News
Director Brian Taylor Discusses the History of Los Angeles Freeways in the LA Times
Lewis Center and Institute of Transportation Studies Director Brian Taylor has written extensively on the history and financing of freeways- see here for a paper on California freeways and here for an article on how the United States system was financed. Most recently, a Los Angeles Times article used Taylor’s work as the basis for an article about freeway development throughout past decades in Los Angeles. Read on for the full story.
Lewis Center’s Madeline Brozen and Juan Matute Put Los Angeles Trains in Their Proper Place
It is the mark of a UCLA transportation scholar that when asked what trains will do for Los Angeles, they respond first with an explanation of what trains will not do. Trains in Los Angeles are not going to fix traffic, nor are they going to transform the way Angelenos move about the city. What good are trains for then? You can find two thoughtful and nuanced treatments of this question from Lewis Center Associate Directors Madeline Brozen and Juan Matute at Zocalo Public Square.
Give or Take: Lewis Center’s Brian Taylor and Paavo Monkkonen Discuss the Sharing Economy
Lewis Center Director Brian Taylor and Faculty Fellow Paavo Monkkonen highlighted different aspects of the sharing economy at an October event held at the downtown LA workspace collective Maker City LA. The event was put on by the American Planning Association’s Los Angeles chapter, and saw Taylor discuss the implications of increasingly popular car-share services such as Uber and Lyft and housing expert Monkkonen […]
PHD Student Kelcie Ralph Talks to NPR About Why More American Women Don’t Bike to Work
Urban Planning PHD student Kelcie Ralph talked to Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ earlier this week about the unique obstacles facing American women from taking up bicycling. The interview covers ideas outlined in a Guardian op-ed that Ralph penned with Lewis Center researcher Herbie Huff, and builds off her research with UCLA colleagues on household travel and activities among students and non-traditional households.
Dr. Patricia Mokhtarian Resurrects the Joy of Travel in the 8th Annual Martin Wachs Lecture
The author Leo Tolstoy once wrote: “All great literature is one of two stories: a man goes on a journey, or a stranger comes to town.” Both of these archetypal stories involve travel, a subtle connection which may speak to an intrinsic link between travel and those experiences that bring meaning to our lives. Yet as Georgia Tech professor Patricia Mokhtarian pointed out in a masterful 8th Annual Martin Wachs lecture, the view of travel […]
CTC Executive Director Andre Boutros Talks Transportation Funding and Project Delivery
On a recent October afternoon, California Transportation Commission (CTC) executive director Andre Boutros gave a crash course in California transportation finance for a group of UCLA students, faculty, and researchers. Boutros sketched an overview of the CTC’s role in allocating over $25 billion worth of state and federal transportation funds, and provided a window into the CTC’s decision-making process […]
Brian Taylor Delivers Burack President’s Lecture on Travel Behavior of Teens and Young Adults
Lewis Center Director Brian Taylor traveled to the University of Vermont in September to participate in the Burack President’s Distinguished Lecture Series. His talk was entitled: “Who Knows About Kids These Days? Understanding the Travel Behavior of Teens and Young Adults.” Full video of the engaging lecture and Q&A can be found here.
Carole Turley Kicks Off ITS Brown Bag Series with Talk on Transportation Utility Fees
On Monday, UCLA Urban Planning PhD student Carole Turley gave the first-ever Institute of Transportation Studies brown bag. She talked about Transportation Utility Fees, or TUFs. What are TUFs? TUFs are a charge for the use of the transportation system, and are typically levied by cities on property owners. […]
Why Aren’t More American Women On Bikes? Lewis Center’s Herbie Huff and Kelcie Ralph Have a Surprising Answer: Household Chores.
Lewis Center Researcher Herbie Huff and Urban Planning PHD Candidate Kelcie Ralph recently penned an article in the Guardian newspaper asserting that an overlooked barrier to more women biking is the fact that their lives are disproportionately filled with housework and child-related chores. Read on for the thought-provoking article.
Janette Sadik-Khan Delivers Star Power and Data-Driven Innovation in UCLA Regents Lecture
Transportation talks don’t get much more electric than the UCLA Regents lecture delivered by Janette Sadik-Khan on a recent October evening at UCLA. Urban Planning Chair Evelyn Blumenberg and Lewis Center faculty fellow Martin Wachs both used the term “rock star” to describe Khan in their introductory remarks, and one fan following the event on Twitter requested someone get a DNA sample in order to clone her. […]