About Claudia Bustamante

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So far Claudia Bustamante has created 13 blog entries.

UCLA at TRB 2021

UCLA ITS packed schedule at TRB 100th Annual Meeting The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 100th Annual Meeting will be held virtually from Jan. 21–29, 2021. The program has previously attracted over 13,000 transportation professionals from around the world and will involve more than 3,000 presentations in 350+ sessions. The meeting program will cover all transportation modes, addressing topics of interest to policymakers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. A number of sessions and workshops will focus on the spotlight theme for the 2021 meeting: Launching a New Century of Mobility and Quality of Life. This year’s meeting also will feature dozens of sessions on how COVID-19 has impacted transportation and how transportation professionals and researchers are responding. UCLA will have a significant presence at the event with presentations from faculty, affiliated researchers, and students. Jiaqi Ma, new faculty member in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and head of UCLA ITS' new mobility research area, is involved in 11 TRB presentations. Sam Speroni MURP '20, who received the Neville A. Parker Award for best planning capstone project, will present his research on Jan. 25 and 26. Other noteworthy presentations include License to Drive: The [...]

By |2021-01-08T10:40:51-08:00December 15th, 2020|Categories: Events|Tags: |
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From Classroom to Real World

UCLA Luskin student projects provide high-level policy analysis for pressing transportation challenges  As part of fulfilling their degree requirements, UCLA urban planning master’s students complete a client capstone project. This research — which prepares students to solve real-world urban planning problems — involves students working directly with clients to investigate policy questions and challenges crafted specifically to their needs.  This year’s UCLA ITS-supported projects ranged from proposing alternative solutions to policing on transit with ACT-LA; suggestions for Los Angeles Walks to help make LA streets more pedestrian-friendly; assessing the success of HopSkipDrive’s program to drive vulnerable student populations to school; and analyzing which corridors are best-suited for LA Metro’s next bus lanes, among others. Students worked with the clients throughout the school year and created final reports with data and policy analyses that the clients could share — both with their internal teams and external community partners and stakeholders — to improve their organizations. Submit a project for your company In light of the recent Black Lives Matter protests and as discussions of policing alternatives have gained more traction, many transit advocates and agencies are pushing for similar discussions on transit policing. Ma’ayan Dembo MURP ‘20 had [...]

By |2021-01-08T10:40:50-08:00July 21st, 2020|Categories: People, Research Area|
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UCLA ITS leads 8 COVID-19 transportation research projects

In response to the pressing need to investigate COVID-19’s impact on transportation, the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies secured funding to lead eight projects focusing on a range of transportation interests.  The UCLA ITS projects will tackle issues related to the impact of the coronavirus and pandemic on California’s transportation finance, the transportation needs of vulnerable populations, and the recovery trajectory for public transit. These eight research and engagement activities account for almost half of the total projects funded by the University of California Institute of Transportation Studies COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Initiative, with an additional 10 projects being led by research teams at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Irvine. In April, UC ITS announced that it would dedicate a portion of its annual research program to fast-track funding specifically studying the impact of COVID-19 on public health, the economy and transportation. Earlier this year, UC ITS directors and staff consulted with the UC ITS Board of Advisors to define the state’s pandemic-related transportation research priorities. Concurrently, the UC ITS solicited project ideas, data collection needs, and researcher qualifications from across the UC system. Aside from transportation finance, vulnerable populations and transit, other topic areas to be studied [...]

By |2021-01-08T10:40:48-08:00June 9th, 2020|Categories: Research Area|
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ITS Researchers Lead Coronavirus Transportation Research

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies will fast-track funding for research projects related to COVID-19 and its effects on public health, the economy and transportation, with those submissions due by April 19 and funding to be dispersed by June. As part of its research goals for the next fiscal year, UCLA ITS and sister institutes at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Irvine pivoted priorities to investigate the effect of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 on transportation in the United States. This quick adjustment will allow researchers across the University of California system to collaborate and harness their collective expertise in transportation engineering, planning and policy. Transportation and transit use have rapidly shifted in the country due to social distancing recommendations, shelter-in-place restrictions, quarantines and other mitigation efforts meant to slow the spread of the virus. The collective UC Institute of Transportation Studies will prioritize research projects: looking into the response to the public health emergency, including the mobility needs of essential workers and vital goods; the capacity of both the private and public sectors to meet transportation needs during the crisis; and the substitution of technology-enabled access for mobility in response to movement limitations. It [...]

By |2020-07-02T13:57:50-07:00April 3rd, 2020|Categories: Research Area|
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How UCLA ITS is handling COVID-19

Due to recent restrictions that have asked all Los Angeles residents to be safer at home, we wanted to provide an update about how UCLA ITS is working during this period. Through the end of the quarter, UCLA is converting to all online classes. Therefore, all student workers, staff and faculty at UCLA ITS will be working remotely. UCLA ITS will continue its research and support of students while all employees remain safely at home. We will still respond to emails and phone calls and operations will continue as usual, especially during this period of new graduate student admission. We have canceled or postponed all upcoming events and gatherings. Our leadership is considering how to offer the same high-value content for our annual Downtown Forum, which is usually scheduled in the spring, and we will share new developments as they arise. In the meantime, our affiliated center Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies will adjust the format of their upcoming transportation-themed event. InterActions LA: Uplifting Women’s Safety in Transportation will be held as a virtual event on Friday, April 3 and we encourage you to sign up! We continue to follow the guidance of our local leaders with regard to [...]

By |2020-11-30T12:14:45-08:00March 12th, 2020|Categories: Access to Opportunities, New Mobility, Parking, Public Transit, Sustainable & Resilient Transportation, Traffic, Transportation Finance|
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UCLA unveils Bay Area transit ridership study

State’s most transit-rich region lost 27 million riders in recent years After years of bucking national trends, San Francisco Bay Area transit ridership fell more than 5 percent from 2017 to 2018, even as it drew more use among commuters, according to a new UCLA study released today. The growing imbalance and spread of jobs and housing and associated affordable housing crisis is playing a role in sliding transit use, likely along with growing ridehail use on Lyft and Uber. “What’s Behind Recent Transit Ridership Trends in the Bay Area?” by researchers at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) outlines the results of ridership data analysis over the past decade in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, with more in-depth scrutiny of the region’s eight largest transit operators. This is the second comprehensive study UCLA ITS has conducted on California transit ridership; a similar 2018 study focused on falling transit use in Greater Los Angeles. “The likely causes of falling Bay Area transit ridership are very different from those in LA,” said Brian D. Taylor, director of UCLA ITS and co-principal investigator on the study. “While transit commuting to and from jobs in downtown San Francisco on packed buses [...]

By |2021-01-08T10:39:44-08:00February 26th, 2020|Categories: Public Transit|
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Transfers Magazine – Issue 4

The Equalizer: Could Ride-Hailing Extend Equitable Car Access? Anne Brown Longer View: Positioning Transit for the 21st Century Steven E. Polzin, Dan Sperling How Much Traffic is Cruising for Parking? Robert Hampshire, Donald Shoup Carless in California: What the Carless Can Tell Us About Shifting Behaviors and Improving Mobility Jean-Daniel Saphores, Suman K. Mitra Opinion: Mentoring the Next Generation of Transportation Professionals Richard Willson Transfers Magazine is a biannual research publication of the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center, a federally funded network of eight partner campuses in Arizona, California and Hawaii. Transfers also features a year-round blog covering campus stories, research updates, student projects, news, events, opinions and more. Subscribe

By |2019-12-13T14:55:46-08:00November 21st, 2019|Categories: Uncategorized|
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UCLA ITS at TRB 2020

UCLA ITS featured prominently at TRB 99th Annual Meeting The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 99th Annual Meeting will be held Jan. 12–16, 2020, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The program is expected to attract more than 13,000 transportation professionals from around the world. The meeting program will cover all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops. Attendees come from all industries and include policymakers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. A number of sessions and workshops will focus on the spotlight theme for the 2020 meeting: A Century of Progress: Foundation for the Future. UCLA ITS will have a significant presence at the event with 18 presentations from faculty, affiliated researchers, and students. Please see below for the full list and schedule of all UCLA ITS-affiliated presentations. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!   UCLA ITS Sessions Is Spatial Mismatch Really Spatial, and Really a Mismatch? In Workshop: Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program Innovative Doctoral Transportation Research Showcase Presenter: Julene Paul Fellowship Recipients: Cassie Halls, Hannah King, Julene Paul, Maddy Ruvolo, Miriam Pinski, Samuel Speroni, Tam Guy, Timothy Wickland [...]

By |2021-01-08T10:40:46-08:00November 6th, 2019|Categories: Events|
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Visiting scholar has eyes on the road ― literally ― in search of wildfire impacts

Climate adaptation expert Mikhail Chester focuses on infrastructure vulnerabilities in a changing environment by Claudia Bustamante For the next year, the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies will benefit from the research and expertise of a climate adaptation specialist. Mikhail Chester, an associate professor of civil engineering at Arizona State University, has joined the institute as a visiting scholar, focusing his yearlong appointment on studying infrastructure vulnerabilities in a changing environment. “Roads are not designed for the worsening conditions of climate change,” Chester said. The old, conventional thinking about this problem was to map the hazards: Where will it be hotter? Where will it flood? Where do the roads and bridges intersect? “Infrastructure are not fragile, brittle things. They’re tough,” he said. “What I’ve been trying to do is shine a light on how we can think more critically about what ‘vulnerability’ means.” Specifically, while at UCLA, Chester will study how roads are vulnerable to wildfires. Last year, California experienced its largest and deadliest wildfire season. And despite a wet winter, the state is again braced for an active wildfire season spurred by rising heat and driven by winds. In recent years, Californians have seen wildfires burn near, and eventually cross, [...]

By |2021-01-08T10:23:37-08:00September 11th, 2019|Categories: Engineering|
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