Martin Wachs
Media Resources
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Education
Overview
Biography
Martin Wachs is a senior principal researcher at RAND and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He formerly served as director of the RAND Transportation, Space, and Technology Program. Prior to joining RAND in 2005, he was professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where was also director of the Institute of Transportation Studies. Prior to this, he spent 25 years at UCLA, where he served three terms as chairman of the Department of Urban Planning.
Wachs is the author of 160 articles and four books on subjects related to relationships between transportation, land use, and air quality; transportation needs of the elderly; techniques for the evaluation of transportation systems; and the use of performance measurement in transportation planning. His research also addresses issues of equity in transportation policy, problems of crime in public transit systems, and the response of transportation systems to natural disasters, including earthquakes. His most recent work focuses on transportation finance in relation to planning and policy.
Wachs served on the Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board for nine years and was the TRB Chairman in 2000. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowships, a UCLA Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award, the Pyke Johnson Award for the best paper presented at an annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, and the Carey Award for service to the TRB. In 2006 he was named "Member of the Year" by the San Francisco Chapter of the Women's Transportation Seminar.
Research Focus
Previous Positions
Professor, City and Regional Planning, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley; Professor and Chairman, Department of Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles; Chairman, Executive Committee of the Transportation Research BoardRecent Projects
- Economic returns from investment in transportation infrastructure
Selected Publications
Liisa Ecola et al., Integrating U.S. Climate, Energy, and Transportation Policies: Proceedings of Three Workshops, RAND Corporation (CF-256), 2009
Paul Sorensen et al., Moving Los Angeles: Short-Term Policy Options for Improving Transportation, RAND Corporation (MG-748), 2008
Ann M. Brach and Martin Wachs, "Earmarking in the U.S. Department of Transportation Research Programs," Transportation Research Part A, 39(6), 2005
Martin Wachs "Improving Efficiency and Equity in Transportation Finance," in Bruce Katz and Robert Puentes, eds., Taking the High Road: A Metropolitan Agenda for Transportation Reform, The Brookings Institution Press, 2005
Amber Crabbe et al., Local Transportation Sales Taxes: California's Experiment in Transportation Finance, University of California, 2002
Recent Media Appearances
Interviews: CNN; KCRW; KFI; KQED; Las Vegas Sun; Los Angeles Times; San Diego Union-Tribune; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner, Southern Political Report
Commentary: CNN.com, Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune
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