UC DAVIS
Division of Environmental Studies

Robert A. Johnston
Professor

Biographical Sketch:

Bob Johnston has degrees in architecture, urban planning, and resource management and is a Professor in the Division of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Davis. Johnston teaches courses in environmental planning, land use controls, environmental impact assessment, and urban modeling. He was a planning consultant before joining UC Davis in 1971. Johnston has been a member of the Davis Transportation Commission and of advisory committees for transportation and air quality planning in the Tahoe Basin and the Sacramento region. He was a member of the California Transportation Directions Task Force, which advised Caltrans and the Governor. He was recently on the Intermodal Management System advisory committee for Caltrans and was recently appointed to membership on the National Academy of Sciences, Transportation Research Board Committee on Transportation and Land Development. Bob taught a two-week course on multimodal, multiobjective transportation planning to Caltrans staff in the late 1970s. His main research is on urban transporation planning. A regional comparison of automated freeways, conventional improvements to freeways and transit, and travel demand reduction measures is supported by Caltrans. The evaluation of travel demand reduction scenarios is also supported by the California Energy Commission, as is an evaluation of travel demand modeling by regional agencies in California. Other work for the Energy Commission is on least-cost transportation scenario evaluation for the state. Models used include regional transportation, land use allocation, external economics, GIS, and emissions. Recent research includes the linking of an integrated urban model (Tranus) to a GIS-based land use allocation model (Cufm), which is the database for a set of impact assessment models. He also has prepared a paper on the sample bias in household travel survey datasets. In progress work includes the application of the Small-Rosen compensating variation traveler welfare model to aggregate household data sets for a mode choice model.

Research:

Robert Johnston's major interests lie in land use plan implementation, open space and terrestrial habitat protection, transportation and land use modeling, and regional planning support systems.

Selected Publications:

Rodier, Caroline J. and Robert A. Johnston. 1995. Incentives for Local Governments to Implement Travel Demand Management Measures. Submitted to Transp. Res.:A

Johnston, Robert A. 1994. The Evaluation of Multimodal Transportation Systems for Economic Efficiency and Other Impacts. Presented at the Transportation Research Bd. Jan., 1995 meeting.

Johnston, Robert A. and Dorriah L. Page. 1993. Automating Urban Freeways: Financial Analysis for User Groups. J. of Transp. Engin. Vol. 119, No 4, July/August, 1993.

Johnston, Robert A., Mark A. DeLuchi, Daniel Sperling, and Paul P. Craig. 1990. Automating Urban Freeways: Policy Research Agenda. J. of Transportation Engin. 116(4): 442-460. (July/August).

Johnston, Robert A. and Mark A. DeLuchi. 1989. Evaluation Methods for Rail Transit Projects. Transportation Research A 23(4):317-325.

Johnston, Robert A., Daniel Sperling, Mark A. DeLuchi, and Steve Tracy. 1988. Politics and Technical Uncertainty in Transportation Investment Analysis. Transportation Research A 21A: 6, 459-475.

DeLuchi, Mark A., Robert A. Johnston, and Daniel Sperling. 1988 Transportation Fuels and the Greenhouse Effect. Transportation Research Record 1175: 33-44.

Johnston, Robert A., Seymour I. Schwartz, and Steve Tracy. 1984. Growth phasing and resistance to infill development: The Sacramento county experience." Journal of the American Planning Association, Autumn (Vol. 54, No. 4), pp. 434-446.

Johnston, Robert A. and Steve Tracy. 1983. Suburban resistance to density increases near transit stations in the San Francisco bay area, Chapter for Social Constraints on Energy Policy Implementation. Ed. by Max Neiman and Barbara Burt, Lexington Books (Lexington, MA,). pp. 89-118.

In Press:

Johnston, Robert A. and Raju Ceerla. An Analysis of New High-Occupancy Vehicle Lane Projects Under the U.S. and California Clean Air Acts, Transportation Research: A, in press.

Johnston, Robert A. and Raju Ceerla. A Systems-Level Evaluation of Automated Urban Freeways: Effects on Travel, Emissions, and Costs. Journal of Transportation Engineering. In press.

Johnston, Robert A., Jay R. Lund, and Paul P. Craig. Capacity Allocation Methods for Reducing Urban Traffic Congestion: Living With Existing Highways. Journal of Transportation Engineering. In press.

Rodier, Caroline J. and Robert A. Johnston. 1994. A Critique of MPO Capabilities for Modeling TCMs in California, Transportation Research Record, in press.

Johnston, Robert A. The Effects of Land Use Intensification and Travel Pricing Policies on Travel, Emissions, Fuel Use, and Travel Costs. Paper prepared for the TRB Conference on Transportation and Energy: A Conference Exploring Energy Strategies for a Sustainable Transportation System, Asilomar, CA, August 22-25, 1993. In press (ICEEE).

Teaching:

EST 171. Environmental Planning (4) III. Lecture-3 hours; discussion-1 hour. Prerequisite: course 1; a course in social science and a course in environmental science. Laws, institutions, design and analysis methods, and means of implementation of plans for land use, air and water quality, transportation, and energy are examined. Theoretical and practical readings are used. Political and technical problems common to all planning processes emphasized.

EST 179. Environmental Impact Reporting (3) I. Lecture-2 hours; discussion-1 hour. Prerequisite: upper division standing; Biological Sciences 1A; one course from the following: course 1, 10, 110, Environmental Toxicology 10, or Resource Sciences 100. Methods of analysis used in environmental impact reporting. Emphasis on effective writing; review and management of impact reports in the context of rational democratic planning systems.

EST 173. Land Use and Growth Controls (4). Lecture--3 hours; discussion--1 hour. Prerequisite: Political Science 1, Economics 1A, Intermediate Statistics (Sociology 106 or Statistics 102 or the equivalent), and local government (Applied Behavioral Science 157, 158 or Political Science 100, 102 or 104). Exposes students to the economic, political, and legal factors affecting land use and growth controls, and helps students critically evaluate written materials in terms of their arguments and supporting data.

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