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    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Assessing the Reliability and Usability of Mobile Ticketing App Data for Transit Analytics: A Case Study of Unitrans in Davis, California</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2702581</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Mobile ticketing apps have become increasingly popular among transit agencies due to their cost efficiency and ability to streamline payments. Beyond operational efficiencies, these apps also generate vast travel data with the potential to support transit agencies in decision-making. However, this data contains incomplete trip information and suffers from representation bias. Several questions remain unanswered: Is this data representative of all transit riders? If so, what are the potential applications? 

This project will address this gap by evaluating the potential applications and representativeness of app data. The research will focus on ZipPass, a mobile ticketing app used by Unitrans in Davis, California. To date, ZipPass has already generated over one million spatial activation records. The project team devised a strategy to integrate ZipPass data with the onboard transit survey and the UC Davis campus travel survey. The team will also conduct a targeted survey of active ZipPass users to supplement rider-specific and trip-level information. The project will explore how ZipPass data, along with support from supplementary data sources, can be used for two potential applications to support the agency: (1) estimating transit ridership and (2) understanding riders' origin-destinations. 

The research will provide valuable insights to transit agencies looking to harness mobile ticketing data for operational purposes. Since periodic onboard transit surveys are required for federal funding, both mobile ticketing data and transit survey data are available to agencies at no extra expense. Small agencies can leverage our findings to integrate at least these two datasets and effectively utilize them for operational improvement.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2026 16:51:19 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2702581</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Monitoring Active Transportation Demand and Safety with Computer Vision</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2696847</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Monitoring demand for and safety of active transportation has been a challenge for decades. With a history of designing roads for cars and monitoring efforts similarly aimed at the flow of cars, transportation researchers and professionals lack system-level knowledge of active transportation. The current state of bicycle and pedestrian counting practice in most cities deploys a few costly permanent counters using inductive loops and passive radar, combined with a few days of manual peak hour traffic counts at few intersections. This neither monitors system-wide demand nor safety. However, recently several companies have produced video- and LiDAR-based sensors and multiclass tracking technology to monitor active transportation demand and unsafe events. These sensors can be installed permanently, or temporarily, and are generally lower in cost to install than other permanent counting devices. This research will leverage an ongoing Caltrans project with these sensors to validate safety metrics, and a mobile version of the sensors to collect active transportation count data for modeling system level active transportation volume in Davis, California as a pilot for other cities and agencies. It will include the prediction of network-wide travel volumes for planning the intervention purposes, and two safety metric evaluations. The final report is expected to not only provide information on the state-of-the-art in active transportation monitoring, but will have direct policy impacts by informing the Active Transportation Data program within Caltrans Traffic Operations, among other programs such as the Active Transportation Resource Center research-to-practice education elements.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:05:10 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2696847</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Envisioning Micromobility as Public Transit: Two intervention studies in the living lab of Davis, California</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2431628</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Mode share in public transit in the United States traditionally lags behind other developed countries. One promising strategy to encourage public transit use involves enhancing access and egress from transit stops. Given the potential of shared micromobility services to address the "last mile" challenge, there is growing interest in integrating these services into public transit services. However, achieving affordability and access in micromobility services poses challenges for operators in ensuring sustainable operations at appropriate pricing levels. The cost of using micromobility services has sharply increased in recent years, making it unaffordable for many people. Concurrently, the researchers’ recent research suggests there is consensus across private industry, government, and advocates that micromobility can best serve the public if it is viewed as a public transit option. To begin to envision micromobility as serving existing public transit and acting as public transportation itself, the researchers will examine the role of pricing on micromobility demand. In this project, the researchers will conduct two pricing-focused field experiments, partnered with the micromobility operator, SPIN, and a railway operator, Capitol Corridor. The first experiment will use the railway station of the Capitol Corridor in Davis, California as a living lab to assess the effectiveness of increasing rail usage by subsidizing micromobility services. The second experiment will focus on micromobility services operated by SPIN in Davis, aiming to understand the general price elasticity of demand for micromobility. Through these experiments, the researchers will analyze the causal effects of the interventions on increasing railway and micromobility use. The insights gained from this analysis will provide valuable guidance on the potential of micromobility and regional rail partnerships to enhance transit use in other corridors throughout the state as well as pricing mechanisms to understand the potential for micromobility services to satisfy the travel demand of communities. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Sep 2024 19:12:38 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2431628</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Davis Shopping Study: Factors Influencing Impacts of Big-Box Retail on Shopping Travel</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1239212</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Shopping travel constitutes a significant share of all daily travel in the U.S. This travel has significant environmental impacts with respect to energy consumption, air quality, water quality, and climate change. Understanding the factors that influence choices about shopping provides a basis for the development of policies that help ensure that consumer needs are met while the environmental costs of shopping travel are minimized. The purpose of this study is to examine shopping behavior of residents of Davis, California before and after the opening of a Target store in Davis in 2009. The opening of the store presented a unique opportunity to study the causal effects on shopping behavior of a significant change in the retail landscape. A survey was completed of Davis residents as to their shopping travel just before the opening of the store and one year after the store opening. Using data from this survey, it was estimated that there was a significant reduction in vehicle miles of travel for shopping purposes for Davis residents. These results are relevant to current policy debates in California over the role of "smart growth" planning policies in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a way to meet Senate Bill 375 requirements.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:01:27 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1239212</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Capacity Reallocation Projects and Their Perceived Effects on Local Economics, Sustainability, Livability</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1239208</link>
      <description><![CDATA[With increasing federal and state policies and funding support mechanisms for non-motorized transportation, an important opportunity exist to further the understanding around design and implementation issues associated with these projects. Many communities are exploring capacity reallocation projects, which generally take the form of reducing an existing multi-lane road (usually four-lanes) to two vehicle-lanes, and adding a center left hand turn lane and dedicated bike and pedestrian paths in both directions. Although capacity reallocation projects are becoming a more widely applied mode shift strategy, there is very little research on the impact of these types of projects on non-safety factors. This research will contribute by expanding the understanding of how residents and businesses judge the economic and livability impacts of road diets and how previously surveyed respondents and their initial project opinions may be modified by personal experience with a reallocation project. The proposed project builds on a prior University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) supported effort that focused on a pre-implementation data collection and analysis for a capacity reallocation project within the City of Davis. The project was referred to as the 5th Street Redesign. The current UCTC support focused on capturing attitudes and perceptions as well as characterizing existing operating conditions as the 5th Street Redesign went from the public participation stage through final design. Here, the project proposes to focus on community perceptions, attitudes and personal usage after implementation, which is scheduled for Sept 2012. As far as it is known, this project will serve, in total, as the first rigorous pre- and post-evaluation of capacity reallocation project.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:01:24 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1239208</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Davis Bicycle Studies</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236617</link>
      <description><![CDATA[As a means of transportation and as a form of physical activity, bicycling generates benefits to the bicyclist as well as to the community as a whole. Bicycling now accounts for less than 1 percent of all trips for all purposes in the U.S., but evidence from other western countries suggests that under the right conditions, bicycling levels can be significantly higher. The experience of Davis, California suggests that it is possible to create conditions conducive to higher levels of bicycling in the U.S. However, the extent to which bicycling policy has contributed to bicycling levels in Davis has not been rigorously assessed. This project aims to fill that gap through a series of studies of bicycling behavior in Davis and comparison communities designed to determine the influence of bicycle infrastructure and mixed-use land use patterns relative to individual preferences, community culture, and other factors. This project focuses on the analysis of data collected using an on-line survey in Davis and five comparison cities in early fall 2006, supplemented by a follow-up phone survey of Davis residents completed in spring 2008 and complemented by interviews to be conducted with Davis residents as a part of the proposed project. This project continues Phases 2 and 3 of the Davis Bicycle Studies.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:50:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236617</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>An Exploration into the Nature and Formation of Bicycling Preference and Comfort</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236267</link>
      <description><![CDATA[As a means of transportation and as a form of physical activity, bicycling generates benefits to the bicyclist as well as to the community as a whole. Bicycling now accounts for less than 1 percent of all trips for all purposes in the U.S., but evidence from other western countries suggests that under the right conditions, bicycling levels can be significantly higher. The experience of Davis, California suggests that it is possible to create conditions conducive to higher levels of bicycling in the U.S. However, analysis of data collected using an on-line survey in Davis and five comparison cities in early fall 2006 shows that cognitive factors, particularly preference for bicycling and comfort level with bicycling, play a critical role in explaining bicycling behavior. This project explores the formation of these cognitive factors using both quantitative and qualitative methods. First, models of bicycling preference and bicycling comfort will be developed using the 2006 survey data. Second, in-depth interviews will be conducted to explore the factors and processes involved in the formation of these cognitive factors. The project will produce insights useful in designing interventions to increase bicycling.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:44:02 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236267</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Evaluating the Impact of Local Actions on Vehicle Miles Traveled: Case Study in Davis, CA</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236259</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The proposed project will bring the methods of program evaluation to the field of transportation policy, evaluating the effect on vehicle miles traveled of three local changes to the land use-transportation system in Davis, California. The three changes are the opening of the first big box store in Davis, the opening of an innovative mixed-use development, and a vehicle lane reduction/bicycle lane addition project on a major arterial road adjacent to downtown. The research design proposed for all three evaluations is a before/after data collection approach with treatment and control groups where feasible. This proposal covers the second year of a four-year project. The project will make two important contributions: it will be a test bed and model for before/after program evaluation in transport planning, and the results will provide much-needed evidence of the relative vehicle miles of travel (VMT) reduction potential of different local actions.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:43:53 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236259</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Davis Shopping Study</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236254</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Shopping travel constitutes a significant share of all daily travel in the U.S. This travel has significant environmental impacts with respect to energy consumption, air quality, water quality, and climate change. Understanding the factors that influence choices about shopping provides a basis for the development of policies that help ensure that consumer needs are met while the environmental costs of shopping travel are minimized. The purpose of this study is to examine shopping behavior of residents of Davis, CA before and after the opening of a Target store in Davis. The decision to allow the Target store in Davis was controversial, as it required a vote of the public to approve an exception to city regulations that set a maximum limit on store size within the city. Leading up to the vote in November 2007, residents raised many concerns about the impact of Target on local businesses, while others. Others argued that Davis residents shopped at Target in other cities anyway, and so having a Target in Davis would reduce driving and keep sales tax revenues within the city. Narrowly approved by the voters, the Target store is scheduled to open on October 11, 2009. The opening of the Target store in Davis presents a unique opportunity to study the causal effects on shopping behavior of a significant change in the retail landscape. Few such "before-and-after" studies have been documented in the academic literature. This study will provide important insights for communities considering the implementation or relaxation of bans on "big box" stores. This study is also relevant to current policy debates in California over the role of "smart growth" planning policies in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a way to meet Assembly Bill 32 requirements.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:43:47 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236254</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Road Diet or No Road Diet: a Case Study of the Fifth Street Corridor</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236253</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The "Fifth Street Corridor" is the section of Fifth that runs between A Street and L Street through Downtown Davis. This corridor serves many modes of transportation, including vehicles, delivery trucks, buses, emergency vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles. How the corridor is configured impacts these modes of transportation and the properties, businesses, and events served by the corridor. In the recent couple of years, discussions of the Fifth Street corridor raised several issues related to pedestrian safety, bicycle connectivity through the downtown core area, motor vehicle travel impacts in terms of delay and accidents, and economic impacts to the downtown business community. Different strategies were explored by the city traffic engineers to address these issues, which included mostly traffic engineering fixes ( e.g., changing the operations of the F and G Street signals on Fifth Street (CIP #8714)). While the city implemented some of the traffic engineering strategies, an alternative strategy, a road diet to reduce the number of lanes from 2 to 1 and adding a bike lane in each direction, was proposed by the Old North Davis Neighborhood Association. The city traffic engineers did not embrace this road diet plan, citing a study commissioned by the city that such a plan reduces the capacity for vehicle movements and creates unduly long delays for cross street traffic. Some members of the Old North Davis Neighborhood Association believed that the study commissioned by the city was flawed and would like to have a separate, independent study of the road diet plan, and compare it with other alternative plans. In recognizing the limitations of the prior study and the myriad interests that the Fifth Street Corridor commands from the local constituencies, the relevant staff was asked to prepare a plan to address the subject in a more comprehensive manner, and to engage the community to gain a better understanding of the full breadth of interests and issues. This project performs a systematic evaluation of various alternative traffic engineering/road diet plans for the Fifth Street Corridor, and attempts to ferret out the entangled relations between road design, traffic behavior, traffic safety, system efficiency and mode share, so as to draw useful guidelines for the adoption of road diet plans in small to medium sized communities.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:43:46 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236253</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>On-Line Versus Phone Surveys: Comparison of Results For a Bicycling Survey</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236250</link>
      <description><![CDATA[For decades, travel behavior researchers and transportation planning agencies have relied on phone surveys as the primary means of collecting data on household travel patterns. But these surveys are increasingly problematic. In particular, the shift from land-lines to cell phones makes it more difficult than ever to achieve a representative same. On-line surveys offer an intriguing alternative, particularly given their relatively low cost. But for these surveys, too, sampling is difficult. For a general household survey, no complete sampling frame of email addresses yet exists. Instead, researchers have used letters sent via regular mail to recruit household to participate in the on-line survey. Because not all households have access to the Internet, they may be given the option of requesting a paper survey instead, but this puts an extra burden on the respondent and discourages participation. Non-response bias is thus a serious concern for both phone surveys and on-line surveys. But how do the biases compare between the two surveys? In this paper we examine this question by looking at results from on-line and phone surveys with identical questions conducted in Davis, CA. The primary purpose of the surveys was to measure bicycling and various potential explanatory factors. Although the project did not directly examine the non-response bias in each survey, the project can compare the characteristics of the samples for each survey as an indicator of biases. In addition, we can compare the coefficients of models of travel behavior estimated for each sample separately to assess the degree to which the models yield consistent conclusions. Even though the bicycling levels measured in the two surveys are similar, the characteristics of the sample and the relationships inherent in each could differ. Analyses could yield different conclusions and thus point to different policies.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:43:43 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236250</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Davis Bicycle Studies (07-08 funding)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1233014</link>
      <description><![CDATA[As a means of transportation and as a form of physical activity, bicycling generates benefits to the bicyclist as well as to the community as a whole. Bicycling now accounts for less than 1 percent of all trips for all purposes in the U.S., but evidence from other western countries suggests that under the right conditions, bicycling levels can be significantly higher. The experience of Davis, California suggests that it is possible to create conditions conducive to higher levels of bicycling in the U.S. However, the extent to which bicycling policy has contributed to bicycling levels in Davis has not been rigorously assessed. This project aims to fill that gap through cross-sectional and quasi-longitudinal studies of bicycling behavior in Davis and comparison communities designed to determine the influence of bicycle infrastructure and mixed-use land use patterns relative to individual preferences, community culture, and other factors. This project focuses on the analysis of data collected using an on-line survey in Davis and five comparison cities in early fall 2006 and the development of a survey of students at Davis High and selected comparison schools. This project completes Phase 1 and begins Phase 2 of the Davis Bicycle Studies.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:49:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1233014</guid>
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