Transportation is often a means to an end — a way to access goods, services, or opportunities — and is inextricably linked with the built environment and quality of life. The Transportation & Communities program examines transit-oriented communities, transportation and urban design, linkages between mobility and gentrification, active transportation, pedestrian and bicycle planning, complete streets, and livable streets.
Lead Scholars
Other Scholars
Robin Liggett
Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning
Taner Osman
Lecturer in Urban Planning
Paul Ong
Professor of Urban Planning
Martin Wachs
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning
The Latest
Car bans: Your city could be next
Mashable — 2020
Cars Make Your Life More Expensive, Even If You Don’t Have One
Vice — 2020
The death of the sidewalk
The Washington Post — 2019
The Political Battle Over California’s Suburban Dream
CityLab — 2019
Want to Boost Transit Ridership? Try Making Women Feel Safer
Wired — 2019
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Transit-Oriented Displacement or Community Dividends? New book co-authored by Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris takes a novel and critical look at the effects of compact development around urban transit systems. MIT Press — 2019 |
Crenshaw Line Shows Transit Cuts Both Ways in Housing Crisis
KPCC — 2017
Watching Los Angeles Gentrify
CityLab — 2016
As High-Speed Rail Gains Momentum, U.S. Can Look to Europe’s Example
Los Angeles Times — 2015
Selected Research Publications
One of the most enduring ideas in urban planning is that compact cities make people drive less. This proposition is intuitive — people in cities such as San Francisco do drive less than people in places such as Jacksonville — but it is also difficult to prove. The literature around travel and built environment yields weak and sometimes contradictory results. Is it time to turn the approach on its head?
Michael Manville — 2017
Cities often require developers to widen streets or make other transportation improvements to account for the traffic impacts of new building. But parcel-level traffic mitigation often becomes an exercise not in reducing traffic but in ensuring that developers carry out mitigations, regardless of whether those mitigations are effective. Is automatic street widening accurate, verifiable, or effective?
While downtowns were thought to be in long-term decline 40 years ago, central business districts are today the most vibrant residential and commercial centers throughout largely suburban North America. What role has transportation technology and policy played in the earlier decline and recent revival of American downtowns? And what challenges does transportation pose to the continuation of urban regeneration?
Other Research
Research Synthesis for the California Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force
Offer Grembek, Katherine Chen, Brian D. Taylor, Yu Hong Hwang, Dillon Fitch, Sonia Anthoine, Bingchu Chen, Salvador Grove — 2020
Transit neighborhoods, commercial gentrification, and traffic crashes: Exploring the linkages in Los Angeles and the Bay Area
Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Silvia Gonzalez, Karen Chapple — 2019
Improving pathways to fixed-route transit: Transit agency practices to expand access for all users
Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Stephanie DiPetrillo, Andrea Lubin, Carla Salehian, Stephen C. Gibson, Kristine M. Williams, Theodore Trent Green — 2018
Bicycle Crash Risk: How Does It Vary, and Why?
Robin Liggett, Jill Cooper, Herbie Huff, Ryan Taylor-Gratzer, Norman Wong, Diana Benitez, Timothy Douglas, James Howe, Julia Griswold, David Amos, Frank Proulx — 2016
Heightening Walking Above Its Pedestrian Status: Walking and Travel Behavior in California
Evelyn Blumenberg, Kate Bridges, Madeline Brozen, Carole Turley Voulgaris — 2016
Recent Projects
PI: Esteban Doyle Team:
Mode Choice and Perceptions of the Built Environment in Watts and Jordan Downs
PI: Dustin Khuu Team:
Improving first/last mile conditions near highways: An investigation of access and coordination barriers
PI: Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris Team:
Land Use in a World of New Transportation Technologies
PI: Monique Ho Team:
Completing Our Streets: Lessons for Los Angeles from peer agencies creating safer, multimodal streets
PI: Malia Schilling Team:
Low-Income Households and Neighborhood Choice: Causes and Consequences
PI: Andrew Schouten Team:
Where to Go While on the Go: An Analysis of Restrooms on Select Metro Stations.
PI: Fabian Campos Team: Martin Wachs
Socially-Isolated Older Women: Intersections of Mobility & Social Health
PI: Lia Marshall Team: Catherine Sarkisian, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris
Wheels for All: Ensuring Equitable Access to Dockless Mobility in Los Angeles
PI: Karina Schneider Team:
Using TNCs to Inform and Support Transit Planning and Disadvantaged Community Mobility
PI: JR DeShazo Team: Mohja Rhoads, James Di Filippo