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The Institute of Transportation Studies
The Institute of Transportation Studies
University of California, Irvine
4000 Anteater Instruction and Research Bldg (AIRB)
Irvine, CA 92697-3600
Tel: 949-824-5989
Fax: 949-824-8385
The Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), a University of
California organized research unit with branches at Irvine, Davis,
and Berkeley, was established to foster research, education, and
training in the field of transportation.
A fundamental goal of
the Institute is the stimulation of interdisciplinary research
on contemporary transportation issues. ITS research at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) involves
faculty and students from The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, the School
of Social Sciences, the School of Social Ecology, the Graduate
School of Management, and the Bren School of Information and Computer
Science. The Institute also hosts visiting scholars from the U.S.
and abroad to facilitate cooperative research and information
exchange, and sponsors conferences and colloquia to disseminate
research results.
Research at ITS covers a broad spectrum of transportation issues.
Current funded research projects at Irvine focus upon:
- Intelligent transportation systems, particularly advanced
transportation management systems
- Analysis and simulation of urban traffic networks
- Transportation system operations and control
- Artificial intelligence/expert systems in transportation
- Travel demand forecasting and analysis of complex travel behavior
- Transportation/land use interactions, particularly those which
encourage alternative modes of travel
- Planning and evaluation of advanced public transit systems
- Transportation pricing and regulation
- Energy and environmental issues, particularly demand for alternative
fuels
- Effect of land-use on transportation demand
- Growth of automobile use in the U.S. and Western Europe
Research on advanced transportation technologies, a
focus at Irvine, is supported by a wide range of programs. These
include:
- Advanced Testbed Research Program, a state and federally
supported effort headquartered at UCI. This program is developing
and evaluating
new technologies for traffic system monitoring and control.
- Program for Improved Vehicle Demand Forecasting Models.
Sponsored by the California Energy
Commission,
this program is investigating the state's potential
market for
clean fuel vehicles.
- Partnership for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH), a state-sponsored
research program on intelligent transportation systems. Headquartered
at the University of California, Berkeley
(UCB), with participation from UCI, this program has an annual solicitation for research ideas in Intelligent Transportation Systems.
- PATH Advanced Transportation Management Systems (ATMS) Center. Headquartered at UCI, this PATH center focuses on the research and development of ATMS technologies.
The ITS Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS) Laboratories
at Irvine provide state-of-the-art facilities for teaching, research,
and development of high-technology applications in transportation.
The laboratories include workstations tied directly to a modern
traffic management center and to the local California Department
of Transportation (Caltrans) district's freeway traffic management
center. The laboratories also contain a network of Unix-based workstations
and personal computers, and a variety of software
in transportation engineering and control.
A statewide videoteleconferencing facility, video camera, recorders,
monitors and accessories enable research in advanced traffic detection,
monitoring and analysis. Additional features of the ATMS Laboratories
include advanced traffic signal controllers and a variety of traffic
data collection devices. These laboratories form the backbone
of California's research initiative in ATMS and, together with
the California ATMS Testbed established in Orange County as part of that
initiative, provide unparalleled opportunity for the development
and testing of applications of advanced technology in the management
of transportation systems.
The transportation research program at Irvine is also supported
by computerized access to the ITS Transportation Library at UC
Berkeley. In addition to the resources available from the ITS
Berkeley Library, ITS at UCI subscribes to the major transportation
research journals and offers a variety of computer-based information
retrieval services. ITS is linked to the broader professional
community through a series of research colloquia and specialty
conferences. The latter programs attract an international audience.
The Institute maintains a regular publication series which documents
research conducted within its programs.
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