Access to Clean Transportation Technology

Low-income households in the U.S. suffer from disproportionate exposure to air pollution from transportation sources, such as trucks, trains, and planes. Low-income households also use transit more frequently than affluent households do; however, they still rely heavily on vehicles to fill their mobility needs. Due in part to the high cost of housing near job and transit centers, many low- and moderate-income individuals are stuck with long commutes in vehicles that are older, less efficient, and costlier to maintain than the average privately owned vehicle. This is especially true in high-housing-cost states like California.

California is also at the forefront of progressive environmental initiatives, including many innovative transportation-related environmental justice programs. The following research from the Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI) has informed the design and implementation of transportation equity programs in California.

PUBLISHED RESEARCH

Community Perspectives, Resources, and Implementation Pathways

Researcher(s): Rachel Connolly, Gregory Pierce, Connor Castillo, Wendy Salvador-Galbraith, and Richard Parks
Funder: University of California Office of the President through the California State Budget Act of 2022–23

This guidebook explores community perspectives, challenges, and pathways to expand public EV charging in South Los Angeles, including resources, incentives, and implementation strategies.

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Researcher(s): Yu, et al., including Greg Pierce

Equitable coverage and reliable operation of EV charging stations are crucial for a just transition to a carbon-free future. The authors found that disadvantaged communities have 64% fewer public chargers per person than other areas — a gap that grows to 73% for renters in apartment buildings. The chargers are also less reliable. With limited options for charging at home, investing in more and more reliable charging stations in underserved areas is critical.

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Researcher(s): Rachel Connolly, Daniel Coffee, Gregory Pierce

Since 2010, California has provided about $1.9 billion in clean vehicle purchase incentives, but the researchers found that only 16% of that funding has gone to disadvantaged communities. Although electric vehicle adoption has increased across the state, it remains low in lower-income and state-identified disadvantaged areas. Controlling for other factors, the level of incentives affects clean vehicle registration, but weakens over time. The researchers recommend designing incentive policies with greater attention to equity to better support the communities that are most in need of increased clean vehicle adoption.

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This report identifies inequitable patterns in both EV incentive distribution and registration in LA City and County.

Author(s): Gregory Pierce, Rachel Connolly, Daniel Coffee, and Lauren Dunlap

This report identifies inequitable patterns in both EV incentive distribution and registration in LA City and County. The authors include four case examples that illustrate the extreme EV access and realization disparities in underserved neighborhoods in LA, and thus the need for more targeted local, regional, and statewide assistance to get closer to an equitable transition to clean transportation and energy.

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Is California achieving an equitable clean vehicle transition?

Researcher(s): Rachel Connolly, Daniel Coffee, and Gregory Pierce
Funder: Southern California Edison

This report examines the distributional impacts of six of California’s light-duty clean vehicle incentive programs, especially for equity. The authors find that only about $314 million of more than $1.9 billion allocated went to households in disadvantaged communities. The researchers’ policy recommendations include: 1) allocate more funding for equity-focused clean vehicle programs, 2) be creative in maximizing used vehicle inventory, and 3) focus more on delivering rather than advertising the benefits of one-stop shops for incentive access.

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Innovative Partnership Models for Achieving Equitable Micromobility Access in Mid-sized Cities

Researcher(s): Doug Arseneault and Gregory Pierce

This report highlights equity-oriented micromobility programs that provide access to shared bicycles and scooters in five US cities. Drawing from interviews, the report offers pioneering models and actionable steps for government agencies, micromobility providers, and community-based organizations to expand access and affordability among low-income and black, Indigenous, and people of color travelers and improve infrastructure in their communities.

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Lessons from a Community Outreach Campaign Supporting Electric Vehicle Purchase Uptake

Researcher(s): Rachel Connolly, Gregory Pierce, and Bo Liu

This report documents lessons on how to improve equitable access to clean vehicles for underserved households.

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Researcher(s): Dan Coffee, Aditya Voleti, Joshua Segui, Allison Yang, J.R. DeShazo, and Weilong (David) Kong

This technical report reviews the underlying analysis, data, and economic input/output modeling that supported our conclusions in the 2021 report Driving California’s Transportation Emissions to Zero. The researchers find that transportation decarbonization and the widespread adoption of zero-emission vehicles will spur the creation of new multi-billion dollar industries, resulting in tens of billions of dollars in annual consumer savings, and creating hundreds of thousands of full-time-equivalent jobs, while also driving significant contractions in some industries focused on servicing fossil fuel-burning vehicles.

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Researcher(s): J.R. DeShazo and James Di Filippo

This Institute of Transportation Studies report outlines how California could use toll revenue creatively to minimize the financial burden of congestion pricing on low-income residents. The most promising option, the authors assert, is to send the toll revenue back to low-income households as a direct rebate, offsetting the costs of tolls for those who have to drive while still incentivizing people to choose other travel modes if they can.

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Expanding Opportunities in Multi-unit Dwellings and Workplaces

Researcher(s): J.R. DeShazo, James DiFilippo, Mark Hansen, Jason Karpman and Gregory Pierce
Funder: South Coast Air Quality Management District – Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC)

This report identifies residential and workplace areas in Southern California where investing in charging infrastructure can spur EV adoption, ultimately helping to reduce carbon emissions and local air pollution. Cities and others can use the the Southern California Plug-in Electric Vehicle Atlas and the report to identify where charging investments would make the most difference.

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Author(s): J.R. DeShazo and James Di Filippo

This report presents a policy agenda to place equity at the center of California’s transportation decarbonization efforts. Highlighting challenges and opportunities amid California’s push to cut carbon emissions and local air pollution, the study underscores the fact that low-income communities hit hardest by pollution have been largely left behind in the transition to cleaner transportation. The report provides recommendations to bring an equity focus to clean transportation policy.

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Researcher(s): Austin L. Brown, Daniel Sperling, Kelly L. Fleming, Timothy Lipman, Lew Fulton, Jean Daniel Saphores, Gil Tal, Colin Murphy, Susan Shaheen, Bernadette Austin, Juan Carlos Garcia Sanchez, Elliot Martin, Marshall Miller, Michael Hyland, Susan Handy, Mark A. Delucchi, Daniel Coffee, J.R. DeShazo, Carolyn Abrams, Debapriya Chakraborty, Sina Dabag, Adam Davis, Kate Forest, Alan Jenn, Seth Karten, Blake Lane, Michael Mackinnon, Elliot Martin, Monica Ramirez-Ibarra, Stephen Ritchie, Sara Schremmer, Joshua Segui, Susan Shaheen, Andre Tok, Aditya Voleti, Julie Witcover, Allison Yang

The Center was part of the team from UCLA, along with UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and UC Irvine, that identified strategies to achieve carbon neutrality in the transportation sector by 2045. The study outlines policy options to significantly reduce transportation-related fossil fuel demand and emissions. Together, these policy options could lead to a zero-carbon transportation system by 2045, while also improving equity, health, and the economy.

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Evidence From EVgo’s High Power Charging Plaza Pilot

Researcher(s): James Di Filippo and J.R. DeShazo
Funder: EVgo Services

The researchers evaluated a multi-unit dwelling-focused fast charging pilot program developed by EVgo, America’s largest public network of EV fast chargers. The study found that apartment and condo dwellers plug in their cars at fast chargers more frequently and closer to home than their non-multi-unit dwelling resident counterparts. This suggests that fast charging stations are an important component for encouraging EV adoption among condo and apartment residents, who are often low- and moderate-income.

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Researcher(s): Daniel Coffee, JR DeShazo, Joshua Segui, Aditya Voleti, Allison Yang

Led by the Institute of Transportation Studies, this study focuses on strategies to transition California’s transportation system to a carbon-neutral basis by 2045. The researchers identify scenarios, assumptions, and related strategies, tools, options, trade offs, and benefits for areas where action can be taken now, as well as where additional actions are needed in the future.

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Implications From California-Wide Survey Results

Researcher(s): Gregory Pierce, Britta McOmber, and J.R. DeShazo

This report, based on a Luskin Center for Innovation survey of 1,604 low- and moderate-income households, assesses current policies and informs future strategies intended to improve clean vehicle access and use by low- and moderate-income households in California. The results help identify effective policy approaches to improve access to, and adoption of, clean vehicles.

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Adapting Outreach Methods to Ensure Household Transportation Benefits

Researcher(s): Gregory Pierce and Rachel Connolly

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, public agencies and nonprofits must adapt to serve their communities. This case study focuses on an innovative example of rapid but careful response to community needs: the Tune In & Tune Up vehicle smog repair program serving low-income residents of the San Joaquin Valley.

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Author(s): Gregory Pierce and Rachel Connolly

This evaluation utilizes several datasets to track Valley Clean Air Now’s (Valley CAN) clean vehicle replacement program progress in the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) from October 2018 through June 2019, a time when Valley CAN was funded to accelerate the reach and pace of the Clean Cars 4 All program in the SJV. This initial assessment considers the impact on residents’ awareness, involvement, engagement, and vehicle acquisition. Even in this short period, we observe notable positive impacts.

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Challenges and Opportunities for the San Pedro Bay Ports

Researcher(s): James Di Filippo, Colleen Callahan, and Naseem Golestani

This report examines both the need for and current state of zero-emission trucks and the barriers and opportunities involved in moving toward zero-emission drayage trucking for the adjacent Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The researchers propose a set of short- and medium-term policies and strategies that address main barriers and opportunities.

The report incorporates findings from an earlier Luskin Center for Innovation-supported study, called Charging Infrastructure Strategies: Maximizing the Deployment of Electric Drayage Trucks in Southern California and serves as a foundation for future analyses that further support the transition to cleaner drayage trucking.

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Author(s): Gregory Pierce, Britta McOmber and J.R. DeShazo

This report, based on a Luskin Center for Innovation survey of 1,604 low- and moderate-income households, assesses current policies and informs future strategies intended to improve clean vehicle access and use by low- and moderate-income households in California. The results help identify effective policy approaches to improve access to, and adoption of, clean vehicles.

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The Tune In & Tune Up Smog Repair Program in the San Joaquin Valley

Author(s): Gregory Pierce and Rachel Connolly

This report examines the performance of the Tune In & Tune Up (TI&TU) smog repair program, which has taken a community organizing approach to improving regional air quality by targeting for repair high-emitting light-duty vehicles in state-designated disadvantaged communities. The assessment is informing a new grassroots outreach program bringing clean vehicle, clean energy, and financial assistance programs to low-income households in Los Angeles County.

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A Westside Cities Case Study

Author(s): Jason Karpman, Norman Wong, and J.R. DeShazo
Funder: Southern California Association of Governments, as part of agreement sponsored by the California Energy Commission

These two reports explore barriers and opportunities to plug-in electric vehicle adoption for residents of apartments and other multi-unit dwellings, using the South Bay and the Westside Cities subregions of Los Angeles County as case studies. The lessons learned are relevant to other areas as well.

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Lessons Learned from the San Joaquin Valley and South Coast Air Districts’ First Year of Operation

Author(s): Gregory Pierce and J.R. DeShazo

This report describes lessons learned from the first year of the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Program Plus-Up pilot’s implementation in the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and South Coast Air Quality Management District. The analysis supported a geographic expansion of this program, now called Clean Cars 4 All.

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A South Bay Case Study

Author(s): Alex Turek and J.R. DeShazo
Funder: California Energy Commission

These two reports explore barriers and opportunities to plug-in electric vehicle adoption for residents of apartments and other multi-unit dwellings, using the South Bay and the Westside Cities subregions of Los Angeles County as case studies. The lessons learned are relevant to other areas as well.

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Challenges and Opportunities

Author(s): J.R. DeShazo

This article evaluates the effectiveness of current clean vehicle incentive policies in the U.S. and makes recommendations for improvement. See the previous report “Design and Implementation of the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Plus-Up Program.”

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Lessons from California’s Plug-in Electric Vehicle Rebate Program

Author(s): Tamara Sheldon, J.R. DeShazo, and Richard Carson

The researchers assessed the performance of alternative rebate designs for plug-in EVs and compared these alternatives in terms of cost-effectiveness and equity. The findings helped inform the adoption of California’s progressive rebate system in which low- and moderate-income drivers receive an additional $3,000 to $6,500 in financial incentives to purchase a clean vehicle, and limit program eligibility to households with less than $500,000 in annual income.

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