Tom Turrentine
(831) 685-3635 or (530) 752-6500
Director, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center and
Research Anthropologist
Institute of Transportation Studies
University of California, Davis
Ph.D. Anthropology
Dr. Turrentine studies the role of travel and movement in the evolution of culture, society and lifestyle. He focuses on understanding automobile-based lifestyles, applying anthropological methods and theories to explore potential responses of car users to new technologies and policies aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of automobile infrastructure and use. He has studied consumer responses to electric vehicles, alternative fueled vehicles, micro-vehicles, station car systems, advanced traveler information, and other intelligent transportation systems. Dr. Turrentine also studies travel behavior and road systems in environmentally sensitive areas, focusing on Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada region in California.
Research
Dr. Turrentine uses methods and theory from anthropology to guide research on potential consumer response to alternative fuels, vehicle technologies, road systems, and policies with environmental benefits. Dr. Ken Kurani, (a Civil Engineer at ITS) and he have studied potential markets for electric, natural gas, hybrid, fuel cell, neighborhood electric vehicles, traveler information systems, station cars, and automated cars. They have implemented multi-phase, multi-year projects that stand as authoritative explorations of the future of automotive technology.
These projects have included the following innovations and contributions:
- Adaptation of social theory to transport research pathways, notably the critical theory of Anthony Giddens, to understanding the automobile and "green auto technologies" in the cultural context of late-modernity.
- Development of "interactive" interview gaming approaches with small samples of households (25-100) that look closely at their lifestyles, values and goals to explore household automotive consumption choices for new technologies and policies.
- Subsequent mid-sized surveys (several hundred) using "reflexive" methodologies that elicit deeper consideration of alternatives by participants to increase the validity of transport surveys exploring future behavior.
- Technology demonstrations that place new vehicle and other transport technologies in households and businesses for greater realism and lifestyle feedback.
Current Project
Dr. Turrentine is Director of a new Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle research center at UC Davis funded by the California Energy Commission that began this February. The Center is funded for $3 million for 3 years.
Electric Transportation Track Director for the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program at the Institute for Transportation Studies. This is a consortium funded study, with over 20 major oil, energy and manufacturing companies involved. This is a 4 year program
Recent research includes:
- Consumers and vehicle instrumentation. With funding from UTS, Dr. Kurani and myself have begun research on consumer response to advance instrumentation ($60,000). We are reviewing all previous literature, studies of Eco-driving in Europe, and survey current instrumentation types and uses in conventional and hybrid vehicles.
- Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) consumer studies. This is a recent development and Dr. Kurani has secured initial funding from UCEI ($36,000), the PHEV center ($325,000), and the California Air Resources Board ($1.5 million). This project when fully funded will place PHEVs in up to 100 households in California.
- Co-PI (Dr. Kurani) on a long-term study of consumer responses to fuel economy and efficiency technologies supported by the Department of Energy and the Energy Foundation. Dr. Kurani and I co-authored a report to the California Air Resource Board on Consumers and Fuel economy. In 2003-4 we interviewed 57 California households in great detail about their knowledge and accounting of fuel costs and use and vehicle choices related to fuel economy.
- The role of symbolic behavior and identity formation in HEV purchase behavior. Ph.D. candidate, Reid Heffner in this approach. Mr. Heffner completed his PhD in Fall 2007.
- Vehicle markets and the process of automobilization in China. Ph.D. candidate Jason Ni has completed initial surveys in Shanghai (Fall 2005- Summer 2006) on lifestyle, values and the growth of the automobile market and lifestyle in China.
- PhD, Brett William completed dissertation (March 2007) on market pathway for fuel cell and PHEVs through vehicle to grid applications.
- Toyota Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle Demonstration Program. Toyota chose UC Davis as the sole location of a public demonstration program for their fuel cell vehicles.
| Publication Title | Year |
|---|---|
| Driving Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Reports from U.S. Drivers of HEVs converted to PHEVs, circa 2006-07 | 2008 |
| Fuel Economy: What Drives Consumer Choice? | 2008 |
| Symbolism in California’s Early Market for Hybrid Electric Vehicles | 2008 |
| Symbolism and the Adoption of Fuel-Cell Vehicles | 2007 |
| Car buyers and fuel economy? | 2007 |
| Symbolism In Early Markets For Hybrid Electric Vehicles | 2007 |
| Quantifying the benefits of hybrid vehicles | 2006 |
| A Primer on Automobile Semiotics | 2006 |
| Effects of Vehicle Image in Gasoline-Hybrid Electric Vehicles | 2005 |
| Hydrogen and Fuel Cells - Refining the Message Initiating a National Dialogue and Educational Agenda | 2005 |
| The Price of Regulation | 2004 |
| Automobile Buyer Decisions about Fuel Economy and Fuel Efficiency | 2004 |
| Analysis of Auto Industry and Consumer Response to Regulations and Technological Change, and Customization of Consumer Response Models in Support of AB 1493 Rulemaking | 2004 |
| Analysis of Consumer Response to Automobile Regulation and Technological Change in Support of California Climate Change Rulemaking | 2004 |
| Prospecting the Future For Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Markets | 2003 |
| Marketing Clean and Efficient Vehicles: A Review of Social Marketing and Social Science Approaches | 2002 |
| How We Can Have Safe, Convenient, Clean, Affordable, Pleasant Transportation Without Making People Drive Less or Give Up Suburban Living | 2002 |
| Transportation in Developing Countries: Greenhouse Gas Scenarios for Chile | 2002 |
| Marketing Clean and Efficient Vehicles: Workshop Proceedings | 2001 |
| Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Transport Sector 2000-2020: Case Study for Chile | 2000 |
| Progress in Electric Vehicle Technology and Electric Vehicles from 1990 to 2000: The Role of California's Zero Emission Vehicle Production Requirement | 2000 |
| Employee Travel in Yosemite National Park | 2000 |
| A Study of Visitor Bicycle Use in Yosemite Valley | 2000 |
| Yosemite Area Traveler Information System Changeable Message Sign and Highway Advisory Radio July 1998 Field Test Report | 1999 |
| Evaluation of the TransCal Field Operational Test: An Advanced Traveler Information System in California and Nevada | 1998 |
| ISTEA Renewal: Environment and Equity | 1997 |
| Yosemite Area Traveler Information (YATI) System User, Institutional and System Performance Evaluations for the July 1996 to June 1997 Field Operational Test | 1997 |
| Redefining the Market: Six Emerging Markets for Small Electric Vehicles | 1996 |
| Demand for Electric Vehicles by Hybrid Households | 1996 |
| The Marketability of Electric Vehicles: Battery Performance and Consumer Demand for Driving Range | 1996 |
| The Household Market for Electric Vehicles: Testing the Hybrid Household Hypothesis – A Reflexively Designed Survey of New-car-buying, Multi-vehicle California Households | 1995 |
| Household Markets For Neighborhood Electric Vehicles In California | 1995 |
| Who Will Buy Electric Cars? | 1995 |
| Lifestyles and Life Politics: Towards a Green Car Market | 1994 |
| Segmentation and Size of the Market for Battery Powered and Hybrid Electric Vehicles in California: A Diary Based Survey of New Car Buyers in California | 1994 |
| Electric Vehicle Owners: Tests of Assumptions and Lessons on Future Behavior from 100 Electric Vehicle Owners in California | 1994 |
| Household Decision Behavior and Demand for Limited Range Vehicles: Results of PIREG, a Diary Based, Interview Game for Evaluation of the Electric Vehicle Market | 1992 |
| How Far Can the Electric Vehicle Market Go on 100 Miles (162 Km)? | 1992 |
| Market Potential of Electric and Natural Gas Vehicles | 1992 |
| A Study of Adaptive and Optimizing Behavior for Electric Vehicles Based on Interactive Simulation Games and Revealed Behavior of Electric Vehicle Owners | 1992 |
| The Market for Electric Vehicles | 1991 |
| The Development of the Alternative Fueled Vehicles Market: Its Impact on Consumer Decision Processes | 1991 |
| A Decision Process Model for Analyzing Consumer Purchases of Alternative-Fueled Vehicles: The Case of CNG Vehicle Conversions in British Columbia | 1989 |