American Community Survey 2022 Data Release
The extent of the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic are still becoming clear. This report examines new data from the American Community Survey to provide insights into how demographic, economic and housing trends in Southern California have changed between 2019 and 2022—and what has stayed the same.
This report compares several topics in demographic, economic and housing conditions across the United States, California, the SCAG region, and each of its six counties. The topics include:
The Influence Of Accessory Dwelling Unit Policy On The Contributing Factors To ADU Development
An Assessment of the City of Los Angeles
SCAG and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona’s Urban Planning Department collaboratively published a peer-reviewed paper in the renowned Journal of Housing and the Built Environment highlighting the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Potential project. The paper investigates the impact of Los Angeles’ ADU ordinance on property and neighborhood characteristics in relation to ADU development. Multilevel, logistic, regression models reveal that the ordinance has diversified the types and locations of ADU construction, which ultimately reduces the influence of pre-existing property characteristics. The paper suggests that the ordinance likely attracted ADU development in areas with better bus transit accessibility. These findings offer valuable insights for jurisdictions seeking to create effective policies to support ADU development.
Read the full paper.
Integrated Passenger and Freight Rail Forecast Study
The SCAG region includes the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach comprising the largest port complex in the Western Hemisphere driving substantial volumes of imports and exports. The region also includes the two largest Class I railroads in North America, BNSF Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad Corporation, which facilitate the movement of goods for local and national consumption. Both the rail and port systems are supported by extensive intermodal facilities, freight corridors and access roads, that connect with the largest industrial warehouse and distribution cluster in the United States. At the same time, the SCAG region provides an extensive commuter passenger rail system.
President’s Report – Year in Review: 2022-2023
This report summarizes the accomplishments of SCAG during President Jan Harnik’s term covering the period 2022-2023. The featured accomplishments highlight the agency’s extensive work to identify and address the needs of the region and promote sustainability, prosperity, and quality of life improvements for all Southern Californians.
Download the President's Report Year in Review 2022-2023.
Regional Dedicated Transit Lanes Study
The SCAG region has ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in transportation, the number one cause of climate change, in part, by reducing single-occupancy vehicle trips and increasing transit mode share. A key step toward meeting these goals, as well as local and county goals for mobility and equity, can come from improving the speed and reliability of transit services throughout the region.
Accessory Dwelling Unit Potential in the SCAG Region
This research comprehensively examines the capacity of Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) development regarding ADU implementation in the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) region by conducting a series of analyses at the local and regional levels. This research focuses on the eligibility of parcels for developing detached ADU and excludes Junior ADU (JADU), garage conversions, and non-conforming ADUs.
View the ADU Final Report
2022 Regional Briefing Book
Released in conjunction with the 13th Annual Southern California Economic Summit, held on Dec. 1, 2022, this year’s Regional Briefing Book provides an overview of the SCAG region economy today, as well as an outlook for the counties.
Curb Space Management Study
The primary purpose of the Curb Space Management Study (CSMS) has been to take a comprehensive and multimodal review of congested and complicated curb space locations within the SCAG region. With a need for improved mobility, reduced congestion and vehicle miles travelled (VMT)/vehicle hours travelled (VHT), and air quality benefits such as Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and now COVID-related impacts being critical to the region and its localities, a clear need exists to assess policies, strategies, and infrastructure investments, and their impacts on curb space activity.
SCAG Region Value Pricing— Regional Express Lane Network: Concept of Operations
The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) prepared its first Regional Express Lane Network Concept of Operations (ConOps) document in 2016 as part of its Express Travel Choices Study. The study featured a stakeholder-led process that identified the regional express lane network to be implemented in three tiers over a 30-year period.
The ConOps provide a blueprint for integrating individual express lane projects into a regional system by identifying a comprehensive set of issues that should be addressed as individual express lane projects advanced. Through ongoing meetings, the stakeholders vetted each of these issues to formulate a set of technical policy recommendations to serve as a framework for establishing consistent and/or compatible operating, design, and policy rules for the regional network.
Read the full SCAG Region Value Pricing— Regional Express Lane Network: Concept of Operations
Transit Priority Best Practices Report
As part of the metropolitan planning efforts, SCAG is conducting a Regional Dedicated Transit Lanes Study to explore the opportunities, needs, challenges, and best practices for developing a regional network of dedicated bus lanes and other transit priority treatments that would enable enhanced transit services, improve mobility, accessibility and sustainability, and advance implementation of Connect SoCal, the 2020-2045 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy. This toolkit of potential priority treatments and supportive policies, tools, and practices, is meant to be tailored to a variety of local needs and constraints in Southern California communities.
Read the full Transit Priority Best Practices Report
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Feasibility White Paper Final Report
Connect SoCal, the 2020-2045 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy identified Key Connections that lie at the intersection of land use, transportation and innovation, meant to advance policy discussions and strategies to leverage new technologies and create better partnerships to increase progress on the regional goals. One of the Key Connections is shared mobility and MaaS, emphasizing that the future of travel will be shaped by technology and the ability of residents to easily choose from and use a variety of travel options.
MaaS integrates transportation services into a single mobility platform that provides competitive alternatives over private vehicles, to promote universal basic mobility, encourage mode shift, and foster sustainable travel choices. This White Paper identified the key policy issues and building blocks for MaaS, and the critical steps that will advance the region towards a truly integrated transportation system. The findings and recommendations set the stage for policy discussions for the 2024 Connect SoCal update.
Read the full MaaS Feasibility White Paper Final Report