Research
I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Economics department at the University of California, Irvine with a deep interest in urban and transportation policy. My dissertation will be titled “Essays in Transport Policy and Travel Behavior”, in which I take a deep dive into issues regarding congestion pricing, transit ridership and its relationship with COVID-19 transmission, and participation in youth fareless transit programs.
With the supervision of my advisor, David Brownstone, we have successfully obtained over $300,000 in grant funding from the University of California’s Statewide Transportation Research Program to fund research in issues of mobility, accessibility, and transportation equity within the state of California.
My work has been featured at the International Conference on Travel Behavior Research in Vienna, Austria.
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Google Scholar profile:
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“Time or Cost? An experimental analysis of travel behavior in LA Metro's GoPass program”
Abstract: This study examines the impacts of LA Metro's GoPass program, which provides free transit to community college students. Using a discrete choice experiment (DCE), students chose between transit and alternative modes across trip scenarios of varying lengths. Analyses from discrete choice models revealed that GoPass participation improved the probability of bus use in the experiment, but not train use, while having a driver's license decreased the probability of choosing transit. Values of travel time savings (VTTS) ranged from $27 and $54 per hour, while respondents valued WiFi availability between $6 and $7 per trip. Policy simulations demonstrated that modest reductions in travel time on transit yielded considerably larger impacts on mode choice and consumer surplus than zero-fare transit. Nonetheless, a GoPass-style policy intervention was found to be a cost-effective intervention while delivering modest welfare gains of 19 to 60 cents per person per trip. Congestion charges, while they promoted mode shifts away from cars, were found to be welfare-reducing. These findings underscore the role that transit reliability and reductions in travel times play in improving mobility among community college students.
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“Studying youth travel behavior: Evidence from Los Angeles-area high school students“
Abstract: Youth travel behavior is a commonly understudied topic in the field of travel behavior research. The reason for this relative dearth of youth travel behavior is primarily logistical, since applying standard travel behavior methodology to collect data from youth poses unique challenges. However, transit agencies are beginning to provide incentives to lure young riders to help boost lagging ridership levels following the COVID-19 pandemic. Our paper leverages novel data collected from a stated preference experiment conducted at three high schools near the Los Angeles area, all of whom are eligible to receive free transit services under LA Metro's GoPass program. Using conditional logit framework, we find that our sample has a value of travel time savings (VTTS) of $71/hour, which is not very different to findings from prior studies that VTTS among adults. We also find students value car trips between $24 and $48 more than bus trips, suggesting that students have a strong preference for cars, likely valuing their comfort, convenience, and reliability compared to other modes.
"Does congestion pricing impact the `transit premium?' Evidence from Singapore"
Abstract: Much of the existing urban and transportation economics literature discusses the sale impacts of proximity to transit and those of congestion pricing as seemingly unrelated phenomena. Using Singapore’s cordon toll model, this paper tests whether a congestion rate hike that went into effect November 1, 2010 can model how an exogenous shock would affect the ``premium” paid for a property closer to transit outside the affected cordon areas. Using a differences-in-differences approach with data on residential real estate transactions in 2010 and 2011, there is evidence of a modest increase in the transit premium outside the cordon following the November 1, 2010 toll increase.
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"Evaluating the travel behavior impacts of LA Metro’s K-14 fareless initiative" (coauthored with D. Brownstone)
"The Impacts of Bus Use on COVID-19 Dispersion" (coauthored with D. Brownstone)
Published in: Loukaitou-Sideris, A., Bayen, A. M., Circella, G., and Jayakrishnan, R. (eds.) Pandemic in the Metropolis: Transportation Impacts and Recovery. 20, 233--249. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature.
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“Who participates in free student transit programs? Evidence from high school students in the Los Angeles area“
Abstract: Youth travel is commonly understudied, with free transit pilots for youth typically being limited in scope. I use a novel set of data collected from a survey of high school students in the Centinela Valley Union High School District (CVUHSD) in the Los Angeles-area to characterize the student-level demographics and transportation options for different trips that influence their decisions to participate in LA Metro's GoPass program, which started as a pilot program to eliminate fares for high school and community college students in 2021. Using logit and ordered logit models to model GoPass decisions, I find that availability of cars to school and availability of transit for trips from school have significant positive and negative impacts on students' participation in GoPass, respectively.