The UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy is hosting four forum sessions from January to March that will bring together researchers, policy-makers, and stakeholders to discuss and explore the latest relevant research and real-world experience with implementation of SB 375 and related policies.

• Session 1: Sustainable Communities 101: Wednesday January 22nd, 2014, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
• Session 2: Evaluating Effects and Evidence: Wednesday February 5th, 2014, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
• Session 3: Improving the Models: Wednesday March 5th
• Session 4: Increasing Implementation Follow-through: Wednesday, March 19th

California’s transportation sector is an integral part of the state’s economy, enabling personal mobility and goods movement for millions of people. It also accounts for more than 38% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, with around 75% of these emissions coming from passenger autos and trucks.

The Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, Senate Bill 375 (SB 375) aims to help California reach its AB 32 greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reductions targets by creating incentives for smarter land use and transportation planning with the goal of enabling more sustainable communities. SB 375 provides a framework for regional planning agencies to integrate their transportation, land use, and housing  plans with performance targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions.

This has the potential to enable communities that provide better jobs-housing balance, multiple options for travel and agricultural and natural-land preservation.  However, realizing this potential requires an understanding of the strategies, costs, benefits and implementation challenges for sustainable community efforts across the state.

Policy forum speakers will address the role of SB 375 in meeting the state’s climate, environmental quality, public health, economic and community needs. The forum series will provide participants with information regarding the importance of reducing vehicle miles traveled (the ‘third leg of the stool’) and the necessity for smarter planning that integrates transportation and land use planning in order to be able to successfully reduce greenhouse emissions.

For more information about the policy forum series, click here: http://policyinstitute.ucdavis.edu/informing-policy-3/policy-forum-series-2/sb-375/

 

Photo: Guests attend the first policy forum session on sustainable communities at the University of California Center in Sacramento on Jan. 22. Photo Credit: Nishant Seoni, UC Davis

ITS-Davis Director Dan Sperling is highlighted on a Japanese television program titled, “Our Blue Planet: Reaching Beyond Imagination,” which features him as a recipient of the 2013 Blue Planet Prize.

The program, which aired on Jan. 10 on NHK World TV in Japan, shows footage from the Oct. 2013 Blue Planet Prize award ceremony at the United Nations University in Tokyo, where Sperling highlighted in his acceptance speech the steps society needs to take to reach a sustainable transportation future.

“We need to reverse trends and patterns of the past one hundred years,” said Sperling. “It’s not easy, but with great effort, we can recover our healthy blue planet.”

The program proceeds to follow Sperling and the other award recipient, Taroh Matsuno of Japan, in their everyday work, and reveals how the two award winners and their research earned them this prestigious title in what is commonly known as the Nobel Prize for the environmental sciences.

In an interview appearing in the latter half of the program, Sperling shares how he was first inspired to study transportation systems as a young man and explains how he was able to push for new innovations in policy and technology through the institute he created here, ITS-Davis. Sperling concludes the program with a firm goal to “bring science and policy together in a better and more effective way” for the future in order to better understand and address our planet’s climate change.

View the complete TV program here.

Read more about the Blue Planet Prize and Oct. 2013 awards ceremony here.

 

Photo: Asahi Glass Foundation Chairman Tetsuji Tanaka presented the Blue Planet Prize to Dan Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. Oct. 30, 2013. Photo by Takao Tsushima — Asahi Glass Foundation

UC Davis researchers have released the third in a series of periodic progress reports on California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). “Status Review of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, January 2014 Issue” finds that in 2013 the LCFS played a stronger role in incentivizing the use of biofuels from a variety of sources, including corn oil, canola, and biodiesel and renewable diesel from waste. It also finds slight increases in the use of electricity for transportation under the program, and that fuel suppliers in the program have generated excess credits.

Adopted by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) in 2009, the LCFS requires transportation fuel providers such as oil companies and refiners to gradually reduce the carbon intensity of their fuel by at least 10 percent by 2020. The state began implementing the rule in 2011.

The status review is authored by UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis) research engineer Sonia Yeh and assistant project scientist Julie Witcover.

“One of the values of this periodic series of reports is that we can analyze trends over time,” says Yeh.

Among the findings in this status review are the following:

• Fuel suppliers in the program generated excess LCFS credits, beyond what was required, in every quarter since the program was initiated.
• While overall biofuel volume remained relatively constant since 2011, the contribution to LCFS credits of ethanol made primarily from corn or grain mixes decreased, while biodiesel and renewable diesel credits increased dramatically in 2013.
• An increasing share and volume of biofuel LCFS credits came from the use of waste-based fuels, which garnered higher premiums from the LCFS than from the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) in late 2013 due to their low LCFS carbon intensity ratings, higher LCFS credit prices and declining premiums from the RFS2.
• Ethanol made from sugarcane or molasses contributed to a total of 5 percent of biofuel volume between 2011 and the first six months of 2013. In the same period, soy biodiesel contributed 0.3 percent of biofuel volume.
• Reported electricity use for transportation increased almost four-fold from 2011 through the first half of 2013.
• LCFS credit prices have increased since 2012, rising to about $80/credit in October and November 2013, and ending 2013 at about $50/credit in December.

Like the previous status reviews, published in Spring 2013 and November 2012, this data-rich report on LCFS compliance, fuel use, and credit markets includes a special topic. This issue’s special topic summarizes the results of an October 2013 UC Davis paper that examines ARB’s LCFS cost-containment proposals. It finds that cost-containment mechanisms, such as a cap on credit prices, may play an important role in limiting high credit prices and program costs, thereby safeguarding the LCFS credit market and the LCFS program itself.

The status report is funded through a research contract with ARB and the ITS-Davis NextSTEPS research program.

Read the full paper at: http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/research/publications/publication-detail/?pub_id=2008

 

Photo: ITS-Davis research engineer Sonia Yeh presents findings at the ITS-Davis Board of Advisors meeting in November 2013. Photo Credit: Sylvia Wright, UC Davis

ITS-Davis researcher Lew Fulton, co-director of the NextSTEPS research program, addressed sustainability experts and national delegates from around the globe at a recent conference hosted by the United Nations in New York.

Fulton was one of two panelists who presented during the General Assembly Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development on Jan. 7.

Fulton urged country delegates to consider the creation of a transportation sustainability goal as part of their 2015 development agenda. He stressed that transport is an enabler of most economic and social activities around the world, but suffers from environmental and other external costs that will mount to an estimated $50 Trillion through 2030 if not addressed.

“Transport is a very large sector that deserves to have a sustainable development goal,” said Fulton. “It is not only about people, but also moving goods, which of course is critical in development and critical for our well-being.”

For the full presentation, view here

Researchers, faculty and students from the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis) took the spotlight at the 93rd annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) meeting in Washington, D.C., Jan. 12-16.

More than 70 UC Davis representatives attended TRB this year to present their latest findings and interact with colleagues at the top transportation research institutes from around the world.

This year, Dan Sperling, ITS-Davis founding director and professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science and Policy, was appointed the 2014 Vice Chair of the Executive Committee. Sperling will serve a one-year term beginning January 16 in preparation for becoming chairman the following year. He has served on 13 National Research Council committees, was founding chair of the TRB committee on Alternative Transportation Fuels, and first chair of the TRB committee on sustainable transportation.

UC Davis participants presented their world-class research on topics as diverse as low carbon fuels, congestion pricing, air quality impacts of freight transportation, sustainable pavement, eco-driving and access to transportation in low-income communities.

The 5-day conference also included a series of committee meetings, six of which were led by UC Davis researchers.

• Emerging and Innovative Public Transport and Technologies Committee
  Caroline Jane Rodier, presiding officer
  January 13, 1:30-5:30 p.m. 
• International Aspects of Transportation Energy Subcommittee, ADC70(1)
  Lewis M. Fulton, presiding officer
  January 13, 3:45-5:30 p.m.
• Chemical, Mechanical, and Asphalt Stabilization Committee
  David Jones, presiding officer
  January 14, 8 a.m.-12 p.m.
• Accelerated Pavement Testing International Conferences Subcommittee, AFD40(1)
  John Harvey, presiding officer
  January 14, 1:30-3:15 p.m.
• Mega-Regions Joint Subcommittee of ADA20
  Gian-Claudia Sciara, presiding officer
  January 14, 2013, 3:45-5:30 p.m.
• Animal-Vehicle Collisions Subcommittee, ANB20(2)
  Fraser Mark Shilling, presiding officer
  January 15, 10:15 a.m.-12 p.m.

Click here for a full schedule of ITS-Davis presentations

 

Photo: Dozens of top ITS-Davis scholars, seen here at the NextSTEPS symposium on Dec. 10, will present their research findings at the 2014 TRB conference. Photo credit: Dorian Toy, UC Davis 2014

By Alston Lim • UC Davis 2014

Fuel economy improvements from conventional internal combustion engine cars have the potential to save $2 trillion over the next decade, according to a new report published by the ITS-Davis NextSTEPS program in conjunction with the Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI). Lew Fulton, co-director of NextSTEPS, presented the findings at a joint webinar between GFEI, NextSTEPS and the UC Davis Policy Institute in November.

According to Fulton, these savings could be used in part to help offset the costs of developing a global market for electric vehicles. He estimates the potential fuel economy savings to be at least four times the EV market development costs.

Fulton’s paper finds improvements to conventional vehicles, including but not limited to hybridization, could achieve a 50 percent reduction in fuel use per kilometer for new cars by 2030, in line with GFEI targets. Fulton estimates a high-end subsidy of $500 billion for the global PEV market, although that number could be much lower if battery costs drop quickly or if consumers consider the full value of fuel cost savings.

“We know that a 50 percent improvement in vehicle fuel economy worldwide is both technically achievable and cost effective,” says Fulton. “What we’ve now shown is that the financial benefits of this move could be staggering. With smart policies such as a feebate scheme, the financial benefits could be leveraged, and it would provide the answer to an electric vehicles market that currently does not have such a positive outlook. If the question is ‘how do we move to a low carbon future for vehicles?’ this could be the answer.”

About GFEI

The GFEI is a partnership of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), International Energy Agency (IEA), International Transport Forum (ITF), the FIA Foundation, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) and the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis. The GFEI exists to promote debate and discussion around the issue of vehicle fuel economy.

For more about GFEI, click here

To view the webinar presentation, click here

 

ITS-Davis alumnus David Friedman will become acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to news reports. Friedman, who has served in the No. 2 post of the nation’s top auto safety agency since his appointment in May 2013, will take the reins when the current administrator, David Strickland, steps down. The timing has not been announced.

Friedman played a lead research role with ITS-Davis’s first industry-government research consortium on fuel cell vehicle modeling and co-authored 12 technical publications during his graduate studies here. He passed his Ph.D. exam with a proposal to mathematically model fuel cell stacks and systems.

Prior to his appointment at NHTSA, he was a transportation analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where he pushed for stricter fuel economy standards and lower oil consumption.

ITS-Davis Director Dan Sperling said Friedman excelled as a member of the first class of the institute’s Transportation Technology and Policy Program students. Indeed it was Friedman’s interest in interdisciplinary transportation education that inspired faculty leaders to accelerate the proposal to launch TTP.

“David is an example of how the interdisciplinary training of the TTP program succeeded, in this case, broadening his education beyond engineering to include social science, policy research and education,” Sperling said.

Photo: ITS-Davis director Daniel Sperling (left) and David Friedman prepare to testify on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment

By Sylvia Wright • October 30, 2013

Daniel Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, was awarded the 2013 Blue Planet Prize in a ceremony today in Tokyo. The prize, announced in June by the Asahi Glass Foundation of Tokyo, has been described as the Nobel Prize for the environmental sciences.

Sperling will give a commemorative lecture on October 31 at U Thant International Conference Hall at the United Nations University in Tokyo.

Sperling is an international expert on transportation technology, fuels and policy, with a focus on energy and environment. His research is directed at accelerating the global transition to cleaner, more efficient transportation and energy, and mitigating climate change. The award recognizes Sperling for his unique ability to bring together the top thinkers and strategists in academia, government and industry to develop new vehicle- and fuels-policy approaches that are models for the world.

His acceptance speech was attended by top international scientists, transportation and energy industry executives, government officials, and Japan’s Imperial Highnesses Prince and Princess Akishino.

Sperling described a world that is increasingly affluent – and consumptive. “If this consumption continues to be based on current unsustainable forms of energy, it threatens our environment and the future of the human race,” he said.

“Therein lies the challenge—can the wealthy countries not only curb their insatiable appetite for fossil energy, but also play a leadership role in developing and adopting new low-carbon life styles?” Sperling asked.

“A new paradigm is needed that allows for more consumption and mobility, but without disrupting ecosystems, extinguishing species, and poisoning our air, land, and water.”

He prescribed five actions to reach a sustainable transportation future:

1. We should strive for a portfolio of solutions – not the single solutions that “politicians and media grasp and hype,” he said. “We need battery electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen and biofuels and better urban land-use management and startup companies offering new types of mobility services and more rational financing and pricing of roads and parking — and much more.”
2. We need to focus on desirable pathways into the future, not simplistic end-state visions. “It is much harder to design near-term policies and strategies than paint ideal visions of the future.”
3. Every city, country, culture and economy is different. The mix of solutions and the details of those solutions will vary dramatically from one location to another.  “In rich countries, with established infrastructure and locked-in sprawl, the emphasis should be more on improving technologies (though opportunities remain to improve land-use management and reduce vehicle use there also). In emerging economies, much more emphasis should be put on devising and embracing an alternative paradigm to car-centric development, to create more livable and sustainable cities.”
4. The scientific community needs to engage in near term decision-making. “We need to help policy makers, regulators, and legislators to understand the choices and implications of their actions or inaction. Because solutions are often local, it is crucial that the scientific community of each region participate directly in government and industry decision-making.”
5. “The fifth key lesson is take action today!  Let’s not leave this looming disaster as our legacy, but muster the courage and our innovative spirit to find and implement solutions.  We will then leave to future generations a legacy we can be proud of.”

 Sperling was chosen to receive the Blue Planet Prize from among 106 candidates representing 27 countries. Also being honored this year is Taroh Matsuno, principal scientist at the Research Institute for Global Change, in the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

A professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science and Policy, Sperling founded the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis) in 1991. ITS-Davis is now the world’s leading academic program in transportation technology and policy, thanks to Sperling’s talent for building enduring partnerships with industry, government and the environmental community; integrating interdisciplinary research and education programs; and connecting research with public outreach and education. Today the Institute is home to 60 affiliated faculty and researchers and 120 graduate students, and a $12 million budget.

ITS-Davis researchers pursue topics as diverse as:

• Consumer response to advanced vehicle technologies, such as hybrid and electric cars
• Bike- and pedestrian-friendly community planning
• Traffic-flow theory
• Battery and ultracapacitor capabilities and comparisons
• World geopolitical implications of oil and natural gas development
• Biofuels investment and production strategies
• Multitasking and telecommuting
• Hydrogen fueling infrastructure, and
• The potential for converting the globe to 100 percent renewable energy.

This is the 22^nd year of the Blue Planet Prize. Previous recipients include: Amory B. Lovins, chairman and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute; Paul R. Ehrlich, director of the Center of Conservation Biology at Stanford University; Jane Lubchenco, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); James Hansen, recently retired director of the U.S. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Joseph L. Sax, professor emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; David R. Brower, chairman of the Earth Island Institute; and Lester R. Brown, founder and president of the Worldwatch Institute.

“Many of my heroes have won this award, and I am humbled to join this distinguished group,” Sperling said.

More information

Download a transcript of Daniel Sperling’s Commemorative Lecture: Blue Planet Prize-Sperling Commemorative Lecture

Read the full UC Davis news release: http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/slide-show/blue-planet-prize-environmental-nobel-awarded-to-dan-sperling/

Listen to Daniel Sperling discuss the Blue Planet Prize: http://www.capradio.org/news/insight/2013/06/14/insight-062813/

Read U.S. Rep. John Garamendi remarks on the House Floor about the Blue Planet Prize: http://garamendi.house.gov/press-release/congressman-garamendi-highlights-uc-davis-efforts-combat-climate-change-promote-clean

Read the U.S. Transportation Research Board comments about the Blue Planet Prize: http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/169141.aspx

About the Blue Planet Prize

The Blue Planet Prize was established in 1992 by the Asahi Glass Foundation of Tokyo. The award’s name was inspired by remarks of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, who observed that our blue planet is beautiful and we should work to preserve it. The Asahi Glass Foundation named the prize in the hope that “our blue planet will be a shared asset capable of sustaining human life far into the future.” http://www.af-info.or.jp/en/

 Photo: Asahi Glass Foundation Chairman Tetsuji Tanaka presented the Blue Planet Prize to Dan Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. Oct. 30, 2013. Photo by Takao Tsushima — Asahi Glass Foundation

As 2013 comes to a close, we here at ITS-Davis take a look back at our students’ accomplishments and applaud them in anticipation of more to come.

Outstanding Dissertation and Thesis Awards

This year, a committee of faculty members selected Kristin Lovejoy as the recipient of the 2012-2013 Outstanding Dissertation award for “Mobility Fulfillment Among Low-car Households: Implications for Reducing Auto Dependence in the United States.”

Lovejoy, who received her Ph.D. in Transportation Technology and Policy in 2012 and is now a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, was awarded for her creative application of quantitative and qualitative data to understand how transportation choices are being fulfilled in low-car households.

The committee, which included professors Susan Handy, Dan Sperling and Pat Mokhtarian, commended Lovejoy for her ability to address a gap in current research and in developing “benchmarks for mobility that permit new understanding of whether or not mobility demands are met in low-car households and for particular subpopulations and communities where being car-less is more of a problem.”

ITS-Davis also presented its annual Outstanding Master’s Thesis award to Susan Pike for “Understanding Factors Associated with Commute Behavior Changes: An Empirical Investigation from Northern California.” Pike’s thesis explored changes to drive-alone commuting in response to the temporary closing of a one-mile stretch of Interstate 5 in downtown Sacramento in the summer of 2008.

The Outstanding Thesis committee, comprised of professors Joan Ogden, John Harvey and Stephen Wheeler, selected Pike’s thesis for being the first of its kind.

“Her careful analysis produced a number of valuable insights into the effects of the ‘Fix I-5 project’ and offered a rare glimpse into the persistence of changes in travel behavior made in the wake of a major freeway reconstruction project,” said the committee. Pike is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Transportation Technology and Policy.

A three-person committee of ITS-Davis faculty judges the thesis and dissertation entries on their originality, significance of findings, rigor and logic, completeness, quality and clarity. Winners receive a $1,500 award from the Friends of ITS-Davis fund.

Other Awards and Accolades

Alex Karner has been awarded a two-year postdoctoral research associate fellowship starting in January 2014 through the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives at the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University.

Geoff Morrison now teachers a transportation planning class as an ajdunct assistant professor of urban planning at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. Morrison received 2nd place in the 32nd USAEE Case Competition in March 2013, and was named the Sustainable Transportation Center (STC)  Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year in September 2012.

Christina Zapata placed first in a graduate student research poster competition with her poster entitled “Estimating Pollutant Emissions and Concentration Changes from Transportation Modes and Associated Upstream Sources Subject to Climate Legislation, Alternative Fuel and Technology Penetration and Air Quality Regulation”. Zapata also received a certificate of exemplary contribution to the UC Davis NextSTEPS Research Program in May 2013.

Brigitte Driller presented her research on bicycle commuting in June 2013 at the Bicycle Urbanism Symposium in Seattle, Wash. and also received the Helene M. Overly Scholarship from WTS-Sacramento (Women in Transportation) in December 2012.

Colin Murphy was awarded a 2013-2014 California Council on Science & Technology Policy Fellowship and co-authored a publication titled “Life Cycle Inventory Development for Corn and Stover Production Systems Under Different Allocation Methods”.

Jeff Kessler earned first place in the 2012 USAEE Student Case Competition and second place in the subsequent year. Kessler also received the National Science Foundation GK-12 Fellowship Award to teach sixth-graders in Sacramento schools about renewable energy.

Natalie Popovich is now the secretary of the board of directors of Davis Bicycles! and was recently chosen to serve as an active transportation program specialist to start on a bicycle friendly business program for the City of Davis. From February to June 2013, Popovich was the policy intern for the California Bicycle Coalition, where she conducted research and lobbying.

Maria Brun was hired by Minnesota 2020, a non-partisan think tank in St. Paul as a graduate fellow. Brun will be writing energy and transportation articles and policy briefs, which will include snippets of her research projects.

Alvaro Rodriguez traveled to Bogotá, Columbia in February 2013 for research and to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the 2013 World Conference in Transportation Research in where he presented three of his papers.