Congratulations to our 2025

LEAP-SURE participants!

This past summer, we hosted four amazing interns in our Lab. From June to August 2025, we had the pleasure of working with Leah DuBois, Diana Origa, Kemari Solomon, and Rolner Benjamin, from Florida A&M University and Florida State university’s joint engineering school.

Their main research projects focused on studying the characteristics of low-emission vehicle users in California, to support sustainable transportation planning objectives. The students learned how to analyze household vehicle surveys and land-use data for this project.

Examining the Travel Behaviors of Electric Vehicle and other Low-Emission Vehicle Users

California represents the largest and most mature market for eclectic and low-emission vehicles in the US, where vehicle sales in California outpace those of the second largest US market in Texas, by more than 5 times.

While the use of electric vehicles (EV), plug-in hybrids (PEV), and hybrid vehicles continues to rise, this may fuel increases in average vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which may run counter to California’s VMT reduction goals.

To support the design of policies and strategies for mitigating drivers VMT among EV users, it is critical that the evolution of travel behaviors and decision making among EV and other low-emission vehicle users be examined.

To this end, the interns worked with graduate mentors  – Daisy Mugodzeri and  Kailong Ji –  to examine demographic and spatial factors associated with various distinct travel behaviors of  low-emission vehicle users in California, using the 2024 California Vehicle Survey.  

Leah DuBois

Leah studied the person-level characteristics of low-emission vehicle uses.  Some of her findings based on her literature review and data analysis included:

• Despite the high usage of low-emissions vehicles across California, gasoline vehicles are still the dominant vehicle type.
• Vehicle type choices seem to vary distinctly across racial groups
• Asian communities have the highest rates of EV usage, followed by White communities.

Diana Origa

Diana’s work focused on spatial characteristics, like employment industries by county, and how these may relate to vehicle choice patterns across communities.

She found that California counties with higher rates of EV and hybrid vehicle use are more likely to have higher numbers of jobs in Government, Education, and Health service sectors.

Rolner Benjamin

Rolner’s work focused on household level characteristics of low-emission vehicle users, such as household size, income, and number of automobiles.

He found that:

• Households with more vehicles (3 or more) tend to have greater fuel type diversity, including more electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
• Household with a single vehicle are more likely to have gasoline or hybrid vehicles.

Kemari Solomon

Kemari’s work focused on spatial differences in adoption rates for low-emission vehicles. He found that:

• Hybrid vehicles were the most commonly reported vehicle type, with San Diego and Orange County leading in hybrid vehicles. 
• Over the various low-emission vehicle types, plug-in hybrids ranked as the second most common.

Next Steps

The program for this year will conclude with a Fall Research Seminar at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, where the interns will present their research to their classmates and other interested students. 

We are also working to finalize their research results and publish their work in a journal article.

Stay tuned for announcements about the application (for interested undergraduate students) to participate in next year’s LEAP-SURE program!