News Archives - Page 8 of 11 - The Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Irvine

The National Science Foundation has awarded a Smart and Connected Communities Planning Grant ($150,000) to ITS-Irvine faculty team led by Michael Hyland.

Quote from UCI School of Engineering News: “Led by Michael Hyland, assistant professor, the researchers are partnering with the San Diego Association of Governments (the region’s metropolitan planning organization) to develop mathematical models for evaluating potential impacts of these new innovations on transportation systems and community outcomes.”

USDOT today announced selection of our consortium proposal for a new Tier 1 University Transportation Center on Highly Automated Transportation Systems Research.

ITS-Irvine teamed with Ohio State University (as lead), University of Texas at Austin, and University of Cincinnati for this $1.925M, 2 year award. The new Center’s Director will be ITS-Irvine Faculty Associate Zak Kassas, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCI.

USDOT provided this background: “Progress on the path toward integrating automated systems into the transportation domain for all modes of transportation (surface, aviation, and maritime) will be aided by additional research addressing challenges associated with ensuring resilient Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) services to support automated systems. This University Transportation Center will complement the new Center of Excellence for Highly Automated Transportation Systems being implemented within the US DOT. Among the critical needs is research to support securing cyber resilient PNT receivers for use in automated systems. This UTC will carry out research to support the development of standards and or prototypes and incorporate existing U.S. Government guidance. ”

Please see details here.

Amelia Regan, Professor of Computer Science and Transportation Systems Engineering, and De’Von Jennings, a third year Traffic System Engineering PhD student at ITS Irvine, have been selected to serve as a project application evaluators for the 2021 California Transportation Commission’s Active Transportation Program. The team of selected volunteers will help evaluate and score applications for the next round of Active Transportation Program (ATP) funding.

Brian Casebolt, Siwei Hu, and De’Von Jennings, PhD students of Traffic System Engineering at ITS Irvine, have been selected to receive Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DETI) Summer Fellowship. “DTEI Graduate Fellows will work with faculty to develop high quality remote courses for the 2020-21 academic year. Fellows will receive training from DTEI in fundamentals of pedagogy and remote learning as well as specific tools that may be useful in creating a high quality remote learning experience.”

Amelia Regan and Jean-Daniel Saphores examine the potential impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the shortage of truck drivers in the United States, and more specifically in California. In addition to the structural reasons for this chronic shortage, they discuss the sharp slowdown in economic activity, but also truck driver demographics and restrictions on freight movement between jurisdictions that may impact the job market for truck drivers. Finally, they look back at what can be learned from previous recessions and discuss the impact of civil unrest on the economy. The video is available HERE.

Naila Sharmeen, a 4th year PhD candidate of Transportation Science at ITS Irvine, has been selected to receive Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship Award from UCI Graduate Division. This fellowship is one of UC Irvine’s most distinguished and is intended to release the student from non-academic obligations till the completion of the degree.

By Michael Hyland, Tanjeeb Ahmed, Navjyoth Sarma J S, Suman Mitra, Arash Ghaffar
Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Irvine

As cities and regions explore autonomous mobility solutions, understanding their real-world impact on employment accessibility is crucial. This study quantifies how Shared Automated Vehicles (SAVs) can bridge employment gaps, particularly benefiting young and low-income workers in Southern California.

At ITS-Irvine, our faculty are advancing transportation research by examining how emerging mobility solutions impact accessibility and equity. In this study, Dr. Michael Hyland, alongside Tanjeeb Ahmed, Navjyoth J.S. Sarma, Dr. Suman Mitra, and Arash Ghaffar, analyzed the employment accessibility benefits of Shared Automated Vehicle (SAV) mobility services using a consumer welfare approach.

Key Research Findings

Shared Automated Vehicle mobility services (SAMSs) significantly improve job accessibility.
The benefits of SAMSs are greater for workers in lower-density areas.
Low-income workers experience slightly higher job accessibility benefits from SAMSs.
The benefits of SAMS as a transit feeder mode are minimal compared to SAMS-only mobility.
Job accessibility benefits heavily depend on per-mile costs of SAMS modes.

“The main finding from our model-based analysis is that robo-taxis can substantially improve connections between workers and employment opportunities in Southern California, benefiting workers and employers in the region. Moreover, we find that low-income and younger workers are likely to benefit the most from robo-taxis in addition to workers in households without cars.”

-Dr. Michael Hyland

Stay connected with ITS-Irvine for more insights on mobility innovation. To learn more, read the policy brief or explore the full report below.

Read The Policy Brief

Read The Research Report

Professor Jean-Daniel Saphores has accepted the invitation to become the official committee member of TRB ADC80, Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies.

De’Von Jennings have been selected as the recipient of the ASCE LA YMF Dr. Bill Goodin Outstanding Student Mentor Scholarship and its $1000 award. He accepted the award at the Student Night Job Fair on Friday, February 7th at the Taglyan Complex.

For the second time in a row, De’Von Jennings received the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship. The program awards fellowships to students pursuing degrees in transportation-related disciplines. This program advances the transportation workforce by helping to attract the nation’s brightest minds to the field of transportation, encouraging future transportation professionals to seek advanced degrees, and helping to retain top talent in the U.S. transportation industry.

From its initial support of graduate research fellowships in 1983, to the current program’s inception in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, the DDETFP has awarded over $50 million to the brightest minds in the transportation industry. From this investment, fellows have pushed for innovative change in multimodal areas from highway infrastructure to aviation to maritime, making the industry more effective and efficient. Fellows pursue careers in academia, private industry, and public service, becoming leaders across the nation.