Affiliated Centers

The UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies collaborates regularly with research centers across the UCLA campus. 

Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies

Los Angeles is the center of one of the largest and most economically powerful regions in the world. But it also has some of the country’s highest levels of income inequality, driven by surging housing costs, residential segregation, stagnant wages, and gaps in access to high-quality transportation and education. Los Angeles is a challenging and complicated place, especially for low-income residents and communities that face multiple barriers to economic opportunity. The Ralph & Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies advances research on how people live, move, and work in the Los Angeles region, with a focus on policies and interventions that provide paths out of poverty.

The Lewis Center’s transportation research areas include:

  • Transportation equity
  • Access to opportunities
  • Environmental justice

Luskin Center for Innovation

The Luskin Center for Innovation conducts rigorous research and timely outreach that informs environmental policies for the health of people and the planet. The center evaluates existing and proposed environmental policies to assess their effectiveness, equity impacts, and potential to spur innovation. Research findings are then shared with community leaders and policymakers, who use the Luskin Center’s research to design evidence-based environmental policies. Research programs include climate, energy, environmental equity, transportation, urban greening, and water – all linked by the theme of informing effective and equitable solutions to the environmental challenges of our time.

The Luskin Center’s transportation program area includes:

  • Clean vehicle policy
  • Electric vehicle planning
  • Clean mobility for low-income households
  • Sustainable fleets & new mobility
  • Complete and living streets

Smart Grid Energy Research Center

The Smart Grid Energy Research Center (SMERC) performs research, creates innovations, and, demonstrates advanced wireless/communications, Internet and sense-and-control technologies to enable the development of the next generation of the electric utility grid – The Smart Grid. SMERC also provides thought leadership via partnerships between utilities, government, policymakers, technology providers, electric vehicle and electric appliance manufacturers, Department of Energy research labs and universities, so as to collectively work on envisioning, planning, and executing the smart grid of the future. The smart grid of the future will allow for integration of renewable energy sources, and will reduce losses, improve efficiencies, increase grid flexibility, reduce power outages, allow for competitive electricity pricing, allow for integration of electric vehicles, and overall become more responsive to market, consumer and societal needs. SMERC is currently working on the topics of Electric Vehicle Integration, Automated Demand Response, Microgrids, and Distributed and Renewable Integration, and Energy Storage Integration.

SMERC’s transportation-related work includes:

  • Automated demand-response
  • Electric vehicle integration
  • Connected autonomous electric vehicles