California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) is a collaboration between the

California Department of Transportation The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacr ...

(Caltrans),

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

, other public and private academic institutions, and private industry. PATH's mission: applying advanced technology to increase highway capacity and safety, and to reduce traffic congestion,

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different typ ...

, and energy consumption. The organization recently celebrated its twentieth year. Caltrans provides a portion of PATH funding; the remaining funding comes from the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States a ...

, other state and local agencies, and private industry. PATH supports the research of nearly 50 faculty members and 90 graduate students. Alexander Skabardonis, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at

, is the PATH Director. As a collaborative organization, PATH has had many partners, including public agencies, universities, and private companies. Partners include the

(Caltrans); the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...

; the Federal Transit Administration; the

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation. It describes its mission as "Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle-related crashes" rel ...

; the Metropolitan Transportation Commission; the

California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is a state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and roads and streets outside city limits, and can exercise law enforcem ...

; the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, and Riverside; Claremont Graduate University;

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

; George Mason University;

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

;

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

;

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

;

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

; SRI International Jet Propulsion Laboratory;

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

; General Motors;

DaimlerChrysler The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

; and the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

. It is administered by the

Institute of Transportation Studies The Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at the University of California's Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, and Los Angeles campuses are centers for research, education, and scholarship in the fields of transportation planning and engineering. Facult ...

at UC Berkeley, and housed at UC Berkeley's Richmond Field Station.

Research

PATH's main mission is to conduct research. Primary areas of study are traffic operations, transit operations, traffic safety, and policy and behavioral research. A few examples of this work include: *The PeMS projects collects and computes free performance data. *VII California, a public-private partnership led by Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transit Commission, aims to develop the vehicle infrastructure by integrating it with current and innovative technologies. *Magnetic guidance systems improve the performance of snow plows.

External links

California PATHIntelligent Transportation Society of America
* ttp://its.berkeley.edu/ Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley

Sources

*Alexander Skabardonis, Ph.D., Director, California PATH *Michael Cassidy, Ph.D., Acting Director, UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies *Steven Campbell, Assistant Director, UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies Road transportation in the United States Road transportation in California University of California, Berkeley Virginia Tech