I was asked to appear in an episode of the So Where Are You From (SWAYF) podcast last week to discuss urban air mobility and transportation, among other things! Please listen!

I co-founded and spearheaded a new research initiative across the Berkeley campus known as UAM@Berkeley, spanning the Civil and Environmental Engineering, City and Regional Planning, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, and Mechanical Engineering departments. The goal of the initiative is to bring together academic, industry, and government luminaries in the fields of eVTOL manufacturing, airspace management, vertiport design, autonomous flight, and urban simulation.

We hope that this will become a strong research consortium across the Institute of Transportation Studies, College of Engineering, and College of Environmental Design for years to come.

Here is a study I conducted with Airbus UTM in late 2018/early 2019. We gained insights about community acceptance from four distinct geographies: Los Angeles, Mexico City, Switzerland, and New Zealand. A representative sample from all geographies showed that noise (both amplitude and frequency/type) and safety (fear of aircraft falling from the sky) were major concerns. In addition, younger, more affluent communities were more likely to view urban air mobility positively.

This is a nascent area in which safety, noise, equity, and sustainability must be addressed in order for there to be broader community acceptance.