University Transportation Centers Program
Region IX
Robert Cervero, Director
July 31, 2009-August 1, 2010
* Click here to download the Year 22 Annual Report in its entirety as a PDF (2.9 MB)
ABOUT UCTC: OUR 22nd YEAR
The University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) is a multi-campus organization headquartered on the UC Berkeley campus. UCTC carries out basic and applied research, published in journals and on the Center’s web site. We organize and participate in conferences and workshops to discuss our research findings, inform public policy, and identify new and emerging research needs. We work with international, national, state, regional and local agencies and private organizations to put our research findings into practice. We offer fellowships and mount new courses to entice the best students into careers in transportation. We support education programs of UC academic departments offering transportation degrees, run training sessions, lectures, and symposia for practitioners, and publish a magazine designed to communicate our work to a broad nontechnical audience. The UCTC designated campuses are UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Riverside, and UC Santa Barbara. We are funded by the US Department of Transportation and the California Department of Transportation.
2009-2010 was UCTC’s 22nd year as the Federal Region 9 University Transportation Center (UTC). Officials from the University Transportation Centers (UTC) program of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) of U.S.DOT conducted a site visit of UCTC in October of 2009, providing constructive feedback on what we are doing well and how we might go about making even more improvements in the future. On the research front, a total of 16 new faculty initiated projects were started in 2009-10, along with another 17 projects that were carried forward from 2008-2009. A total of 44 faculty research reports were submitted during 2009-2010.
In addition, 10 doctoral dissertation grants were awarded and 112 students completed transportation-related graduate degrees across the UCTC campuses (92 masters and 20 doctorate degrees). Our graduates have joined private transportation firms, universities, nonprofits, and federal, state, and local government agencies.
UCTC undertook a number of educational and tech transfer activities, supporting the UCLA Lake Arrowhead conference, the UCTC student conference held this year at Irvine, three special educational programs targeted at undergraduates and young professionals, and various activities of the Transportation Research Board. UCTC also partnered with Caltrans and California University Transportation Centers (UC Davis, USC, San Jose State, the Leonard Center for California Stated Universities) on a series of webinars aimed at practitioners that focused on researched funded by the California UTCs. UCTC staff and researchers also began work during this year with Caltrans to develop a statewide strategic transit plan in partnership with transit agencies in the state and the California Transit Association.
Of note, Faculty members and graduate students affiliated with UCTC presented numerous papers at sessions of the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board in January 2010. Former UCTC Director Martin Wachs gave the 2010 Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB). Also, the TRB Pyke Johnson Award was given to UC Irvine researchers and faculty affiliates Gunwoo Lee, Soyoung (Iris) You, Stephen Ritchie, Jean-Daniel Saphores, Mana Sangkapicha, and R. Jayakrishnan for their UCTC-supported paper, “Environmental Impacts of a Major Freight Corridor: A Study of I-710 in California.”
UCTC is committed to help develop improved transportation services, more cost-effective and efficient project delivery, better transportation—environmental performance, and more equitable distribution of transportation benefits. Research on these topics helps find new processes, new technologies, and new institutional designs that pay off for all of us. Equally importantly, UCTC’s funding attracts the best and the brightest into the transportation field, helping to produce the leaders of the future. Transportation is an exciting and crucially important field, and in this regard UCTC remains committed to advancing knowledge and informing practice to promote efficient, sustainable, and socially just transportation systems of the future.
—Robert Cervero, October, 2010
Vision
UCTC’s vision is excellence in transportation education, excellence in transportation research, and a vibrant network of transportation professionals who will put their education and research findings into practice. We recognize that the State of California, Region 9, and the nation face important transportation challenges...
We believe that the challenges confronting the transportation sector must be addressed through creative research, development, and deployment, education and tech transfer, all under a broadly scoped but strategically organized research agenda, or theme, that can make our vision a reality.
Theme
UTCs are asked to identify a theme, and the UCTC theme is “Transportation Systems Analysis and Policy.” This theme is at once broadly scoped and strategically focused, allowing us to conduct research that addresses the variety of challenges facing our nation, region and state and find ways to promote effective implementation, while complementing rather than duplicating other technology-oriented programs at UC such as PATH and the UC Pavement Center. This theme has guided UCTC research since the Center’s very beginning, reflecting the breadth of knowledge in the transportation field found throughout the five UC campuses affiliated with UCTC and the instincts of faculty researchers to link technical analyses to contemporary policy concerns.
Proceed to Additional Highlights: Activities (Research, Education, and Outreach)