3RFM Research Program

California Panel Study of Emerging Transportation Trends

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The California Panel Study of Emerging Transportation Trends investigates the evolution of travel patterns and the adoption of new transportation technologies in California. The project was launched in 2015, and a new round of data collection was carried out in 2018. The multiple rounds of surveys collect information on individual attitudes and lifestyles, residential location, vehicle ownership, travel behavior, the adoption of shared mobility services, propensity to use autonomous vehicles, and the plans to purchase/change a vehicle in the household.

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CAV-Smart Grid Integration

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Vehicle Automation and connectivity, as the main component of a smart city, can bring several benefits and disadvantages. According to literature, the social net benefit of Connected Autonomous Vehicles can reach as high as $4000 per vehicles, largely due to the benefits or cost saving associated with travel time reduction, accident saving and fuel efficiency saving.

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Can we design SAV so people are more willing to ride-pool?

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The three revolutions—electrification, automation, and shared mobility—could dramatically reduce global CO2 emissions. However, such positive outcomes will depend in part on increasing riders per vehicle. Many factors could affect prospective SAV users’ willingness to ride-pool in shared vehicles (as opposed to occupying them one at a time), such as sacrifices in comfort and travel time, as well as perceived and real threats to safety and privacy.

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AV Deployment in California Under Various Ownership Models

This project evaluates potential future scenarios of deployment of light-duty connected and automated vehicles (CAV) on vehicle miles traveled (VMT), energy usage, and greenhouse gas (GHG) and criteria pollutant emissions in California through the application of the California Statewide Travel Demand Model (CSTDM) coupled with an in-depth analysis of the potential transformations introduced by CAVs in various aspects of transportation supply and demand policy and economic characteristics acquired from previous studies and a workshop with experts.

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Carsharing and AV Testing in Dubai (UAE)

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This project focuses on the analysis of the mobility patterns in The Sustainable City (TSC), a sustainability inspired environmental-friendly community in Dubai (partially inspired by the UC Davis West Village), and the investigation of the market for an EV-carsharing program to be developed in the community and the travel behavior impacts of the deployment of a driverless shuttle.

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Is Ridesharing decreasing the number of Drunk-Drive Fatalities?

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Ride-sharing services started 10 years ago in select cities in the United States and has rapidly dispersed across the country. Some have argued that ridesharing could curtail the extensive amount of drunk driving that occurs in the country. Indeed, Uber, the largest ridesharing company in the United States, claimed on its website that a city with its services has fewer drunk drivers on the streets.

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Pulse of Nation

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Adoption of Emerging Transportation Technologies in the US

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Ride-hailing services have experienced significant growth in adoption since the introduction of Uber, in 2009. Although business models to support the sharing of vehicles (e.g., carsharing) have been present in the United States for more than 15 years, their adoption has been somewhat limited to niche markets in dense, urban cities or college campuses.

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Automated Vehicle Scenarios in San Francisco Bay Area

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Experts predict that vehicles could be fully automated by as early as 2025 or as late as 2035. Methods are needed to help the public and private sector understand automated vehicle technologies and their system-level effects. In this project, the researchers explore the effects of automated vehicles using the San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s activity-based travel demand model (MTC-ABM). The simulation is unique in that it articulates the size and direction of change on travel for a wide range of automated vehicles scenarios.

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Microtransit Solutions

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We are conducting a microtransit feasibility and paratransit efficiency assessment for a transit agency operating in California. The Part I of this project, the Microtransit Feasibility Project, includes evaluating the feasibility of a microtransit pilot project in the region and positioning the transit agency to conduct such a pilot. In Part II, the Paratransit Efficiency Study and Strategic Recommendations Project, we evaluate the current efficiency of the local paratransit program and recommend cost-effective strategies for continuing to meet growing demand for service.

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A Proxy for Automation: The “Chauffeur” Experiment

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We evaluate the impact of the availability of autonomous vehicles via the use of personal chauffeurs in a naturalistic experiment that aims to create familiarity with this coming technology that is currently closer to science fiction than reality. The objective of this research is to mimic potential life with a privately-owned self-driving vehicle by providing 60 hours of free chauffeur service for each participating household for use within a seven-day period.

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Attitudes Toward AV Shuttle UCD West Village

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Automated vehicles (AVs, also known as autonomous, driverless, or self-driving vehicles), a revolution in mobility, are emerging and developing rapidly. Commonly believed benefits of AVs include that they not only help improve social equity in transportation, relieve stress for drivers, and save parking cost, etc. However, public attitude toward this new unproven technology is still unsure. Given the significant influence of attitude toward a new technology on the intention to use it, which has been shown in many previous studies, a question arise that why some people are in favor of this technology acceptance whereas others are not?

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Dockless bikesharing in Sacramento

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What are the travel behavior and attitudes of users and non-users of SACOG’s new dockless electric-bike share system. This study includes the “after” phase of an already completed “before” portion of the “before-and-after” study of residents in the greater Sacramento area and will measure how bikesharing influences travel of users and non-users. In addition, this study will survey bike share users twice over the course of a year.

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