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.

By Sylvia Wright • ITS-Davis senior director of communications

The University of California, Davis, Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis) was selected in a national competition in September 2013 to lead a new two-year, $11.2 million research, education, and outreach consortium for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The new National Center for Sustainable Transportation will help federal, state, regional, and local agencies reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions from passenger and freight travel that contribute to climate change through research in four thematic areas: toward zero-emission vehicle and fuel technologies; low-carbon infrastructure and efficient system operation; low-impact travel and sustainable land use; and institutional change.

The other consortium members are University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside); University of Southern California (USC); California State University, Long Beach (CSULB); University of Vermont (UVM); and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).

“The United States has sharply reduced many of the transportation sector’s most damaging environmental impacts on air, water, natural ecosystems and human health,” said UC Davis professor of environmental science and policy Susan Handy, who is director of the UC Davis Urban Land Use and Transportation Center, and will be the director of the new National Center for Sustainable Transportation.

“However, one major impact that hasn’t received enough attention is climate change, which is a game changer. Fortunately, almost all strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from transportation also improve economic efficiency, energy security, social equity, livability and health,” Handy said.

The National Center will receive $5.6 million from the U.S. DOT and $5.6 million in matching funds from state, regional and local agencies to support its research. In California, matching funds have been promised by Caltrans, the California Air Resources Board, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

“The goal of the National Center is to transform the transportation system to improve environmental sustainability nationwide. We aim to provide leadership that produces meaningful action by mobilizing innovative research teams and partnering with influential stakeholders,” said Dan Sperling, director of ITS-Davis, and the new national center’s executive director.

 The National Center will:

• mobilize a network of universities to generate knowledge and tools that address climate change and environmental sustainability in transportation;
• design and evaluate real-world strategies that contribute to mitigation of GHG emissions and other environmental impacts; and
• deliver knowledge and tools to state DOTs, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and local governments to support implementation of these real-world strategies.

The UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies is the world’s leading university program on sustainable transportation.

Handy is the former director of the U.S. DOT-funded Sustainable Transportation Center, a predecessor to the new national center, and a member of many TRB standing and conference committees. She is on the board of the World Society of Transportation and Land Use Research and the editorial boards of seven international peer-reviewed journals. She has authored over 75 peer-reviewed articles, 10 book chapters, and 70 research reports and other publications.

Sperling is a member of the Executive Committee of the U.S. Transportation Research Board (TRB), chaired the University Transportation Center National Spotlight Conference on Sustainable Energy and Transportation in 2012, is the 2013 chairman of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, is a board member of the California Air Resources Board, has served on 13 National Research Council (NRC) committees on transportation and environmental topics, chaired the first transportation committee of the Davos World Economic Forum (2010), testified to Congress seven times, and has authored 12 books and over 200 technical papers and reports.

The other consortium institutions also have distinguished accomplishments:

• UC Riverside’s Center for Environmental Research and Technology has been at the forefront of emissions measurements and analysis for various transportation modes, vehicle technologies, and fuels. It pioneered the development of transportation/emissions models. Its faculty play prominent roles on national and state committees related to emissions measurement systems, secondary air pollution, and port-related vehicle activity. CE-CERT Director Matthew Barth is co-chair of U.S. EPA’s Mobile Source Technical Advisory Subcommittee on Modeling and president-elect for the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Intelligent Transportation Systems Society. http://www.cert.ucr.edu/

• The METRANS Transportation Center is a joint partnership of the University of Southern California and California State University Long Beach.  Since its establishment in 1998, METRANS researchers have been developing and examining solutions to the transportation problems of major metropolitan areas.  Drawing researchers from many disciplines, METRANS has become the national leader for urban freight research, and for addressing environmental impacts of goods movement.    METRANS Director Genevieve Giuliano holds the Ferraro Chair in Effective Local Government, is a past chair of the TRB and a recipient of several academic awards. http://www.metrans.org/.

• Georgia Tech is at the forefront of vehicle and personal activity monitoring, driver behavior analysis, traffic simulation, and environmental monitoring and modeling. The research team manages more than $2.5 million per year in applied research, much of which is performed for state and local agencies. Associate director Randall Guensler is a former chair of the TRB Transportation and Air Quality Committee and served on the U.S. EPA’s Mobile Source Technical Advisory Subcommittee. http://ce.gatech.edu/

• UVM’s Transportation Research Center (founded in 2006) has quickly amassed a concentration of research data, models, and programs focused on environmental sustainability for both rural and micropolitan areas. UVM researchers serve on ten TRB committees. University of Vermont UTC Director Lisa Aultman-Hall chaired the 2010 TRB UTC Spotlight conference on Transportation Systems for Livable Communities and serves on the TRB Task Force on the Future of the National Household Transportation Survey (NHTS) and the TRB Committee on Travel Survey Methods. http://www.uvm.edu/trc

U.S. Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield), a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, congratulated UC Davis on the grant. “UC Davis is a recognized leader in cutting-edge research to reduce our impact on climate change,” he said in a statement. “This is the second big federal grant in a week for such research at UC Davis, following the $1.5 million ARPA-E grant to convert ethylene to a liquid fuel, and I couldn’t be happier for the researchers, administrators and students involved.”

 

Photo: UC Davis professor of environmental science and policy Susan Handy, who is director of the UC Davis Urban Land Use and Transportation Center, will be the director of the new National Center for Sustainable Transportation. Photo credit: Dorian Toy, UC Davis 2014

ITS-Davis director Dan Sperling, and UC Davis professor of Environmental Science and Policy Joan Ogden are both set to speak at this year’s California Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Summit on Oct 9-10 in Sacramento, California.

Ogden will focus on pathways analysis and the economics of hydrogen infrastructure planning, while Sperling will wrap up the conference by discussing what the California hydrogen and fuel cell industry is expected to be like in 2020 as the Summit’s concluding speaker.

The two-day event will provide a balanced forum for businesses, academia, and government agencies to explore hydrogen and fuel cells, with a special focus on picturing the vision and promise of the technology contrasted by the advances already made, using hard data from industry developments in the real world. Presenters from around the country will share their vision of how this industry can address the nation’s environmental, energy and business goals and help revolutionize our country’s portfolio of energy solutions.

For more about the Summit, visit here

Michael Radenbaugh, a current master’s-degree student in Transportation Technology and Policy at UC Davis, has successfully raised the required $100,000 production capital on a Kickstarter.com campaign for a new company he co-founded that introduced a novel form of golfer transportation called the “Golf Board”.

Radenbaugh and his team, which include company spokespersons like surfing legend Laird Hamilton and fitness icon Don Wildman, hope the Golf Board will “change the way you experience the game of golf” by bringing modern technology to a traditional game.

The Golf Board is essentially an electric-powered longboard that “allows golfers to surf the golf course in a way that feels similar to snowboarding, surfing or skateboarding,” according to the Golf Board site. Its removable handlebar allows it to be ridden by both inexperienced and experienced board riders. It has a golf bag holder, flexible board for smooth suspension, and remote control for smooth acceleration.

There is also little environmental impact from the Golf Board. The lithium batteries inside the board are similar to the batteries used in well-known electric vehicles such as the Tesla and can carry a 180-pound rider over 20 miles on a full charge, according to the Golf Board site.

Additionally, due to its light weight, the Golf Board has less of an impact on golf terrain than traditional golf carts.

Dan Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, said Radenbaugh’s invention “is an example of the innovativeness and entrepreneurship of our students.”

For more information about this project, including a video, visit the Golf Board page on Kickstarter.

Alissa Kendall, associate professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UC Davis, has received the 2013 Laudise Young Researcher Prize from the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE). The Laudise Prize is awarded biannually and recognizes outstanding achievements in industrial ecology by researchers under the age of 36.

Kendall received the prize for her work on life cycle assessments of biofuel production pathways, agricultural systems, vehicles, and transportation infrastructure. The prize additionally commends Kendall for her ongoing research on carbon accounting practices and the role of LCA in policy.

In addition to the research areas described, curriculum development was also an important reason for the award. Kendall says her “ability to develop courses in Industrial Ecology is due to UC Davis’s openness to evolving fields and interdisciplinary teaching and learning.”

The International Society for Industrial Ecology is an interdisciplinary forum of natural and social scientists, engineers, policymakers and practitioners that promotes the use of industrial ecology in research, education, industrial practices, policy, and community development in order to transform society and achieve a more sustainable economy.

For more on the ISIE award, visit here.

Photo: Alissa Kendall receives the ISIE prize at an awards ceremony in Ulsan, Korea on June 28, 2013. (Elias Marvinney – UC Davis)

By Jonathan Mao • UC Davis 2014

When Elon Musk, innovator and co-founder of ventures such as Tesla Motors and SpaceX, revealed his idea of a transportation system running from San Francisco to Los Angeles within a tube of air on August 12, news reporters sought out ITS-Davis director Dan Sperling for his opinion.

Musk said Hyperloop would be a more affordable and energy-efficient alternative to the California High-Speed Rail project, and would allow people to travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 30 minutes for under $20. It would work “like a puck flying across an air-hockey table,” with the passenger capsule propelled by electromagnetic pulses through the pipes.

Sperling expressed doubt as to whether California voters would allow such a large-scale project to be built. Aside from the engineering and design obstacles, he said, getting policymakers and California voters to approve such a large-scale, novel transportation project would be challenging.

“We have difficulty building solar collectors in the desert, for heaven’s sake, so any major infrastructure project is going to be difficult,” Sperling told the San Francisco Chronicle. 

In an interview with KQED-FM, the public radio station in San Francisco, Sperling pointed out alternative, more efficient, and less polarizing means of travel.

“We can do personal mobility in a far more efficient way… Such as very lightweight vehicles on a track… We don’t need [big tech innovation, like Hyperloop] to be far more efficient and still have personal mobility,” he said. But there must be more government and industry support for those solutions. “Right now, we’re basically suffocating the baby in the crib,” he said.

Speaking with Al-Jazeera America’s Joseph Brownstein, Sperling said “there’s no way the [Hyperloop] economics would ever work out” and “if it was such a good idea, there’d be competition… there’d be parallel lines because everyone would be making money out of it.” That comment was repeated in the New York Times Bits blog.