Brian D. Taylor

Brian D. Taylor is a Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Transportation Studies. His academic roles include Director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and former leadership of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.

Education: PhD in Urban Planning (UCLA), MCP in City and Regional Planning (UC Berkeley), MS in Civil Engineering (UC Berkeley), and BA in Geography (UCLA).

Research focuses on transportation equity, finance, policy, and behavior. Key areas include post-pandemic travel trends, transit ridership decline, transportation pricing, and the socio-political dimensions of urban mobility. Recent work explores falling public transit use, pandemic-induced activity changes, and equity impacts of new mobility systems.

Publications highlight studies such as The Drive for Dollars (Oxford Press, 2023), analyzing freeway financing and urban transformation, and influential papers on congestion economics and transit fiscal challenges.

Over 50 students advised, many now leading academics and practitioners. Awards include the YPT Excellence in Innovation Award (2021) and recognition as a Top 10 Transportation Thought Leader (2016).

Teaching includes courses on transportation economics, land-use integration, and shared mobility policy. Administrative leadership roles span institutes and transportation centers across California.