Next Tuesday, voters across the county will decide on some 300+ ballot measures that will use tax increases to fund transportation improvements. With the help of our friends at the Eno Center for Transportation, we are exploring how these measures are distributed across California and the county. These measures could raise nearly $200 billion for transit investments, and billions more to fund improvement of roads, rail and freight. The federal gas tax, traditionally the nation’s primary source of transportation funding, has not been raised in 22 years. In 2014, only about 27 percent of transportation funding was federal, dropping from a high of 35 percent in 1980.Simultaneously, the nation’s transportation infrastructure is in dire need of investment simply for maintenance, not to mention investment in new roads and transit infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $170 billion in capital investment is needed annually to improve road conditions across the county, with transit, rail, and ports in similar states of disrepair.  Transportation funding needs have been a frequently visited topic of the presidential candidates.As federal fuel tax revenues and other sources of federal funding for transportation continue to decline, financial responsibility has increasingly shifted to states, counties, and local [...]

Tuesday evening reception RSVPThe Transportation Research Board (TRB) 95th Annual Meeting will be held in Washington, DC at its new venue, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, during January 10-14, 2016. The information-packed program is expected to attract 12,000 transportation professionals from around the world.The TRB Annual Meeting program covers all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 750 sessions and workshops addressing topics of interest to all attendees—policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies will be hosting a reception during the TRB Annual Meeting on Monday, January 12th from 5:30-7:30pm (EST) at Busboys & Poets at the corner of 5th St NW and K St. The reception is open to all friends and alums of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.This year UCLA will once again be sending multiple presenters to the annual meeting. The lectern and poster presentations are listed below.  We have included selected UCLA ITS alumni presenting in the same sessions. Monday, January 11, 2016 8:00AM- 9:45AM Lectern Session 230: Bus Transit Operations and Intelligent Transport SystemsMaking Headways: Analysis of Smart Cards and Bus Dwell Time in Los Angeles (Poster File)Daniel Shockley, Fehr & Peers, MURP UCLA 2015Julia Salinas, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, [...]

This week, 200 attendees meet in Downtown Los Angeles to discuss the future of transportation planning in CaliforniaThe last time Caltrans hosted a statewide transportation planning conference, in 2008, transportation in California was very different. Fastforwarding a short seven years later, California is hosting the first cap-and-trade system in the U.S., all of the state’s regions have Sustainable Communities Strategies linking transportation and land use, and public health at the center of the conversation. These changes, among others, are what bring together over 200 transportation professionals to the 2015 California Transportation Planning Conference hosted in Downtown Los Angeles December 2 through 4.The conference covers various topics. Wednesday begins with a discussion on how transportation planning must evolve in order to maintain an effective transportation system for everyone. Questions of funding and aging infrastructure are on the agenda, including a discussion of system preservation featuring speakers from the Federal Highway Administration, the City of Los Angeles, Southern California Association of Governments and Caltrans. A complete list of panels and topics can be found here.“At the conference, transportation stakeholders and decision-makers will exchange ideas and learn about the latest developments in transportation planning from a national, state, and local perspective,” said UCLA [...]