News & Announcements
METRANS UTC, PSR
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
The University of Southern California (USC) is launching a unique, high-visibility postdoctoral fellowship program as part of Assignment: Earth , the USC campus-wide sustainability framework. The program aims to accelerate sustainability research; train future leaders in academia, government and non-governmental organizations, and industry; and support discovery, evaluation, and implementation of innovative solutions to sustainability problems.
The Postdoctoral ...
PSR
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
The California (CA)- Hawai’i (HI) Transportation Symposium was held virtually on March 23rd, in conjunction with the 2022 Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center (PSR UTC) Congress: Lessons Learned in Vulnerability, Resilience, and Recovery. The symposium consisted of insightful presentations about the themes of infrastructure resiliency and sustainable mobility. Expert practitioners from both states engaged in a critical discussion to share knowledge via panels on freight ...
PSR
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Freight transport systems deliver products across the country. However, inefficient shipping methods, including sub-optimal routing, can cause unnecessary delays and contribute to congestion. In 2016, congestion from trucking, the most common method of moving freight, cost the US economy $74.5 billion by delaying traffic a total of 1.2 billion hours. There are also environmental costs. Trucking contributes 68% of all GHG emissions sourced from freight movement.
To optimize trucking ...
PSR
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Air pollution is an environmental problem that affects us all but does not affect us equally. Vehicle related air pollution, including small particulate matter (PM2.5) is more concentrated along more heavily trafficked routes, many of which traverse lower income minority neighborhoods. Reducing these disproportionate impacts requires intentional and environmentally conscious interventions by city planners and policymakers.
The historical pattern of highway building has placed major ...
PSR
Thursday, March 10, 2022
From drones that transport blood samples to cube robots that dispatch groceries, automated and autonomous small vehicles are streamlining delivery services. In efforts to further optimize vehicle-based transport, sidekick routing has emerged as a logistical framework in which a base vehicle such as a truck or van hosts several ‘sidekicks’ – smaller ‘helpers’ like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs). These sidekicks move between picking ...
PSR
Monday, December 6, 2021
Environmental justice is concerned with eliminating the disproportionate impacts of environmental damage on low-income communities and ensuring residents have a say about the activities that affect their environment and health. Research in environmental justice means uncovering, analyzing, and proposing solutions to the higher rates of environmental burdens in these communities. These burdens include excessive exposure to toxic air pollutants, hazardous materials, and water pollution. The project ...
PSR
Thursday, April 29, 2021
The year 2020 has accentuated the importance of preparation and response to disaster and disruption. A global pandemic and the recent Suez Canal blockage in 2021 come with a lesson—unexpected disruptions can and will happen, and it is advantageous to prepare for disturbances ahead of time instead of improvising during precarious moments. Although it is impossible to predict precisely what will happen in the future, it is possible to prepare for general network disruptions through insights ...
PSR
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
The Fourth Annual Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center (PSR) Congress took place virtually on April 12th and 13th and was filled with transportation information to inspire, motivate, and encourage imaginative problem-solving skills for the transportation research community. There were many subjects discussed in the main room and side rooms during the on-line conference, covering topics from freight delivery to the implications of sea level rise on transportation systems. The ...
PSR
Friday, January 29, 2021
The goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption stemming from vehicle usage calls for creative solutions in unexpected areas. Michael Zhang, Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California, Davis, along with Graduate Researchers Hang Gao and Shenyang Chen, examined the potential of using variable speed limits (VSL) to lessen environmental damage. Variable speed limits allow the speed limit to vary depending on traffic conditions. ...
PSR
Monday, January 11, 2021
The Pacific Southwest Region (PSR) University Transportation Center (UTC) starts the new year by honoring exceptional students from member institutions for their promise in the transportation field. Students – at all levels - are recognized for their technical and research merit, academic, and leadership capabilities.
Sam Speroni, doctoral student at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Luskin School of Public Affairs is PSR’s 2020 U.S. Department of Transportation ...
