Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor’s research centers on transportation policy and planning – most of it conducted in close collaboration with his many exceptional students.  His students have won dozens of local and national awards for their work, and today hold positions at the highest levels of planning analysis, teaching, and practice. More of his students have won awards from the Council of University Transportation Centers for the best capstone project, thesis, or dissertation in transportation policy and planning than have the students of any other faculty member in North America.

Professor Taylor explores how society pays for transportation systems and how these systems in turn serve the needs of people who – because of low income, disability, location, or age – have lower levels of mobility.  Topically, his research examines travel behavior, transportation economics & finance, and politics & planning.

His research on travel behavior has examined (1) the effect of travel experience on cognitive mapping, (2) how travel patterns vary by race/ethnicity, sex, age, and income, (3) the emerging travel patterns teens and young adults, (4) gender divisions of labor and travel in gay and straight households, (5) the social, economic, and spatial factors explaining public transit use, (6) the role of walking, waiting, and transferring on travel choices, (7) ways to cost-effectively increase public transit use, and (8) the role of information technology in the rise of new shared mobility systems.

A principal focus of his research is the politics of transportation economics & finance, including (1) alternative ways to evaluate the access and economic effects of traffic congestion on people, firms, and regional economies, (2) the history of freeway planning and finance, (3) emerging trends in pricing road use, (4) the equity of alternative forms of transportation pricing and finance, (5) linking of subsidies to public transit performance, and (6) measuring equity in public transit finance.

The politics of planning practice inform Professor Taylor’s research and teaching, which regularly include courses on Transportation and Land Use: Urban Form, Transportation Policy and Planning, Transportation Economics, Finance, and Policy, courses in research design for planners, and, occasionally, the Comparative International Transportation Workshop. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty in 1994, Professor Taylor was on the planning faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and before that he was a planner with Metropolitan Transportation Commission in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Professor Taylor has won numerous honors for his work. He was recently named one of the Top Ten Academic Thought Leaders in Transportation by the Council of University Transportation Centers and the Eno Center for Transportation. He was also recently honored as a National Associate by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine for his work on behalf of the Transportation Research Board.  And he was recently elected to the College of Fellows by the American Institute of Certified Planners for his exceptional contributions to planning and society.

MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Osman, Taner, Trevor Thomas, Andrew Mondschein, Brian D. Taylor. Forthcoming 2018. “Does Traffic Congestion Influence the Location of New Business Establishments? An Analysis of the San Francisco Bay Area,” Urban Studies, 1-16.

Thomas, Trevor, Andrew Mondschein, Taner Osman, Brian D. Taylor. 2018. “Not so fast? Examining neighborhood level effects of traffic congestion on job access,” Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 113(July): 529-541.

Manville, Michael, Brian D. Taylor, Evelyn Blumenberg. 2018. “Transit in the 2000s: Where Does It Stand and Where Is It Headed?” Journal of Public Transportation, 21 (1): 104-118.

Mondschein, Andrew, Brian D. Taylor. 2017. “Is traffic congestion overrated? Examining the highly variable effects of congestion on travel and accessibility,” Journal of Transport Geography. 64(2017): 65-76. 56.

Turley, Carole Voulgaris, Michael J. Smart, Brian D. Taylor. 2017. “Tired of Commuting? Relationships among Journeys to School, Sleep, and Exercise among American Teenagers,” Journal of Planning Education and Research. 00(0): 1-13. 55.

Smart, Michael J., Anne Brown, and Brian D. Taylor. 2017. “Sex or Sexuality? Analyzing the Division of Labor and Travel in Gay, Lesbian, and Straight households,” Travel Behaviour and Society, 6: 75-82.

Voulgaris, Carole Turley, Brian D. Taylor, Evelyn Blumenberg, Anne Brown, and Kelcie Ralph. 2017. “Synergistic Neighborhood Relationships with Travel Behavior: An Analysis of Travel in 30,000 U.S. Neighborhoods,” Journal of Transport and Land Use, 10(2): 1-25.

Ralph, Kelcie, Carole Turley Voulgaris, Anne Brown, Evelyn Blumenberg, and Brian D. Taylor. 2016. “Millennials, built form, and travel: Insights from a nationwide typology of U.S. neighborhoods,” Journal of Transport Geography, 57(December): 218–226.

Blumenberg, Evelyn, Kelcie Ralph, Michael Smart, and Brian D. Taylor. 2016. “Who Knows About Kids These Days? Analyzing the Determinants of Youth and Adult Mobility in the U.S. between 1990 and 2009,” Transportation Research, Part A: Policy and Practice, 93(November): 39-54.

Brown, Anne, Brian D. Taylor, and Martin Wachs. 2016. “The Boy Who Cried Wolf? Media Messaging and Traveler Responses to “Carmageddon” in Los Angeles,” Public Works Management & Policy. Vol. 22(3) 275 –293.

Morris, Eric A, Jeffrey R. Brown, and Brian D. Taylor. 2016. “Negotiating a Financial Package for Freeways: California’s 1947 Collier-Burns Highway Act and the Creation of Highway Trust Funds,” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2552(03): 16-22.

Brown, Anne, Evelyn Blumenberg, Brian D. Taylor, Kelcie Ralph, and Carole Turley Voulgaris. 2016. “A Taste for Transit? Analyzing Public Transit Use Trends Among Youth,” Journal of Public Transportation, 19(1): 49-67.

Lederman, Jaimee, Mark Garrett, and Brian D. Taylor. 2016. “Fault-y Reasoning: Navigating the Liability Terrain in Intelligent Transportation Systems,” Public Works Management & Policy, 21(1): 5-27.

Lederman, Jaimee, Brian D. Taylor, and Mark Garrett. 2016. “A Private Matter: The Implications of Privacy Regulations for Intelligent Transportation Systems,” Transportation Planning & Technology, 39(2):115-135.

Taylor, Brian D., Kelcie Ralph, and Michael Smart. 2015. “What Explains the Gender Gap in Schlepping? Testing Various Explanations for Gender Differences in Household-Serving Travel,” Social Science Quarterly, 96(5): 1493-1510.

Yoh, Allison, Brian D. Taylor, and John Gahbauer. 2015. “Does Transit Mean Business? Reconciling Economic, Organizational, and Political Perspectives on Variable Transit Fares,” Public Works Management & Policy. Vol. 21(2): 157-172.

Taylor, Brian D. and Eric A. Morris. 2015. “Public transportation objectives and rider demographics: Are transit’s priorities poor public policy?” Transportation, 42(2): 347-367.