Libby H. Koolik

Our key recommendation is still important and possible: we need to prioritize reducing emissions in the most overburdened areas at a rate that outpaces the emissions reductions from the overall on-road fleet turnover. I'm excited to keep looking ahead and thinking creatively about how to do this 👩‍💻

12.09.2025 01:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

One thing that keeps me optimistic: many of these land use and transportation decisions are made locally. We don't necessarily need to rely on the federal government to design transit-oriented and/or sustainable cities that keep traffic away from people 🌃.

12.09.2025 01:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

We also discussed the importance of paradigm shifts in how we think about mitigating transportation emissions. Land use or transportation policies that can change the spatial patterns of vehicles may be a really important next step for reducing disparities in exposure (more on this soon! 👀).

12.09.2025 01:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

News article screenshot from the New York Times: House Votes to Repeal California’s Clean Truck Policies Lawmakers voted to stop the state from requiring that an increasing share of new trucks sold there have zero emissions.

In our discussion of our article, we praised some of California's great rules and regulations that drove (ha!) this reduction in pollution from cars and trucks. In the last year, these policies (such as Advanced Clean Trucks) have been under attack by the federal government 😞.

12.09.2025 01:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Two panels demonstrating changes in exposure (left) and relative disparity in exposure (right) across time for demographic groups in California. In the left hand panel, we show that population-weighted average exposures for all demographic groups (including Asian, Black, Hispanic, white, and other, plus two regulatory categories for communities) have decreased across time. In the right hand panel, we show that the relative inequality is essentially constant across time for all groups.

Our major finding: air pollution from California's on-road fleet (🚗 🚚) reduced dramatically, but the relative inequality in exposure for people of color and residents of overburdened communities remained nearly constant. While we want everyone to breathe better air, we also want to close the gap!

12.09.2025 01:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

PM2.5 exposure disparities persist despite strict vehicle emissions controls in California Decades of California’s strict exhaust emissions controls reduced PM2.5 exposure but not relative racial-ethnic disparity.

It's been one year since we published the first paper of my dissertation! Our findings feel a little different now than they did this time last year. Since this paper predated my time on BlueSky, I thought I'd share it here with a few 1-year reflections 🦋 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

12.09.2025 01:05 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Libby H. Koolik and Chirag Manchanda presenting an academic poster at the Health Effects Institute conference.

Had a great time at #HEIAC25 in Austin this past weekend! It was wonderful to see familiar faces, meet new folks, and share some of the preliminary work that @chirag-m95.bsky.social and I have been doing. Looking forward to the next one in Chicago ☺️

07.05.2025 16:31 — 👍 5    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Electric trains are quieter, more reliable than diesel. New study finds they’re healthier, too. - Berkeley News A new study found that electrifying the San Francisco Bay Area’s Caltrain commuter rail line reduced riders’ exposure to carcinogenic black carbon by an average of 89%.

news.berkeley.edu/2025/04/16/e...

16.04.2025 16:15 — 👍 24    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

The Berkeley Engineer magazine cover featuring Professor Joshua Apte and postdoctoral researcher Samuel Cliff on a Caltrain platform. (Photo by Adam Lau / Berkeley Engineering)

The Winter ’24 issue of Berkeley Engineer magazine is here!

Read the issue: bit.ly/3CDcv0z

20.11.2024 17:53 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0