, such as the Los Angeles Parking Reform Working Group and the Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. Board of Directors, demonstrates his commitment to improving transportation systems at the local level.

Juan’s passion for transportation extends to the classroom, where he has taught numerous courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels at UCLA. His courses cover a wide range of topics, including transportation, environmental assessment, and climate planning.

Juan holds an MBA and Urban Planning MA from UCLA and a BA from Pomona College. He lives in Santa Monica, CA., where he and his wife Sirinya bike, walk, and use transit regularly with their son.

Research Areas:New Mobility, Parking, Public Transit, Sustainable Transportation, Transportation & Communities

Professor of Urban Planning and Public PolicyPaavo Monkkonen
Paavo Monkkonen is Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. He researches and writes about how policies and markets shape urbanization, social segregation, and housing affordability in cities around the world. His scholarship ranges from studies of large-scale national housing finance programs to analyses of local land use regulations, and uses comparison to derive novel insights. Past projects include studies in Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and the United States.

Professor Monkkonen’s research has been published in outlets such as the Journal of the American Planning Association, the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, the Journal of Urban Economics, Urban Studies, World Development, and the Journal of Peasant Studies. At UCLA Luskin, Paavo teaches courses on housing policy, land value capture, applied microeconomics, research methods, and global urban segregation. He launched the Latin American Cities Initiative, Ciudades, to develop and deepen knowledge networks among students, educators, and professionals in the arena of urban planning and policy in South, Central, and North America.

Areas of Work:Housing, International Development, Latin America, Spatial Analysis, Urban Economics, Urban Public Finance

NACTORyan Russo
Ryan Russo is the Executive Director of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), an association of North American cities and transit agencies. NACTO curates best practices, connects members, and advocates for cities to make bold, innovative, and people-first changes in urban transportation.

Ryan has 25 years of experience in transportation and city planning, executing some of the most transformative transportation changes in North America, including the U.S.’s first on-street parking-protected bike lanes and pedestrianizing Times Square. He served as the first Director of the Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT), where he led the new agency through its inaugural five years of operation. Under Ryan’s leadership, OakDOT quickly became a national model for incorporating equity into transportation planning, policy, programs, and operations. Previously, Ryan led the New York City Department of Transportation’s 500-person planning, engineering, and operating divisions staff.

UCLA Los Angeles Transportation Forum: Mega Events, Major Opportunities
2025-05-19 | The California Endowment, 1000 Alameda St., Los Angeles, CA, 90012, United States
At the October 2024 UCLA Arrowhead Symposium, participants discussed how to create enduring public benefits from hosting major worldwide events in Los Angeles. The UCLA Los Angeles Transportation Forum will gather attendees to continue the conversation, understanding areas of progress and what else needs to be done in two legacy areas: enhancing LA’s transit system and universal access including fixing the city’s sidewalks. The Forum will also include a session on the late Donald Shoup’s impact on practice.
Resources

Transforming Transit presentation

L.A. Sidewalks presentation

Denver Deserves Sidewalks presentation

Candace Cable sidewalk video

Claim AICP credits

Report from the 2024 UCLA Arrowhead Symposium: Mega Events, Major Opportunities

UCLA ITS Audio Edition episode
Event Recordings and PhotosPanel 1City of LA Office of Major Event's Daniel Rodman answers and audience question. Sat next to him is Seleta Reynolds and Jody Litvak. Transforming Transit PanelChief Innovation Officer at LA Metro opens up the Transforming Transit Panel. Alongside her is panelist Daniel Rodman, and UCLA's Jody Litvak. Audience QuestionsQ&A portion at the Los Angeles Transportation Forum: Mega Events, Major Opportunities. Keynote ConversationSupervisor Janice Hahn answers an audience question at the Los Angeles Transportation Forum: Mega Events, Major Opportunities. (Credit: David Franco) Keynote ConversationLA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, chair of Metro's Board of Directors, speaks to the audience. UCLA's Jim Newton is seated beside her. (Credit: David Franco) Keynote ConversationLA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, chair of Metro's Board of Directors, opens up the keynote conversation. (Credit: David Franco) Audience QuestionsQ&A portion at the Los Angeles Transportation Forum: Mega Events, Major Opportunities. (Credit: David Franco) Curbing Inaccessibility PanelJill Locantore presents about the city of Denver's need for improved public infrastructure. Curbing Inaccessibility PanelJessica Meaney speaks to the crowd. Madeline Brozen, deputy director of the Lewis Center, is standing at the podium. Curbing Inaccessibility PanelJessica Meaney speaks to the crowd, alongside panelists Jill Locantore, Natalie Sparrow, and Candace Cable. Curbing Inaccessibility PanelNine-time Paralympian Candace Cable answers an audience question during the Curbing Inaccessibility panel. Audience QuestionsQ&A portion at the Los Angeles Transportation Forum: Mega Events, Major Opportunities. Shoup and the City PanelUCLA's Michael Manville speaks to the audience alongside Greg Spotts, Ken Husting, Ann Cheng, and Nithya Raman. Shoup and the City PanelAn Cheng speaks to the audience alongside Greg Spotts, Ken Husting, Michael Manville, and Nithya Raman. Shoup and the City PanelGreg Spotts speaks to the crowd. Alongside him are UCLA's Adam Millard-Ball and Michael Manville, Ken Husting, Ann Cheng, and Councilmember Nithya Raman. AudienceView of the room at the Los Angeles Transportation Forum: Mega Events, Major Opportunities. Shoup and the City PanelUCLA's Adam Millard-Ball stands at the podium announcing the Shoup and the City panel. Shoup and the City PanelLA Councilmember Nithya Raman address the audience at the Shoup and the City panel. Audience QuestionsQ&A portion at the Los Angeles Transportation Forum: Mega Events, Major Opportunities. Audience QuestionsQ&A portion at the Los Angeles Transportation Forum: Mega Events, Major Opportunities. ScheduleSession
Description
Welcome
An overview of the from the 2024 Arrowhead Symposium and legacy planning progress.
Transforming Transit: The Power of Small Wins
Los Angeles Metro will soon open a $9.5 billion subway extension and is considering alternatives for a $10+ billion Sepulveda Corridor project . Despite the price tags of these megaprojects, Metro and local cities can make big changes with smart, small investments that can be accomplished quickly, improving transit and multimodal transportation before, during, and after the 2028 Games.

Daniel Rodman, City of LA Office of Major Events
Seleta Reynolds, Chief Innovation Officer, LA Metro

Keynote Conversation
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, currently chair of Metro’s Board of Directors, joins UCLA’s Jim Newton in a conversation about the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics and beyond as an opportunity for improving transportation in Los Angeles.
Curbing Inaccessibility: Fixing LA’s Streets and Sidewalks
Los Angeles will welcome the world’s most elite Paralympians for the first time in 2028. But rather than rolling out the welcome mat, the City has struggled to implement a legal settlement to make sidewalks ADA accessible. The Denver Deserves Sidewalks campaign resulted in a successful citywide vote to transfer responsibility for sidewalk repair from adjacent property owners to the city, for an annual fee. What prerequisites for capital planning and institutional structures could enable a similar measure in Los Angeles?

Candace Cable, Nine-time Paralympian and Consultant
Jill Locantore, Executive Director of Denver Streets Partnership
Jessica Meaney, Executive Director of Investing in Place
Natalie Sparrow, ADA Coordinator – Public Right-of-Way – City of Los Angeles

Shoup and the City: Impact and Legacy
Renowned UCLA Urban Planning Professor Donald Shoup changed how transportation professionals thought about parking, even if they didn’t read all 808 pages of his book, The High Cost of Free Parking. Shoup passed away in February 2025, but his ideas live on. Panelists discuss the impact of Donald Shoup on cities and his legacy for the transportation profession.

Michael Manville, Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA
Greg Spotts, Former Director, Seattle Department of Transportation
Ken Husting, Principal Transportation Engineer, Bureau of Parking Management
Ann Cheng, CEO, Ann Cheng Consulting, LLC
Nithya Raman, Councilmember, City of Los Angeles

Speakers

ConsultantCandace Cable

CEO of Ann Cheng Consulting, LLCAnn Cheng

Los Angeles County SupervisorSupervisor Janice Hahn

Principal Transportation EngineerKen Husting

UCLA ITS Senior FellowJody Litvak

Executive DirectorJill Locantore

ProfessorMichael Manville

Deputy DirectorJuan Matute

Executive DirectorJessica Meaney

Professor and DirectorAdam Millard-Ball

Blueprint Magazine EditorJim Newton

LA Metro Chief Innovation OfficerSeleta Reynolds

Senior MemberDaniel Rodman

ADA CoordinatorNatalie Sparrow

Former DirectorGreg Spotts

Councilmember, City of Los AngelesNithya Raman

ConsultantCandace Cable
Candace Cable consults with business and organizations on design opportunities that will include everyone. She uses her four decades as a historian, curriculum creator, speaker, writer, Paralympic and Olympic athlete and governance careers, and her Community and Human Rights advocacy to affect and change the status quo and culture. Her work supports our worldwide collective liberation and inclusion of her beloved Disability Community of which she has been a member since 1975.

CEO of Ann Cheng Consulting, LLCAnn Cheng
Ann Cheng is a planner focused on equitable transit oriented development, parking policy and community engagement transformation. She created www.GreenTRIP.org to catalyze low-traffic and parking housing through market and data tools adopted through the Bay Area and California. She currently consults on projects across the Bay Area to advance transit oriented communities with community, to grow and empower local leadership and serving as a Board Member for the Parking Reform Network.

Los Angeles County SupervisorSupervisor Janice Hahn
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn joined the Metro Board of Directors in 2017, and since July has served as its Chair. From long-term goals like expanding transit options for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games and bringing an overdue rail connection to the Southeast LA County communities she represents, to addressing urgent safety concerns today by installing physical barriers to protect bus operators and implementing a weapons detection pilot program now in its 2nd phase, Hahn has championed making Metro safer and more responsive to the needs of the hundreds of thousands of riders who depend on it, and the operators and staff who make it run.

Before joining the Board of Supervisors, Hahn served in Congress and on the L.A. City Council, where she has worked to expand access to mental healthcare, get guns off our streets, invest in our parks and libraries, and help guide our region through some of its toughest challenges.

Principal Transportation EngineerKen Husting
Ken Husting is the Principal Transportation Engineer for LADOT’s Parking Management. He is responsible for five parking divisions: Adjudication, Facilities, Meters, Operations, and Permits. Ken leads a team of over 100 engineering, technical and administrative staff charged with managing and maintaining citywide parking operations and infrastructure assets, including 111 parking facilities and 35,000 metered spaces and pay stations. His responsibility includes managing a combined annual revenue of $200 million from parking facilities, meters, and citations.

UCLA ITS Senior FellowJody Litvak
Jody Litvak is a Senior Fellow with UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies. She has over 35 years experience delivering major transportation and infrastructure projects and policies across greater Los Angeles, including as an Executive Officer at LA Metro. She is known for innovating community engagement tactics for planning, and has successfully developed and implemented strategies to build alliances and coalitions among public officials, opinion leaders and diverse stakeholders, often with competing interests. She has frequently been asked to present and guest lecture on these topics and is a long-time adviser to UCLA ITS for the annual Arrowhead Symposium. Early in her career, she worked for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee helping to deliver the 1984 Olympic Games.

Executive DirectorJill Locantore
Jill Locantore is Executive Director for the Denver Streets Partnership, which advocates for the cultural and systemic changes necessary to reduce Denver’s unsustainable dependence on cars and to design communities that put people first. Previously, Jill was the Executive Director of the pedestrian advocacy organization WalkDenver, and also worked for the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, where she supported regional efforts to coordinate land use and transportation planning.

ProfessorMichael Manville
Michael Manville is Professor and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Deputy DirectorJuan Matute
Juan Matute, Deputy Director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), leads research initiatives that bridge the gap between academic inquiry and practical transportation decision-making. As Deputy Director, Juan Matute leads UCLA ITS’s annual UCLA Arrowhead Symposium on urban and regional planning and is the Program Manager for the national Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles.

At UCLA ITS, Juan spearheads research projects that delve into public transit, transportation finance, and governance. His interdisciplinary approach, rooted in problem-solving and systems thinking, enables him to unravel complex transportation challenges and develop effective solutions.

Juan’s dedication to public service extends beyond UCLA. He actively serves on various state, regional, and city committees, contributing his expertise to initiatives such as the Transit Transformation Task Force, Open Data/Big Data – Smart, and Connected SCAG Region Committee. Juan’s involvement in working groups and boards, such as the Los Angeles Parking Reform Working Group and the Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. Board of Directors, demonstrates his commitment to improving transportation systems at the local level.

Juan’s passion for transportation extends to the classroom, where he has taught numerous courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels at UCLA. His courses cover a wide range of topics, including transportation, environmental assessment, and climate planning.

Juan holds an MBA and Urban Planning MA from UCLA and a BA from Pomona College. He lives in Santa Monica, CA., where he and his wife Sirinya bike, walk, and use transit regularly with their son.

Research Areas:New Mobility, Parking, Public Transit, Sustainable Transportation, Transportation & Communities

Executive DirectorJessica Meaney
Jessica Meaney is the founder and executive director of Investing in Place, a leading voice for reimagining Los Angeles’ public realm—sidewalks, streets, and infrastructure. For two decades, Jessica has led efforts in LA to promote inclusive decision-making and equitable resource allocation in public works and transportation funding to create accessible and well maintained public spaces that enhance quality of life.

Professor and DirectorAdam Millard-Ball
Adam Millard-Ball is professor of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, and affiliated faculty at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. His research and teaching focus on transportation and climate change, and on how data science can support urban planning research and practice.

Blueprint Magazine EditorJim Newton
Jim Newton is a veteran Los Angeles journalist and the founding editor of UCLA’s Blueprint magazine. Also an author, his biography of Jerry Garcia will be released by Random House on Aug. 5.

LA Metro Chief Innovation OfficerSeleta Reynolds
Seleta has 25 years of experience in transportation in both the public and private sector. As CIO of LA Metro, her responsibilities include delivering the mobility program for the 28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as a mobility wallet and a strategy for transitioning the agency to a Zero Emission Bus fleet. Formerly, she was the General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation where she launched Vision Zero, a goal to get to zero traffic deaths, in Los Angeles after leading a similar effort in San Francisco. She is the founding chair of the Open Mobility Foundation, an open-source project to build digital infrastructure for the public realm and serves on the Executive Committee of the ITS America Board of Directors.

Senior MemberDaniel Rodman
Daniel Rodman is a senior member of the City of Los Angeles Office of Major Events, where he coordinates the city’s work on planning, operations, and legacy for the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games and 2026 FIFA World Cup. Dan works collaboratively with City departments and key stakeholders to deliver mega-events that are safe, successful, and fiscally responsible while maximizing economic opportunity and legacy investments for all Angelenos. Previously, Dan served as Deputy Director of Transportation for the LA Mayor’s Office and as a social worker with Street to Home Manhattan. Dan holds a master’s in urban and regional planning from UCLA and a bachelor’s from NYU.

ADA CoordinatorNatalie Sparrow
Natalie Sparrow is the City of Los Angeles’s ADA Coordinator for the Pedestrian Rights of Way, the city’s primary administrator on disability access for public pedestrian facilities. Her work spans across multiple city departments and includes policy development, oversight of technical compliance, and managing the fulfillment of the City’s $1.4-billion Willits Settlement Agreement. Natalie brings a wealth of knowledge to uniquely support this moment for the city and its residents, including 8 years of experience managing the accessibility of large scale temporary events and lived experience of disability as a child. Natalie is a Certified Access Specialist (CASp) and Certified ADA Coordinator. She has earned a Master’s degree in Public Health from Tulane University.

Former DirectorGreg Spotts
Greg Spotts most recently served as Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation (September 2022 through February 2025). Previously, Greg served the City of Los Angeles in various capacities from 2009-2022, including Director of Transportation Project Delivery for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Assistant Director and Chief Sustainability Officer for StreetsLA.

Councilmember, City of Los AngelesNithya Raman
Nithya Raman (RAH-men) is an urban planner, a mother of two, an immigrant to America, and a member of the Los Angeles City Council representing District 4. She ran for City Council in 2020 and won a historic victory, becoming the first Asian American woman and the first South Asian ever to serve on the City Council. In March 2024, she was elected to her second term. Since taking office, Councilmember Raman has prioritized delivering people-centered and effective services for people experiencing homelessness, building more affordable housing, and moving with greater urgency to meet our city’s climate goals. She serves as Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, Vice Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Governance Reform, and member of the Transportation and Energy and Environment Committees. She also represents Los Angeles on the Governing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and was recently nominated by Mayor Karen Bass to serve as Vice Chair on the LA County Executive Committee for Regional Homeless Alignment.

Candace CableConsultant

Candace Cable consults with business and organizations on design opportunities that will include everyone. She uses her four decades as a historian, curriculum creator, speaker, writer, Paralympic and Olympic athlete and governance careers, and her Community and Human Rights advocacy to affect and change the status quo and culture. Her work supports our worldwide collective liberation and inclusion of her beloved Disability Community of which she has been a member since 1975.

Ann ChengCEO of Ann Cheng Consulting, LLC

Ann Cheng is a planner focused on equitable transit oriented development, parking policy and community engagement transformation. She created www.GreenTRIP.org to catalyze low-traffic and parking housing through market and data tools adopted through the Bay Area and California. She currently consults on projects across the Bay Area to advance transit oriented communities with community, to grow and empower local leadership and serving as a Board Member for the Parking Reform Network.

Supervisor Janice HahnLos Angeles County Supervisor

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn joined the Metro Board of Directors in 2017, and since July has served as its Chair. From long-term goals like expanding transit options for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games and bringing an overdue rail connection to the Southeast LA County communities she represents, to addressing urgent safety concerns today by installing physical barriers to protect bus operators and implementing a weapons detection pilot program now in its 2nd phase, Hahn has championed making Metro safer and more responsive to the needs of the hundreds of thousands of riders who depend on it, and the operators and staff who make it run.

Before joining the Board of Supervisors, Hahn served in Congress and on the L.A. City Council, where she has worked to expand access to mental healthcare, get guns off our streets, invest in our parks and libraries, and help guide our region through some of its toughest challenges.

Ken HustingPrincipal Transportation Engineer

Ken Husting is the Principal Transportation Engineer for LADOT’s Parking Management. He is responsible for five parking divisions: Adjudication, Facilities, Meters, Operations, and Permits. Ken leads a team of over 100 engineering, technical and administrative staff charged with managing and maintaining citywide parking operations and infrastructure assets, including 111 parking facilities and 35,000 metered spaces and pay stations. His responsibility includes managing a combined annual revenue of $200 million from parking facilities, meters, and citations.

Jody LitvakUCLA ITS Senior Fellow

Jody Litvak is a Senior Fellow with UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies. She has over 35 years experience delivering major transportation and infrastructure projects and policies across greater Los Angeles, including as an Executive Officer at LA Metro. She is known for innovating community engagement tactics for planning, and has successfully developed and implemented strategies to build alliances and coalitions among public officials, opinion leaders and diverse stakeholders, often with competing interests. She has frequently been asked to present and guest lecture on these topics and is a long-time adviser to UCLA ITS for the annual Arrowhead Symposium. Early in her career, she worked for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee helping to deliver the 1984 Olympic Games.

Jill LocantoreExecutive Director

Jill Locantore is Executive Director for the Denver Streets Partnership, which advocates for the cultural and systemic changes necessary to reduce Denver’s unsustainable dependence on cars and to design communities that put people first. Previously, Jill was the Executive Director of the pedestrian advocacy organization WalkDenver, and also worked for the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, where she supported regional efforts to coordinate land use and transportation planning.

Michael ManvilleProfessor

Michael Manville is Professor and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Juan MatuteDeputy Director

Juan Matute, Deputy Director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), leads research initiatives that bridge the gap between academic inquiry and practical transportation decision-making. As Deputy Director, Juan Matute leads UCLA ITS’s annual UCLA Arrowhead Symposium on urban and regional planning and is the Program Manager for the national Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles.

At UCLA ITS, Juan spearheads research projects that delve into public transit, transportation finance, and governance. His interdisciplinary approach, rooted in problem-solving and systems thinking, enables him to unravel complex transportation challenges and develop effective solutions.

Juan’s dedication to public service extends beyond UCLA. He actively serves on various state, regional, and city committees, contributing his expertise to initiatives such as the Transit Transformation Task Force, Open Data/Big Data – Smart, and Connected SCAG Region Committee. Juan’s involvement in working groups and boards, such as the Los Angeles Parking Reform Working Group and the Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. Board of Directors, demonstrates his commitment to improving transportation systems at the local level.

Juan’s passion for transportation extends to the classroom, where he has taught numerous courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels at UCLA. His courses cover a wide range of topics, including transportation, environmental assessment, and climate planning.

Juan holds an MBA and Urban Planning MA from UCLA and a BA from Pomona College. He lives in Santa Monica, CA., where he and his wife Sirinya bike, walk, and use transit regularly with their son.
Research Areas:New Mobility, Parking, Public Transit, Sustainable Transportation, Transportation & Communities

Jessica MeaneyExecutive Director

Jessica Meaney is the founder and executive director of Investing in Place, a leading voice for reimagining Los Angeles’ public realm—sidewalks, streets, and infrastructure. For two decades, Jessica has led efforts in LA to promote inclusive decision-making and equitable resource allocation in public works and transportation funding to create accessible and well maintained public spaces that enhance quality of life.

Adam Millard-BallProfessor and Director

Adam Millard-Ball is professor of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, and affiliated faculty at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. His research and teaching focus on transportation and climate change, and on how data science can support urban planning research and practice.

Jim NewtonBlueprint Magazine Editor

Jim Newton is a veteran Los Angeles journalist and the founding editor of UCLA’s Blueprint magazine. Also an author, his biography of Jerry Garcia will be released by Random House on Aug. 5.

Seleta ReynoldsLA Metro Chief Innovation Officer

Seleta has 25 years of experience in transportation in both the public and private sector. As CIO of LA Metro, her responsibilities include delivering the mobility program for the 28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as a mobility wallet and a strategy for transitioning the agency to a Zero Emission Bus fleet. Formerly, she was the General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation where she launched Vision Zero, a goal to get to zero traffic deaths, in Los Angeles after leading a similar effort in San Francisco. She is the founding chair of the Open Mobility Foundation, an open-source project to build digital infrastructure for the public realm and serves on the Executive Committee of the ITS America Board of Directors.

Daniel RodmanSenior Member

Daniel Rodman is a senior member of the City of Los Angeles Office of Major Events, where he coordinates the city’s work on planning, operations, and legacy for the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games and 2026 FIFA World Cup. Dan works collaboratively with City departments and key stakeholders to deliver mega-events that are safe, successful, and fiscally responsible while maximizing economic opportunity and legacy investments for all Angelenos. Previously, Dan served as Deputy Director of Transportation for the LA Mayor’s Office and as a social worker with Street to Home Manhattan. Dan holds a master’s in urban and regional planning from UCLA and a bachelor’s from NYU.

Natalie SparrowADA Coordinator

Natalie Sparrow is the City of Los Angeles’s ADA Coordinator for the Pedestrian Rights of Way, the city’s primary administrator on disability access for public pedestrian facilities. Her work spans across multiple city departments and includes policy development, oversight of technical compliance, and managing the fulfillment of the City’s $1.4-billion Willits Settlement Agreement. Natalie brings a wealth of knowledge to uniquely support this moment for the city and its residents, including 8 years of experience managing the accessibility of large scale temporary events and lived experience of disability as a child. Natalie is a Certified Access Specialist (CASp) and Certified ADA Coordinator. She has earned a Master’s degree in Public Health from Tulane University.

Greg SpottsFormer Director

Greg Spotts most recently served as Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation (September 2022 through February 2025). Previously, Greg served the City of Los Angeles in various capacities from 2009-2022, including Director of Transportation Project Delivery for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Assistant Director and Chief Sustainability Officer for StreetsLA.

Nithya RamanCouncilmember, City of Los Angeles

Nithya Raman (RAH-men) is an urban planner, a mother of two, an immigrant to America, and a member of the Los Angeles City Council representing District 4. She ran for City Council in 2020 and won a historic victory, becoming the first Asian American woman and the first South Asian ever to serve on the City Council. In March 2024, she was elected to her second term. Since taking office, Councilmember Raman has prioritized delivering people-centered and effective services for people experiencing homelessness, building more affordable housing, and moving with greater urgency to meet our city’s climate goals. She serves as Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, Vice Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Governance Reform, and member of the Transportation and Energy and Environment Committees. She also represents Los Angeles on the Governing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and was recently nominated by Mayor Karen Bass to serve as Vice Chair on the LA County Executive Committee for Regional Homeless Alignment.

Sponsors

Beyond Copenhagen: Walking and Cycling Success Stories Worldwide
2025-06-23
A Mini-Symposium from UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies Monday, June 23, 2025 How can cities encourage more people to walk and cycle — and to do so in safety? In this mini-symposium, we highlight success stories from cities around the world, looking beyond the well-known models of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Session 1: What research tells us
New research from UCLA, C40 Cities, and the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy demonstrates how scaling up ambitions for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure can help achieve substantial climate change and health benefits at the global scale. Adam Millard-Ball will present new research from UCLA, in partnership with Google, that provide data-driven guidance on how to encourage active transportation in cities around the world. It draws on travel data from more than 11,500 cities in 121 countries, worldwide.
Session 2: Sharing city experiences
This session brings together planners from three cities that exemplify successful planning for walking and cycling in different contexts.
Session 3: Learning Together
The last portion of the mini-symposium will consist of a workshop where participants will choose breakout rooms and join a facilitated discussion.
Speakers

Camila HerreroSenior Manager, Walking and Cycling

Camila is the Walking and Cycling Senior Manager in the Climate Solutions and Networks team, leading the active mobility network of 35+ cities in all continents and regions to foster walking and cycling solutions through peer-to-peer exchange and technical assistance.

Camila has been a cycling advocate in Mexico City. Prior to C40, she contributed to diverse programmes and projects for international organisations such as the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in Mexico, the Inter-American Development Bank, and BYCS, as well as regional and local governments in Latin America. Her work has focussed on the intersection between cities and sustainable mobility, climate change, and gender.

Camila graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico with a BSc in International Relations and an MSc in Urban and Economic Geography from Utrecht University.

Bartek KomorowskiTeam Leader, Street Design Practices

Bartek Komorowski is an urban planner by training and has worked in the field of active mobility for 18 years. He holds degrees in Cognitive Science (B.Sc.) and Urban Planning (M.U.P.) from McGill University. He is currently a team leader at the City of Montreal Urban Planning and Mobility Department. His team is responsible for developing and disseminating street design guidelines that embody the City’s policies with respect to sustainable mobility, road safety, universal accessibility, and climate change adaptation.

Prior to joining the City, Bartek spent 7 years as a Project Leader in the research and consulting department at Vélo Québec, Canada’s largest cycling advocacy organization. He is a coauthor of Vélo Québec’s 2020 design manual, Aménager pour les piétons et les cyclistes (Planning and Designing for Pedestrians and Cyclists).

Bartek is a member of the Active Transportation Integrated Committee (ATIC) of the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) and a board member of the Winter Cycling Federation (WCF), which organizes the international Winter Cycling Congress.

Adonia LugoStaff Researcher

Cultural anthropologist Adonia E. Lugo was born and raised in traditional and unceded Acjachemen territory and now lives and works in traditional and unceded Tongva territory in Los Angeles. Adonia began investigating transportation, race, and space during her graduate studies at UC Irvine, when she co-created the Los Angeles open street event CicLAvia and the organization today known as People for Mobility Justice. Since receiving her doctorate in 2013, Adonia has applied her research on “human infrastructure” in sustainable mobility advocacy and helped to define the concept of “mobility justice.” Adonia is a Staff Researcher at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, a 2022 appointee to the California Transportation Commission, and a member of Los Angeles Walks’ advisory board.

Adam Millard-BallProfessor and Director

Adam Millard-Ball is professor of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, and affiliated faculty at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. His research and teaching focus on transportation and climate change, and on how data science can support urban planning research and practice.

D. Taylor ReichPrincipal, Ives Street

D. Taylor Reich (they/them) is principal of Ives Street, a research and consulting firm working on the next generation of travel demand modeling through multimodal access-to-destinations measurement. Previously they were the Global Data Science Manager at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and a Fulbright scholar in Amman, Jordan. Taylor is the author of the Atlas of Sustainable City Transport.

Eng. Moses N. KuiyakiTransport Planning Mobility and works sector for Nairobi County

Eng. Moses N. Kuiyaki graduated from JKUAT university in 1998 with a degree in civil engineering and has been working in Nairobi City County for over 18 years in the Transport Department of the Mobility and Works sector.

He has been involved in formulation of various plans, policies, programs and projects. These include Nairobi NMT policy, Nairobi City County Transport Act and regulations, Nairobi bus network plan, NMT expansion programs, first and last mile connectivity programs. He, and his team, are currently working on the NMT master plan for Nairobi City.

Christopher BianSoftware Engineer at Google

Chris is a Staff Software Engineer at Google, and was a core member of the team that launched Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE) in 2018. Chris’ work focuses on producing useful tools and datasets that enable climate action, including mobility-related topics of transportation emissions, EV charging, active mobility, and other key sustainability efforts. He is most energized when engaging directly with institutions to enable greenhouse gas inventories and climate interventions, as well as collaborating with researchers on insights that can help organizations accelerate their action on climate change.

Eliane Horschutz NemotoSustainable Mobility Expert at ICLEI

Eliane Horschutz Nemoto is a Sustainable Mobility Expert at ICLEI. She graduated in Environmental Management and holds a doctoral degree in sustainable mobility at Université Paris-Saclay. Previously, she worked as a Researcher on topics addressing the sustainability assessment of automated vehicles, and socio-technical transitions in mobility. At ICLEI she is currently involved in several projects addressing push and pull policies for modal shift, data to empower cities to achieve their mobility goals, and measures for co-design and redistributing urban spaces to foster active and sustainable mobility, green spaces, and quality of life.

Cary BearnSenior Manager, Multimodal Design and Programs NACTO

Cary manages NACTO’s multimodal design and related work, supporting members working on street design, safety programs, shared micromobility, and community engagement. Recently, Cary led the development of the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide, Third Edition, which supports planners and engineers in planning, designing, and implementing high-quality, connected, and equitable bikeway networks.

Andrea RodríguezOperational Manager of Micromobility, City of Buenos Aires

Andrea Rodríguez has a background in civil engineering and has found urban planning and public management as a space where she can understand how cities transform and how urban policy decisions impact everyday life. She has led initiatives related to urban planning and infrastructure design for active mobility. Andrea currently works as Operational Manager of Micromobility at the Ministry of Infrastructure of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, specializing in sustainable mobility, public space, and integrated urban policies.

A Celebration of the Life and Work of Donald Shoup
2025-10-03 | UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center, 425 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90095, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join the Department of Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies as we celebrate and remember the life and work of distinguished professor of urban planning, trailblazing advocate for parking reform, gifted teacher, and friend to generations of UCLA students, faculty and staff, Donald Shoup.
Friday, October 3, 2025
UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center
Centennial Ballroom AB
UCLA Campus
2:00 – 3:30 pm: The Shoup Doctrine Book Talk and Launch of the UCLA Center for Parking Policy
4:00 – 6:00 pm: Celebration of Donald Shoup’s life and work (light refreshments)
Learn more about Don’s vast accomplishments, read some of his writings, view tributes from far and wide, and share your own memories on the UCLA Luskin tribute page for Don.

Lecture Series: The Story of Peter Gallegos with Peter Chesney
2025-10-07 | Live Stream
Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research
Presented by UCLA Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
The Story of Peter Gallegos with Peter Chesney
Join us for a lecture based on original research documenting the experiences of Peter Gallegos, a blind Native American. Peter moved to Los Angeles from a Great Plains reservation with his seeing-eye dog. This talk will explore his mobility challenges and what happened after his dog was tragically killed by a hit-and-run driver.

DR. PETER CHESNEY is a graduate of UCLA’s Ph.D. program in history. Now he is a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt. At UCLA, he received a certificate in Urban Humanities alongside students in architecture and urban and regional planning. Later he participated in two Luskin Center for History & Policy research teams, which co-authored policy papers entitled “People Are Simply Unable to Pay the Rent” and “A Century of Fighting Traffic Congestion in Los Angeles (1920-2020).”

Lecture Series: The Making of Modern Los Angeles with Nick Patsaouras
2025-10-21 | Live Stream
Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research
Presented by UCLA Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
The Making of Modern Los Angeles with Nick Patsaouras
Nick Patsaouras will chronicle his role in modernizing Los Angeles’s transportation infrastructure, particularly his efforts in spearheading the development of the region’s subway and light rail lines and advocating for bus services. As an insider, he navigated the complex landscape of clashing egos, political maneuvering, and compromise to significantly shape the city’s transit systems.
Nick Patsaouras is the author of The Making of Modern Los Angeles. He is a former Board Member of the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where he was instrumental in advancing bus transportation. The Patsaouras Transit Plaza at the MTA Gateway Center/Union Station East is named in his honor.

NICK PATSAOURAS received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Northridge. He established an electrical engineering company in Los Angeles and designed a wide range of projects, including commercial, industrial, educational, residential, medical, institutional, religious, and entertainment. Nick has been actively involved in civic life for over 40 years. He ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 1993 envisioning “Transportation as a Catalyst in Rebuilding LA” after the devastating 1992 LA riots. He served on the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Board of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), and the Board of the LA Department of Water and Power, helping guide infrastructure and planning policy in Los Angeles. As president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, he helped plan the transportation network for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He is the author of “The Making of Modern Los Angeles.”

Lecture Series: Indigenous Transportation Knowledge with Adonia Lugo
2025-10-28 | Live Stream
Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research
Presented by UCLA Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Indigenous Transportation Knowledge with Adonia Lugo
Local Indigenous groups have shaped the Los Angeles region’s landscape and mobility for over 10,000 years, a stark contrast to the brief, yet transformative, period of colonial settlement marked by intensive resource extraction and sprawling road networks. To envision alternative transportation futures, Adonia Lugo has collaborated with stewards of traditional Indigenous knowledge. This talk highlights their knowledge of the past and perspectives on how indigenous knowledge can shape the future of LA’s transportation systems.
Cultural anthropologist ADONIA E. LUGO was born and raised in traditional and unceded Acjachemen territory and now lives and works in traditional and unceded Tongva territory in Los Angeles. Adonia began investigating transportation, race, and space during her graduate studies at UC Irvine, when she co-created the Los Angeles open street event CicLAvia and the organization today known as People for Mobility Justice. Since receiving her doctorate in 2013, Adonia has applied her research on “human infrastructure” in sustainable mobility advocacy and helped to define the concept of “mobility justice.” Adonia is Equity Research Manager at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, a core organizer of The Untokening, and a recent appointee to the California Transportation Commission.

Lecture Series: Fighting Traffic Congestion a Century Ago with Brian Taylor
2025-11-04
Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research
Presented by UCLA Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Fighting Traffic Congestion 100 Years Ago with Brian Taylor
Professor Brian Taylor delivers a talk and presentation on proposals between 1920 and 1940 to fundamentally redesign the street system, transit system, and highway system in LA to cope with burgeoning traffic — why they mostly failed, and why LA is the worse for it today. These stories are excerpted from Taylor’s book, The Drive for Dollars, the story of the interplay between finance, freeways, and urban form in the 20th century and their enduring impact on American cities and neighborhoods in the 21st.
Additional reading: A Century of Fighting Traffic Congestion in Los Angeles: 1920 – 2020
BRIAN D. TAYLOR, PhD, FAICP is Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. He is the Director Emeritus of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies. He studies travel behavior and transportation equity, finance, politics, and history. He has recently studied falling public transit ridership; public sector responses to new mobility services; the travel of Millennials, high-school students, and same-sex households; the rise of local sales taxes for transportation; and the economic effects of traffic congestion. He was recently named one of the Top 10 Academic Thought Leaders in Transportation by the Council of University Transportation Centers, and honored as a National Associate by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. And perhaps most importantly, Professor Taylor is a former staff member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Eliminating Minimum Parking Requirements: Stories from Cities Across the Country
2025-11-18
A Mini-Symposium from UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025
In 2005, UCLA Professor Donald Shoup published “The High Cost of Free Parking,” revealing the shaky foundations of minimum parking requirements and explaining how these mandates cause problems far worse than the one they were intended to solve. Since then, more than 100 U.S. cities have eliminated any requirements to provide a minimum number of parking spaces from their zoning code, with hundreds more lifting their parking requirements in key areas like commercial corridors and historic downtowns. In this online event, planners, public officials, researchers, and advocates whose cities were among the first to eliminate parking requirements will share their experiences. Speakers will share why their cities chose to end parking minimums, the new development and opportunities these changes have made possible, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. After the speaker sessions, attendees are invited to participate in breakout room discussions to share their experiences and consider the effects of parking policies in their own communities.
Session 1: Sharing City Experiences
In this session, we’ll hear from local leaders about why their cities eliminated minimum parking requirements and see examples of new housing and small businesses that resulted from the policy change.

Sara Bronin, former Planning Commission Chair, Hartford, Connecticut
Daniel Volland, City Council Member, Anchorage, Alaska
Aaron Qualls, former Planning and Community Development Director, Sandpoint, Idaho

Session 2: Sharing Knowledge and Resources
In this session, we’ll continue exploring local success stories. We’ll also learn about research and resources that can help planners and community leaders understand what to expect after eliminating minimum parking requirements and navigate what Professor Shoup and others have identified as next steps.

Daniel Hess, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo
Evan Manvel, former Land Use, Transportation, and Climate Mitigation Planner, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development
Tony Jordan, President, Parking Reform Network

Session 3: Learning Together
The last portion of the mini-symposium allows attendees to connect with speakers and other attendees in small-group facilitated discussions.
Claim Your Credits
Attendees who are members of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) can claim up to 2.25 CM credits from the American Planning Association’s website.

CLAIM HEREVideo Recording
Speakers

Sara BroninFounder & Ceo of National Zoning Atlas

Sara C. Bronin is a Mexican-American architect, attorney, professor, and policymaker whose interdisciplinary work focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places. She wrote Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World (W.W. Norton), and she founded and directs the National Zoning Atlas, which aims to digitize, demystify, and democratize information about zoning in the United States. She also served as Chair of Hartford’s Planning Commission.

Daniel B. HessProfessor

Daniel Hess is a professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Buffalo. Hess served as chairperson of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning from 2017 through 2022. Central to Hess’s research is addressing interactions between housing, transportation, land use, and other public concerns. He develops new pathways for understanding the complex socio-economic and ethnic landscape of cities and spatial inequalities. He also explores equal access to resources from urban neighborhoods, focusing especially on the changes in gay neighborhoods and the LGBTQ+ population diffuses to other metropolitan locations. Hess has authored papers studying the effects of parking reform.

Tony JordanPresident of Parking Reform Network

Tony Jordan is a nationally recognized champion for rethinking parking policies. Inspired by reading The High Cost of Free Parking, he founded Portlanders for Parking Reform in 2015 and went on to co-found the Parking Reform Network (PRN) in 2019. As PRN’s president, Tony leads a dedicated team and frequently presents at public meetings and conferences, including SXSW and YIMBYtown. He lives car-free in Portland, Oregon, with his family, enjoying multi-day bike trips and strategy board games when he’s not advocating for smarter parking policies.

Evan Manvelformer Land Use, Transportation, and Climate Mitigation Planner

Evan Manvel has spent three decades working on programs and policies to cut climate pollution. At the State of Oregon, he led the creation and adoption of Oregon’s revolutionary parking reforms, led several publications including Oregon’s Parking Management Jump Start Guide and “Lizard Brains on Planning,” and worked with several cities to reform parking management. He previously worked for some of the northwest’s leading conservation organizations and serves on the Parking Reform Network board.

Daniel VollandAnchorage Assembly Member

Daniel Volland represents District 1, which includes the urban core of Anchorage, on the Anchorage Assembly. He is passionate about housing abundance, active transportation, and public health. He is also an optometrist, small business owner, and dog dad.

Aaron QuallsSenior Project Manager

Aaron Qualls, AICP, is a senior project manager with SCJ Alliance Consulting Services, working out of SCJ’s downtown office in Sandpoint, Idaho — located within a historically remodeled building made possible by off-street parking reform. Aaron is a Strong Towns contributor, former president of APA ID, and the former Planning and Community Development Director for the City of Sandpoint. Aaron enjoys collaborating with diverse stakeholders, community members, and decision-makers to find common ground on even the most complex issues. Serving for over 14 years as a city official in both the private and public sectors, he has developed and implemented a wide variety of data-driven and community-focused plans within the Inland Northwest.

100 Lecture Series: L.A.’s transportation and infrastructure is broken. We can fix it. with Michael Schneider
2026-01-28 10:30 - 11:45 | Live Stream
Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research
Presented by UCLA Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
L.A.’s transportation and infrastructure is broken. We can fix it.
Michael Schneider, a Los Angeles native, traded his car for a bicycle over a decade ago. Since then, Michael has become politically active; as the founder of Streets For All, his organization has had a dramatic impact on L.A. — from passing Measure HLA in 2024 to flipping the L.A. City Council to making and changing laws in Sacramento. In this talk Michael will go over a brief history of L.A. from a transportation point of view, talk about Measure HLA, the current state of street safety and multimodal transportation in the city, and discuss what needs to change to make L.A. functional, safe, and multimodal for all.
MICHAEL SCHNEIDER, a lifelong Angeleno and car enthusiast, gave up his car a decade ago and started using a bicycle to get around the car capital of the country. This radical change opened his eyes to the impacts that car dominated cities have on our happiness, our freedom, and our kids. A tech entrepreneur turned political activist, Michael has raised millions to get the right people elected in Los Angeles and California, and in 2024 led the campaign to pass a ballot measure that will forever change LA.

100 Lecture Series: Strategic Innovation for L.A. Transportation with Seleta Reynolds
2026-02-04 10:30 - 11:45 | Live Stream
Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research
Presented by UCLA Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Strategic Innovation for L.A. Transportation
Seleta Reynolds has over a decade of experience as a transportation executive in Los Angeles. From her time as the General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to her current role as Metro’s Chief Innovation Officer, overseeing the Office of Strategic Innovation, Reynolds has developed a comprehensive perspective on transportation in Los Angeles. This perspective and approach to innovation are invaluable as Los Angeles prepares its transportation system to host global mega events.
SELETA REYNOLDS has 25 years of experience in transportation in both the public and private sector. As CIO of LA Metro, her responsibilities include delivering the mobility program for the 28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as a mobility wallet and a strategy for transitioning the agency to a Zero Emission Bus fleet. Formerly, she was the General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation where she launched Vision Zero, a goal to get to zero traffic deaths, in Los Angeles after leading a similar effort in San Francisco. She is the founding chair of the Open Mobility Foundation, an open-source project to build digital infrastructure for the public realm and serves on the Executive Committee of the ITS America Board of Directors.

Paving Over How Much Paradise? With Professors Lewis Lehe and Michael Manville
2026-02-10 11:00 - 12:00
An Event from the UCLA Center for Parking Policy
Tuesday, February 10th, 2026
Paving Over How Much Paradise?
With Professors Lewis Lehe and Michael Manville
Join us for a virtual event to hear Professors Lewis Lehe of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Michael Manville of UCLA discuss how parking shapes our cities — how much land is devoted to parking, how researchers measure its footprint, and what we give up in exchange for so much parking.
Following their presentations, Ellen Schwartz, manager of the UCLA Center for Parking Policy, will introduce a new synthesis summarizing research on the impacts of parking infrastructure, the effects of minimum parking requirements, and what happens when cities repeal them.
After the presentations, Adam Millard-Ball will moderate a speaker Q&A and audience discussion.
RegisterClaim Your Credits
Attendees who are members of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) can claim up to 1.00 CM credits from the American Planning Association’s website. (Link forthcoming)
Speakers

Lewis LeheAssistant Professor

Lewis Lehe is an Assistant Professor in the Transportation Systems group of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research areas include transportation pricing, urban traffic, traffic theory, and transportation economics. His work has been published in journals spanning planning, economics, and transportation research methodology.

Dr. Lehe earned his B.Phil. in Mathematics-Economics from the University of Pittsburgh, an M.A. in Transport Economics from the University of Leeds (UK), and both an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Michael ManvilleProfessor and Co-Director of UCLA Center for Parking Policy

Michael Manville is a Professor of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Parking Policy. His research areas are transportation, land use, and housing, and the interrelationships between those. He has particular interests in road and parking pricing; the determinants of driving and transit use; and the influence of land use regulations on the supply and price of housing. His work has appeared in journals of planning, economics, urban studies, and sociology.

Dr. Manville holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Urban Planning from UCLA Luskin. Before joining UCLA, he was an Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University.

Ellen SchwartzManager, UCLA Center for Parking Policy

Ellen Schwartz manages the UCLA Center for Parking Policy. Before joining ITS, Ellen worked as a Curb, Mobility, and Parking Planner at Walker Consultants, where she advised public sector clients on transportation and land use plans, including parking management frameworks and development review policies. She also brings public sector experience, having worked on various policy and planning initiatives with the City Manager’s Office in Mountain View, California, and the Planning Division in Fremont, California.

Ellen holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, with a concentration in Transportation Policy and Planning, and a Bachelor of Science in Spanish from Wisconsin Lutheran College.

100 Lecture Series: L.A. From the Viewpoint of A Walker with Alissa Walker
2026-02-11 10:30 - 11:45 | Live Stream
Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research
Presented by UCLA Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
L.A. From the Viewpoint of A Walker
Alissa Walker has been observing Los Angeles as a pedestrian and journalist since before Twitter existed. How people learn about their community has changed, and Alissa now works on a newsletter and podcast to inform Angelenos about transportation, housing, urban design, and governance. Her project Torched.LA covers the civic investments and policy decisions that Los Angeles is making in preparation for its megaevent-hosting era.
ALISSA WALKER is a writer based in Los Angeles where she has covered transportation, housing, urban design, public space, and environmental policy for two decades. She edits the newsletter Torched, which tracks the legacy improvements that LA is making for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Alissa is the 2021 recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary for her writing on design and urbanism, and played herself on the traffic safety episode of Adam Conover’s show Adam Ruins Everything, “Adam Ruins a Murder.” She lives in L.A.’s Historic Filipinotown neighborhood, where she is the co-host of LA Podcast, an avid ice cream consumer, and a mom to the city’s two most enthusiastic public transit riders.

100 Lecture Series: Investing in Sidewalks and Streets with Jessica Meaney
2026-02-18 10:30 - 11:45 | Live Stream
Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research
Presented by UCLA Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Investing in Sidewalks and Streets
Jessica Meaney is the Executive Director of Investing in Place. Investing in Place imagines a Los Angeles that cares for its sidewalks, streets, and parks as everyday expressions of dignity, equity, and belonging. Public spaces are planned and maintained as the foundation of community life, where investment and care reach every neighborhood.
Jessica has professional experience in Los Angeles, spanning transportation planning for safe streets, administration of philanthropic grants, and management of mission-driven organizations.
JESSICA MEANEY is the founder and executive director of Investing in Place, a leading voice for reimagining Los Angeles’ public realm—sidewalks, streets, and infrastructure. For two decades, Jessica has led efforts in LA to promote inclusive decision-making and equitable resource allocation in public works and transportation funding to create accessible and well maintained public spaces that enhance quality of life.

Pacific Coast Transportation Workshop
2026-02-20 - 2026-02-21 | UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, 337 Charles E Young Drive E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
The UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies is delighted to announce the inaugural Pacific Coast Transportation Workshop on policy and planning.
Join us in Los Angeles from Friday February 20 to Saturday February 21, 2026. We look forward to discussing research and exchanging ideas in a small, relaxed setting.
RegisterDraft ProgramDraft ScheduleQuestions and Answers
Why are you holding this workshop? We aim to provide a low-cost forum that fosters deeper connections between transportation scholars and that stimulates new ideas. The program will focus on a smaller number of thought-provoking papers and reserve ample time for discussion. We will have a mix of full-length presentations with discussants, and brief “egg timer” talks.
Who can attend? The workshop is aimed at faculty, postdocs, PhD students, and other researchers working in the broad areas of transportation policy and planning. We particularly encourage scholars in western North America to attend.
How can I register? Registration will open in December for presenters and others on a first-come, first-served basis. A registration fee of $75 ($40 for students) will cover lunches on Friday and Saturday and other light refreshments.
Where can I stay? We have reserved a block of rooms at the Inn at UCLA, which is across the street from the workshop location in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. The cost is $229/night, including tax and breakfast. This rate is highly competitive for the area.
How could I have submitted a paper? We requested an extended abstract of up to 1,000 words by 5pm Pacific Time on Friday November 14, 2025. Abstracts should follow a three-part structure: questions, methods, results. We invite unpublished empirical and theoretical papers on any topic, using any research method, related to transportation policy and planning. There is a maximum of one submission per presenting author.
What are the criteria for review? Abstracts will be reviewed against the following criteria:

Question: Is the research question important and interesting, and within the broad scope of transportation policy and planning?
Methods: Do the authors have a way to answer that question?
Results: Do results exist already, or is there a credible plan to have results by the workshop date?

When will I find out about my paper? We aim to make decisions by mid-December.
Who is organizing the workshop? The UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, with support from a steering committee: Jesus Barajas (UC Davis), Marlon Boarnet (USC), Anne Brown (University of Oregon), Michael Manville (UCLA), Juan Matute (UCLA), Adam Millard-Ball (UCLA), and Deborah Salon (ASU).
Where will the workshop be held? We will be hosted by the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
How can I find out more? Email the team at uclaits@ucla.edu.

The Road to Repair: Transforming Infrastructure to Advance Environmental Justice
2026-03-02 10:00 - 12:30 | Virtual Event
A mini-symposium from the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies The automobile-dominated transportation system has historically and disproportionately harmed low-income communities and communities of color, dividing neighborhoods, increasing exposure to traffic and noise pollution, and contributing to long-term health and economic disparities. This virtual mini-symposium explores how innovative, justice-focused approaches to freeway removal can repair these harms, reconnect communities, and create more equitable and sustainable urban environments, issues highly relevant to transportation planning, policy, and engineering. The mini-symposium features two panels:
Panel 1: Impacts and Inequities of Freeway Construction
This panel examines the social, environmental, and health impacts of freeway construction, with a focus on racial-ethnic disparities in exposure to traffic-related air pollution, displacement, and community severance. Panelists will discuss how transportation planning and infrastructure policies have marginalized communities of color and created persistent inequities.

Adam Paul Susaneck, AECOM/Segregation By Design
Demetria Murphy, Estolano Advisors
Amy Castaneda, Environmental Health Coalition
Dilia Ortega, Communities for a Better Environment

Panel 2: Solutions and Opportunities in Freeway Removal
The second panel explores innovative strategies to reimagine urban transportation. Panelists will discuss freeway removal, boulevard replacement, and investments in public transit and active transportation as tools to reconnect communities, reduce environmental harm, and promote transportation equity. Case studies, including California examples, will highlight planning, policy, and design strategies to advance environmental justice.

Dr. Ben Crowther, America Walks
Randolph Belle, Outreach Lead for Vision 980
Yesenia Perez, Senior Program Manager for Climate Equity, The Greenlining Institute

Why Attend
Attendees will gain insights into both the systemic challenges posed by freeway construction and the transformative potential of equity-driven transportation planning that prioritizes equity, environmental justice, and community well-being. The mini-symposium is designed to foster dialogue between researchers, students, and policymakers on practical and innovative solutions for more just and sustainable transportation systems.
REGISTER HERESpeakers

Dilia OrtegaSouthern California Programs Co-Director

Dilia Ortega is the Southern California Programs Co-Director at Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), where she advances environmental justice and equitable transportation outcomes. Raised in Southeast Los Angeles, she brings a lived understanding of industrial pollution shaped by her family’s work and proximity to the City of Vernon. She spent seven years at CBE as a Community Organizer, leading park equity efforts and the campaign to stop the I-710 South freeway widening. She holds a BA in History from Williams College and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA.

Yesenia PerezClimate Equity Senior Program Manager at The Greenlining Institute

Yesenia Perez is a policy advocate and Senior Program Manager for Climate Equity focused on systems change in climate resilience and clean mobility. She works with public agencies and community partners to shift how climate and infrastructure policies are designed, funded, and implemented to better serve communities of color. Her background spans strategic consulting, environmental education, and climate equity research. She holds a B.S. in Global Environmental Policy from UC Berkeley.

100 Lecture Series: Improving L.A.'s Transportation Policy Outcomes with Joshua Schank
2026-03-11 10:30 - 11:45 | Live Stream
Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research
Presented by UCLA Urban Planning and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Improving L.A.’s Transportation Policy Outcomes
Joshua Schank speaks from his book, “New Tricks for Old Bureaucracies,” which tells the inside story of how a small team at LA Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation turned big ideas into real change. It is part playbook, part survival guide, and part reality check for anyone trying to make progress inside public institutions.
JOSHUA SCHANK is a Partner at InfraStrategies LLC, where he leads a practice focused on innovation, strategic planning, and technology. He is also a Senior Fellow in the Institute for Transportation Studies at UCLA, and a Research Associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute. Prior to joining InfraStrategies and UCLA, Dr. Schank was the first-ever Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) at LA Metro. Dr. Schank previously served as President and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, Director of Transportation Research for the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Transportation Policy Advisor to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). He is the co-author of All Roads Lead to Congress: The $300 Billion Fight Over Highway Funding.

Celebration of 100 Years of Transportation Research and Education at UCLA
2026-05-04 | Covel Commons – Grand Horizon Room, 330 DeNeve Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
UCLA has been a leader in transportation research and education for more than a century. Over the past 100 years, transportation research at UCLA has shaped the field, from the earliest traffic studies to the emerging mobility technologies of today. As our world and transportation systems continue to evolve, we look forward to another 100 years in motion.
Join us on May 4 to celebrate UCLA’s long history of transportation research and education. More details to come.
