A Conversation with natalie popovich

Natalie Popovich, a project scientist in the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts (EAEI) Division in ETA, has an unusual background. Her training and experience combine race and ethnic studies with transportation policy and environmental economics. At Berkeley Lab, her research focuses on sustainable transportation networks and travel behavior. A Bay Area native, she went to undergraduate school in Washington State and also spent time in France and Argentina. She was thrilled to return to California for graduate school and began working at the Lab two years ago. She shares her thoughts and plans for the future.

Q. What is your area of work?

I work mainly to develop sustainable transportation and resilient transportation infrastructure, on both the planning and the technology aspects. I think our society can do a lot more with non-car modes of transport, and instead focus on micro mobility modes such as biking or walking or even electric golf carts. I’m developing a tool to help planners identify the most vulnerable locations in our California transportation network, taking into account climate stressors, equitable access, and critical services. I’ve also recently started working on zero-emissions freight and linking it with the power grid.

Q. What big challenge(s) are you hoping to solve with your work in the next 20 years?

My main goal is to reduce our society’s dependence on cars. Our transportation networks should be built for people, not cars. Driving should always be a choice, not the only option, especially for lower income people, who spend up to 30% of their paychecks on transportation, and children. By 2040, no one should be required to own a vehicle to participate in their community and access necessary services. No one’s life should be threatened by simply walking or biking down the street.

Another goal is to make progress toward achieving zero emissions from our domestic shipping system. Today, emissions from freight rail and inland shipping disproportionately harm communities of color and disrupt entire ecosystems.

Q. What steps are you taking today to accomplish this vision?

I’m working on a project for the Federal Highway Administration, developing a conceptual framework to consider tradeoffs of investments in different modes of transportation. For example, if we took highways and gave that space to buses or bikes, how do we measure the impact? My team is building a model to take those benefits into account. The federal government has not had these tools before.

We are also working on how to synthesize transportation data with machine learning to facilitate transportation system decision making at state or local levels. This information can help transportation agencies allocate funding in sustainable but also equitable ways. As we move toward zero emissions transportation schemes, from electric trains to autonomous vehicles, what are the implications for disadvantaged communities? As we develop energy policies, we need to take into account the impacts of technologies and policies on different populations.

I’m also working on electric freight options powered by batteries (also known as battery-electric freight), particularly trains and ships. Coupling our freight system with the grid could provide benefits that both reduce carbon emissions and particulate matter and bolster resilience of the power grid.

And I’m just getting started working with Shalanda Baker, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first Deputy Director for Energy Justice, on incorporating transportation justice into energy justice. I will be supporting the Justice40 initiative, to help create a plan to deliver 40% of the overall benefits of climate investments to disadvantaged communities and to inform equitable research, development, and deployment within the DOE.

Q. Who do you partner with at the Lab to bring this vision to life?

I work with an awesome transportation team—Anna Spurlock, Ling Jin, and Zach Needell, as well as Mahyar Amirgholy at Kennesaw State University—on the Federal Highway Administration project. The team is motivated to address inequities in the transportation sector and have the modeling chops to create the tools to do so.

I’ve also been working with Amol Phadke and Umed Paliwal in ETA’s International Energy Analysis Department on battery electric freight options, and with Noel Bakhtian on getting the word out about our research. I also work with different industry and DOE groups, many of whom support my research.

Q. Who from the past, present, or future would you like to collaborate with? And on what?

The reason I got interested in my field was a Jane Jacobs book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” She had such insightful comments about urban planning and how we build our spaces, and described her street as an intricate ballet. I would love to pick her brain on how to leverage some of the emerging technologies like electric scooters and shared ride-hailing to transform our streets into ballets rather than death traps. I’d ask her how national labs can play a role and how we can evaluate technologies to determine which innovations are good for society and which are not. She would have had some great insights to these questions.