Category: Research Area

The Federal Highway Administration of the US Department of Transportation has selected the Model Design Manual for Living Streets as one of only twelve recipients for the 2012 Exemplary Human Environment Initiative award. The award recognizes the comprehensive street design manual, which including extensive guidance for active transportation and environmentally sustainable design practices. Supported by the UCLA Luskin…

On the heels of the recent City Council vote to allow the construction of a series of micro-parks in Los Angeles, researchers from UCLA Luskin’s Complete Streets Initiative are releasing a comprehensive guidebook to planning, building and maintaining “parklets,”—small parks created in urban areas from the conversion of parking spots, alleyways and other underutilized spaces for cars into places for people. The report, “Reclaiming…

UCLA Urban Planning professor Brian Taylor, who directs the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, and Martin Wachs, a distinguished professor emeritus of Urban Planning at UCLA announce the release of their report, Why It Wasn’t “Carmageddon”: An Analysis of the Summer 2011 Closure of the Interstate 405 Freeway in Los Angeles. The report, co-authored…

Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved plans to temporarily convert red curb and a couple curb-side parking spaces into four small public plazas. Part of a larger movement to cultivate a pedestrian lifestyle in L.A., these sidewalk extension pocket parks, or “parklets,” will provide bike racks, a little greenery and a place to sit…

The Los Angeles City Council is expected to approve four pilot parklets by this Friday, reports Lewis Center Complete Streets Initiative Director Madeline Brozen.  The location of the four sites currently awaiting approval by the Council include two spots on Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles, the York Boulevard Street Porch in Northeast L.A., and the El Sereno Street…

Martin Wachs (left), a distinguished professor emeritus of Urban Planning, and Urban Planning professor Brian Taylor, who directs the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, have an op-ed in the Los Angeles Daily News that examines lessons learned during “Carmageddon,” the full closure of the 405 freeway for major construction during a weekend in…

The Complete Streets Initiative is on the winning team for the SCAG Bicycle Data Clearinghouse project to begin this July. As a part of this multi-part $150,000 project, UCLA will create a web based map interface to house bicycle volume inventory. These data will be collected and standardized for municipalities in Los Angeles County. This…

UCLA, in partnership with CicLAvia Inc. and the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative (LASC) received funding through the Center for Civil Society in the Luskin School of Public Affairs to conduct an economic analysis of the CicLAvia event in October 2012. The project will consist of an economic impact analysis of CicLAvia in low-income communities of…

ACCESS magazine, a publication of the UC Transportation Center, released its 40th issue at the beginning of July. The magazine, edited by urban planning professor Donald Shoup, covers current issues in transportation policy and practice in a style designed for the general reader. The current issue includes stories on ridesharing services, the relation between population density and…

The Lewis Center is proud to announce the winners of this year’s annual GIS contest. The three winning projects successfully applied research methods and spatial analysis to produce descriptive and analytical insights into distinct policy questions.  The 1st place winner will receive $500, the 2nd place winner $300, and the 3rd place winner $200.  In addition, the first place…