Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting

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TRB 2021 Annual Meeting Graphic

In January 2021, SCAG presented at the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 100th Annual Meeting. This annual conference organizes a program that includes workshops, committee meetings, and exhibits, attracting transportation professionals from around the world. Typically held in Washington, DC, this convening was held as a virtual event amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall theme of this year’s meeting was “A Century of Progress: Foundation for the Future.”

SCAG presented the following:

  • Paths to Clean Vehicle Technology and Alternative Fuels Implementation in San Bernardino County, California – Completed in partnership with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) in July 2020, this presentation is one of several ongoing efforts to understand and help facilitate the region’s transition to a cleaner goods movement system. This study had 3 major components: development of a Scenario Analysis Tool, Stakeholder Outreach, and development of an Action Plan for local governments in San Bernardino County. This presentation describes the development and application of the scenario analysis tool that quantifies emissions and cost impacts of alternative paths to clean vehicle and fuel implementation. Five scenarios where different fuels and technologies were phased into the fleet at different rates were compared.
  • Disadvantaged Communities Active Transportation Initiative (DCPI) – The DCPI seeks to make active transportation plans and their implementation more assessable to all jurisdictions within the region. This presentation details the development and implementation of the Active Transportation Toolkit pilot, which provides the materials needed to help under-resourced communities envision and implement their own plans for walking and biking with the support of city staff. For this effort, SCAG partnered with community-based organizations in seven disadvantaged communities to engage in community outreach, facilitate capacity-building trainings, and implement demonstration events. This pilot effort will lead to the adoption of seven Active Transportation Plans, and the Toolkit will be released for public use in spring 2021.
  • SCAG Go Human 2020: Case Studies in Equity-Centered Strategies using the SCAG Go Human Kit of Parts – The Go Human Kit of Parts program brings a wide range of active transportation interventions to under-resourced communities in the short term, allowing residents to enjoy them and understand their benefits without having to wait many years for full implementation. This presentation reviews the equity considerations of the program and explores how a regional government active transportation program, in the wake of COVID‐19 and global demonstrations for racial justice, can prioritize equity, community‐led strategies and Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities within planning and engagement.
  • SCAG Go Human Campaign – SCAG developed and implemented a hyper-targeted, regional marketing and outreach campaign to raise awareness about safety measures to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries among people who walk and bike in six Southern California counties comprised of 19 million people. SCAG developed the campaign strategy from analysis of the High Injury Network and SB 535 Disadvantaged Communities, as well as from input from the Go Human Steering Committee. In addition to paid physical and digital media, SCAG extended the reach of the campaign through the use of co-branded safety material distributed to local jurisdictions. After the most recent campaign in 2020, the SCAG Go Human Campaign exceeded 1 billion impressions and printed over 25,000 material for local partners. Please visit the SCAG Go Human webpage for more information on the campaign.
  • Environmental Justice & Equity: Spatiotemporal Analysis of Jobs Housing Fit in Southern California – Jobs-housing balance has become a major issue in urban and transportation planning and public policy. Among planners and policy makers, the imbalance of jobs and housing is considered as one of the key contributors to traffic congestion and air pollution, and an impediment to environmental justice. On the other hand, a proper balance of housing and jobs can help people to live close to their workplace, thus reducing overall congestion, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As part of the jobs-housing imbalance/mismatch analysis for Connect SoCal, SCAG conducted the analyses of jobs-housing ratio and low-wage jobs-housing fit for Southern California at two scales—jurisdiction and the census tract (roughly equivalent to a neighborhood), based on the JHFIT methodology developed by UC Davis Center for Regional Change.