CSULB
awarded a $2 million grant from U.S. Transportation
Department
By Oscar Montealegre
On-line Forty-Niner
The
U.S. Transportation Department selected
Cal State Long Beach as one of 10 universities
nationwide to do further research on relieving
the existing transportation problems that
exist in large metropolitan areas.
CSULB was selected to receive $2 million
in grants in the next two years for transportation
education and research.
“Nationwide transportation is a issue but
it is certainly an issue in Southern California,”
CSULB President Robert Maxson said.
The researchers are not responsible for
actually creating new highways; the focus
of this grant is to allow researchers do
research on transportation issues. With
the information the researchers obtained
in their studies and investigation, they
inform city, state and federal governments
how they should enhance their respected
transportation infrastructure.
The type of research ranges from transportation
patterns to different forms of transportation.
Cal State Long Beach is actually one of
10 schools nationwide that were selected
to share $20 million over the next two years.
CSULB teamed up with USC to receive the
grant
from the U.S. Transportation Department.
The collaboration was known as METRANS.
“Transportation is a big deal. We [Cal State
Long Beach] are one of the leading researchers
in the country that are just doing research
on transportation,” Maxson said.
Southern California has two of the largest
seaports: the San Pedro port and Los Angeles
International Airport. Yet goods and cargo
arrive at the seaports and airport. Therefore,
research on transportation tries to limit
traffic while all the goods are being distributed
by trucks all across the country.
“What is interesting about our joint collaboration
is that much of our research work is focused
on the movement of goods,” said Joe Magaddino,
executive committee member of METRANS and
chair for the department of economics.
“Most of the transportation centers focus
their research on the movement of goods
and passenger transportation, and that is
really a reflection of our location and
as well in the interest of our faculty,”
Magaddino said.
Researching and investigating the movement
of passenger transportation involves engineers
designing highways, implementing new and
innovative toll roads, mass transit and
a variety of transportation issues.
“Transportation is such a complex situation,
and it is always good that there are people
involved in finding new methods to transportation,”
said senior engineering major Juan Yusti.
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