Research

Current Projects

Health and Transportation: About 6 million people in America miss healthcare due to transportation problems. My research looks at how technological advances, policy changes, and even COVID-19 are reshaping options for accessing non-emergent medical services. We’ve documented the scale of these issues, identified emerging models around ridehailing and microtransit, and assessed transport barriers to vaccination. We’re currently working to evaluate how COVID-19 changed transport barriers and solutions for patients and medical providers and looking at how on-demand transport services could improve rural healthcare access. To learn more, please access the articles or view this webinar on Innovation in Healthcare Access.

Urban Freight: Technology and changing consumer behavior are leading to increased freight travel in urban areas. I’m interested in the impacts on safety for all road users as well as questions about how planners can respond to these changes. Co-authors and I have documented trends in freight-related injuries and fatalities on US roads and assessed how cities and towns plan for freight traffic. We’re currently looking at the details of freight-related crashes in North Carolina and driver perspectives on urban freight issues. To learn more, take a look at a webinar we did on Planning for Urban Freight Delivery.

Previous Projects

Harnessing Data for Decision Making: Colleagues and I developed Carolina Tracker, a data dashboard that harnesses a wide set of indicators to monitor the social and economic impacts of COVID-19. We’re using the available data to research how travel to healthcare has changed since the onset of the pandemic and how those changes varied across North Carolina. You can learn more through this News and Observer editorial.