Current Areas of Focus
I study the impact of transportation and other city-level policies on climate change and the local environment. My work is rooted in environmental economics and urban planning, and I use tools from econometrics and statistics, computational geospatial analysis, qualitative methods, and formal game theory.
A global view of urban sprawl and travel
Urban form has enormous environmental and energy supply implications. My current research asks how sprawl varies around the world, and how that affects travel, energy demand and climate change. What are the implications for carbon emissions if Beijing, Bangalore and Baghdad sprawl like Tulsa or densify like Tokyo? This research builds on my recent work with Chris Barrington-Leigh analyzing a century of sprawl in the United States, and the implications of "peak sprawl" for carbon emissions.
Cities and climate change policy
I am interested in explaining the variations between cities in environmental policy. Why do some cities do more than others to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? To what extent do city climate plans and other plans have causal impacts and change outcomes, rather than simply codifying the policies a city would have followed anyway? What is the link between city climate policies and carbon trading programs? My recent work includes a review of California's climate policy efforts, and an analysis of how cap-and-trade affects city climate planning goals.
Transportation planning
My work on transportation policy bridges academic research with my previous professional experience as a transportation planner. What are the impacts of parking management, car-sharing and other demand management policies, and how can they contribute to climate change mitigation? My recent work has analyzed the potential impacts of autonomous vehicles on walking, and the effectiveness of driving restrictions in Mexico City and parking pricing programs in San Francisco.
Media Coverage
- Reducing Street Sprawl Could Help Combat Climate Change, Scientific American, February 12, 2020.
- Across the Globe, Urban Sprawl Is Spreading, CityLab, February 5, 2020. See also coverage by The Mercury News
- Self-driving cars could more than double traffic in San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2019. See also coverage by NPR Morning Edition, Bloomberg, The Times, and Le Monde
- How driverless cars could empower pedestrians, CityLab, November 1, 2016. See also coverage by NPR Morning Edition, the Globe and Mail, and The Register
- US sprawl peaked in 1994 and has been declining ever since, CityLab, June 15, 2015. See also coverage in the New York Times
- A widely used planning manual tends to recommend building far more roads than necessary, CityLab, December 16, 2014. See also coverage on Streetsblog
- Video interview with Access magazine:
- 3 enormous benefits to charging the right price for parking, The Atlantic Cities, April 2, 2014. See also coverage on Streetsblog and Next City
- Stanford, UCSC study predicts oil demand to peak around 2035, Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 18, 2013. See also coverage on the New York Times blog, Dot Earth
- Mixing methods for clearer results, Planning, February 2013
- The climate plans that arenʹt helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions, The Atlantic Cities, March 2012
- Reduced vehicle travel challenge for city planners (in Swedish), Sveriges Radio, February 2012
- Life After Peak Travel, The Atlantic [blog], January 2011
- Peak Travel? Freakonomics [blog], January 2011
- A Road Less Traveled, Miller McCune, January 2011