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Class Act: An Assessment of Los Angeles Metro’s U-Pass Program
In 2016, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) introduced the Universal College Student Transit Pass (U-Pass), its reduced transit fare pass program for college and university students, with the expressed goal of increasing student transit ridership. An increase in college student transit ridership has great potential in Los Angeles County, where public transit…
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Improving first/last mile conditions near highways: An investigation of access and coordination barriers
In considering how transit riders must walk or bike near highways to reach transit stations, highway infrastructure becomes a significant barrier to transit access and an impediment to a safe and comfortable transit trip experience. As such, areas surrounding highways can be priority pathways for first/last mile improvements, which is in turn complicated by the…
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TOD and Changes in Jobs, Housing, and the Commute
Research Team: PI: Evelyn Blumenberg Team: About this project: What problem does this research aim to address? What are the expected impacts and benefits of the research? Paper 1: Low-Income Workers, Residential Location, and the Changing Commute in the U.S. (national NHTS data; paper is currently under review at Built Environment) Paper 2: Jobs/Housing Balance…
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Connecting the Dots… Ridership Changes, Underlying Causes, and Strategies for Pasadena Transit
Over the past decade, public transit operators in the Los Angeles region started experiencing steep declines in ridership, while Pasadena Transit was adding riders. More recently, however, Pasadena Transit’s ridership plateaued and then started to decrease. The Transit Division of the City of Pasadena Department of Transportation (“the Client”) is therefore interested in understanding what…
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Where to Go While on the Go: An Analysis of Restrooms on Select Metro Stations.
Research Team: PI: Fabian Campos Team: Martin Wachs About this project: What problem does this research aim to address? What are the expected impacts and benefits of the research?
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Advancing a Mobility as a Service: Lessons Learned from Leading-Edge Public Agencies
Mobility as a Service presents the opportunity to comprehensively shift how people travel – from personal vehicle ownership to a marketplace offering integrated trip planning, fare payment, and behavioral incentives. Increasingly, major private mobility providers, such as Uber and Lyft, are demonstrating their ambitions to be one-stop shops for urban mobility. Yet, when it comes…
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A Time and a Place for Every Rider?: Geographic and Temporal Changes in Bay Area Transit Ridership
Transit ridership is on the wrong track across America. Yet until 2016, the San Francisco Bay Area appeared immune to the ridership declines plaguing most other cities. However, in 2017, Bay Area ridership began to fall, both regionwide and on almost all major transit operators. But this decline has not occurred uniformly. Thus, to help…
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Data needs in public transit research
This project will develop a framework that outlines outlines the various types of data relevant to understanding public transit systems and their use, identifies currently available data for each of these types, and their quality, and makes recommendations on how to address data needs for public transit research. The goals of this white paper will…
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Crystal Balls and Black Boxes: Policy Effects on Optimism in Ridership and Cost Forecasts for New Starts Rapid Transit Projects
Research Team: PI: Carole Voulgaris Team: About this project: What problem does this research aim to address? What are the expected impacts and benefits of the research?
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A New Model for Transit: Transit/TNC Partnerships in Western Riverside County
To examine this issue the research team will survey existing literature on road diets and their congestion impacts, analyze before and after LADOT daily traffic volume data for a number of street segments where the city installed road diets and nearby parallel segments where no change was made, and observe current conditions of ten intersections…