About the Mobility COE

Established through a cooperative agreement between the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and UCLA, the Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles (Mobility COE) researches and disseminates research on the impacts of new mobility and highly automated vehicles on land use, urban design, transportation, real estate, accessibility, and municipal budgets.

Roundtable Goals

Ultimately, the goal of this workshop is to understand how the research community can catalyze and support deployment of emerging technologies (e.g., automated vehicles, connected vehicles, smart infrastructure) and cross-agency coordination. To that end, we hope to achieve the following objectives:

Identify LA-specific local government and community needs for the deployment of new mobility and automated vehicles at scale to inform a roadmap for future deployments;
Strengthen the Los Angeles new mobility and automated vehicles community of practice, supporting more regular communication and coordination between agencies, industry, and the research community.

Directions

UCLA Faculty Club, 480 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Day Parking ($16.45) is available in Structure 2. Visitors can easily arrive via public transit with LA Metro or Santa Monica Big Blue Bus. For visitors driving to campus, please plan extra time to pay for parking (using kiosk or ParkMobile app) and get to the building from parking structure 2. Bicycle parking is available across the street at the Herb Alpert School of Music.

Agenda

9:00 AM Welcome and Introductions

Opening remarks
- UCLA Samueli School of Engineering Dean Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean and Professor
- Secretary Toks Omishakin (via video), Secretary of California State Transportation Agency

9:30 Attendee Introductions

9:45 AM Panel: Ten Years of Lessons Learned – What We’ve Learned from Emerging Technology Deployments to Create the Roadmap for Today

Ten years ago, the smartphone became one of the most significant disruptors to transportation in decades. Smart meters, transportation network companies, and wayfinding innovated the user experience, just to name a few. This panel of leaders will come together to discuss what lessons we should learn from in bringing this community of transportation innovators together as we think about the next ten years.

Participants:
- Moderator: Hasan Ikhrata
- SCAG: (Invited)
- Metro: (Invited)
- Caltrans (D7)/LADOT: (Invited)

10:30 Break

White Boards: the room will have posters with questions for participants to answer throughout the workshop. Questions will include:

What data do you wish you had?
What questions do you need answered in 3 months?
What questions do you need answered in 18 months?
The key to deployment at scale is [blank].
How do you stay up to date with emerging technologies (where do you get your news)?
Name one thing you want to see more collaboration on in the Los Angeles area regarding transportation/the right of way.
What is one relationship outside your organization that you specifically want to cultivate?

10:45 Lightning Presentations

One representative from each organization will have 4 minutes to answer the following:

Local Governments:

What are priority goals of your agency that would be supported by new technology deployment (V2X, AVs, AI)
What are the technical and policy concerns you want to address immediately as these options scale?
What is a question you have for industry or the research community (ex: what data is available, GIS requirements for AVs etc.).

Industry:

What are some innovative projects or deployments you are currently rolling out?
What are the barriers to scale deployment?

Researchers/Non-profits:

What recent projects or findings would be helpful for this group to know about?
What expertise do you bring?
How can you support this community of practice on an ongoing basis?

Noon: Lunch

1:00-2:30 Breakout Session #1: Planning for Emerging Technologies, Broadly

Each breakout will focus on defining a coordinated approach across the various public agencies to deployment and identify the knowledge gaps pertaining to these two policy areas.

ROOM ONE: Automated Vehicles and Connected Transportation

The need for public V2X investment is far greater than the available resources. Where do coordinated investments have the potential to demonstrate the success of V2X technology, automated vehicles, and new mobility in Los Angeles?
What are agencies already planning or prioritizing?
What are the short term opportunities and resources for initial deployment of such technologies?
What interagency coordination needs are constraints to implementation?
With respect to autonomous vehicles, what are important policy considerations for agencies? For industry partners, what would support scaling deployment?
What resource gaps slow implementation for AVs or CVs?

ROOM TWO: Curb and Sidewalk Management (People and Goods)

Questions for consideration:

What are some challenges with managing curbs for pickup/drop off?

What do industry partners need to improve for more efficiency?
What trends do participants believe will grow? Remain constant?
What are potential impacts to municipal budgets if parking reduces and PUDO increases?
How can emerging tech (e.g., automation, IoT) support this transition?

What is the current state of monitoring sidewalk conditions?
How can the research community evaluate current policies?

2:30 Read Out / Report of Breakout Session #1

2:45 Break

3:00-4:00 Breakout Session #2: Planning for Emerging Technologies, Specifically

ROOM ONE: Westwood Deployment for Olympic Athlete Village

UCLA could potentially serve as a partner/pilot lead in deploying sensors in 4 block area to monitor traffic conditions. This breakout session will focus on this potential project.

Questions for consideration:

What data could be generated from new sensor technologies?
What data would be helpful in understanding current conditions? Managing congestion in real time? Improving safety?
This pilot would be successful if [blank].
What would need to happen in order for this pilot to deploy?

Permits
Funding
Data monitoring

ROOM TWO: LA28

Questions for consideration:

What role might new mobility and automated vehicles play in the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games?
What are challenges we know to exist that will need to be addressed for LA28?
What technologies are available that, if scaled, or piloted, could help address those challenges?
What can improve cross-agency coordination? What is the research community’s role in a pilot?
What are some state-of-the-art technologies that can be deployed/showcased at LA28?

What are barriers to this?
How can the research community support and expedite this?

4:00 Report Out from Session #2

4:30 Next Steps

Everyone attending will receive a summary report of this meeting
For attendees:

Identify possible actionable opportunities to strengthen local coordination

For COE:

Identify 3-5 research studies that will address the challenges/barriers identified today

Starting in May, we will schedule meetings with you as a follow up
Invitation: Mobility COE coffee & conversation at NACTO in Washington DC | May 28-May 31