Understanding recent transit ridership decline in the US

Fall Speaker Series: Kari Watkins
Location: 209 Manning Building, 216 Lenoir Drive

Abstract: In 2018, following six consecutive years of decline, bus ridership in the United States reached its lowest point since before 1965. For transit agencies across the country, this ridership crisis coincides with large scale urban migration, sweeping service changes, and the advent of private transportation services. Understanding the effect of these trends on ridership is necessary to plan for mobility in a dynamic, connected, and autonomous world. However, we are only just beginning to understand the effects of these emerging trends on transit ridership. Dr. Watkins will talk about her group’s current research to understand ridership change at multiple levels and some preliminary results from these ongoing studies and the literature.

Bio: Dr. Kari Watkins is the Frederick Law Olmsted Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech. She returned to her undergraduate alma mater Georgia Tech to become a faculty member in 2011 after completing her PhD at the University of Washington. Her teaching and research interests include multi-modal transportation planning, the use of technology in transportation, traveler information, and complete streets design to create a more livable transportation system. Dr. Watkins’ is the recipient of the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) 2017 New Faculty Award and was recently named for a second time to Engineering Georgia’s 100 Influential Women to Know. Prior to her doctoral studies, Dr. Watkins worked for a decade as a senior transportation engineer leading regional transportation, transit, and biking studies.