Research Expertise and Interest

sustainable transportation, community-based planning, transportation infrastructure projects

Research Description

Dr. Karen Trapenberg Frick is Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning. She also is Director of the University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) and Assistant Director of the University of California Transportation Center on Economic Competitiveness in Transportation (UCCONNECT).

She is an expert on sustainable transport and community-based planning and major transportation infrastructure projects. Her current research focuses on conservative, Tea Party and property rights activists' perspectives on planning and planners' responses. She received a “Best Paper of the Year” Award for research on the topic from the Journal of the American Planning Association (at )

Research in this area is published as an article in the journal Urban Studies which received a “top five” designation and an article in Planning Theory and Practice which was shortlisted for award consideration.

A short related article is in the California Planning and Development Report.

Her past research includes an evaluation of variable tolls on the Bay Bridge and an investigation of best practices and challenges related to transport innovations.