Kari Watkins

Associate Professor, Civil Engineering Georgia Tech College of Engineering

  • Atlanta GA

Kari Watkins' research interests revolve around multi-modal transportation planning and the use of technology in transportation.

Contact

Georgia Tech College of Engineering

View more experts managed by Georgia Tech College of Engineering

Social

Biography

Dr. Kari Edison Watkins, P.E., is the Frederick Law Olmsted Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She returned to her undergraduate alma mater to become a faculty member in 2011 after completing her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington. Her teaching and research interests revolve around multi-modal transportation planning and the use of technology in transportation, especially as related to transit planning and operations and improved traveler information. At the University of Washington, Dr. Watkins’ research focused on transit travel time reliability and the effects of transit traveler information. She co-created the OneBusAway program (http://onebusaway.org/) to provide real-time next bus countdown information and other transit information tools for transit riders in greater Seattle-Tacoma. OneBusAway has won numerous awards and Dr. Watkins dissertation was awarded the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Wootan Award for best dissertation in transportation policy and planning. As a long time cyclist, Dr. Watkins has recently begun to explore cyclist infrastructure preferences through survey research and crowdsourced cycling data through the Cycle Atlanta (http://cycleatlanta.org) program. Dr. Watkins was recently recognized by Mass Transit Magazine as a Top 40 under 40 and she is a three-time invitee to a National Academy of Engineers Frontiers of Engineering. Prior to her doctoral studies, Dr. Watkins worked for a decade as a senior transportation engineer at Wilbur Smith Associates in New Haven, Connecticut. In line with her years in industry, Dr. Watkins’ teaching focus is on including multimodal transportation concepts throughout the curriculum and sending top-notch engineers into the workforce through practical experience in the Senior Capstone course.

Areas of Expertise

Complete Streets Design
Traveler Information
Transportation Planning
Smart Cities
Sustainable Communities
Transit Planning and Operations
Mode Choice Decision Making

Selected Accomplishments

Council of University Transportation Centers New Faculty Award

2017

Invited to organize the Japan-American Frontiers of Engineering by the National Academy of Engineers

2016

CETL / BP Junior Faculty Teaching Award, Georgia Institute of Technology

2014

Show All +

Education

University of Washington

Ph.D.

Civil Engineering

2011

University of Connecticut

M.S.

Civil Engineering

2003

Georgia Institute of Technology

B.S.

Civil Engineering

1997

Affiliations

  • OneBusAway
  • Cycle Atlanta

Selected Media Appearances

The Streets Were Never Free. Congestion Pricing Finally Makes That Plain.

The New York Times  online

2019-04-04

“It’s a huge departure from how we’ve culturally thought about this over the years,” said Kari Watkins, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

View More

Uber Wants to Be Your One-Stop Transit Stop

CityLab  online

2019-01-31

Kari Watkins, a transportation scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who studies how riders make decisions about their choice of modes, applauded the transit-oriented changes to Uber’s app. “I think the way that Uber is trying to see themselves as a mobility company is going to do a lot for improving travel behaviors and all of the negative ramifications of our transportation decisions,” she said, pointing to rising congestion and emissions in cities nationwide. “A lot of folks come to Uber because they’re used to being in an automobile. With this version of the app, they might think to take transit instead. And that’s great.”

View More

Will Driverless Cars Make Our Traffic Problems Worse?

Newsweek  online

2018-12-10

he United States is a nation of car owners. Ninety-five percent of households own a car, and 85 percent of people get to work in one. This lifestyle contributes to congestion on our roads and takes a big toll on the environment. As autonomous vehicles begin to hit the streets over the next decade or so, conventional wisdom says that all this will change. Driverless cars will zip along efficiently without delays due to accidents, gridlock and rubbernecking.

View More

Selected Articles

User Preferences for Bicycle Infrastructure in Communities with Emerging Cycling Cultures

Transportation Research Record:

Calvin Clark, Patricia Mokhtarian, Giovanni Circella, Kari Watkins

2019

Non-motorized travel modes, particularly cycling, are experiencing a resurgence in many United States (U.S.) states as well as in other countries. Still, most studies focus on bicyclists’ behaviors in areas with strong bicycling cultures. This paper discusses the findings of a survey (N = 1,178) deployed in six communities in Alabama and Tennessee, U.S., where cycling is not (yet) popular nor widely adopted. The analysis includes linear regression models built on respondents’ reactions to images of bicycling infrastructure and their perceptions of being comfortable, safe, and willing to try cycling on the displayed roadway type. Findings indicate a preference for more separated bicycle infrastructure types along with options that exclude on-street parking. Segmented models indicate that, compared with potential cyclists, the preferences of regular utilitarian cyclists can vary more than those of recreational/occasional cyclists. Results from this study provide useful insights into ways to maximize the return on investments, and design bike infrastructure that can attract patronage and be most successful in areas lacking a substantial bicycling population.

View more

Comparing Transit Agency Peer Groups using Cluster Analysis

Transportation Research Record

David Ederer, Simon Berrebi, Chandler Diffee, Taylor Gibbs, Kari E Watkins

2019

Transit ridership has decreased steadily each year from 2014 to 2017 despite increasing urban populations and transit investment. Several analyses have examined trends in national transit ridership levels or within specific agencies or regions. However, the causes of transit ridership changes, and the changes themselves, are not likely to be the same everywhere. Thus, comparing the performance of transit agencies over time with their peers, which share similar characteristics, may yield more informative results than just examining national trends. This analysis groups metropolitan areas using relevant characteristics, which are correlated with transit ridership: total population, density, percentage of zero vehicle households, and transit agency operating expenditures. Data from the National Transit Database and the United States Census Bureau are used. Trends in transit ridership are then analyzed in relation to population and service levels within each cluster and by family of modes. Results suggest that although the change in population and service levels can partly explain the change in ridership for transit modes in dedicated right of way, the same is not true for modes in mixed right of way. In particular, transit ridership for mixed right of way modes in large metropolitan areas is not significantly correlated with the change in population or service levels.

View more

A Literature Review of the Passenger Benefits of Real-time Transit Information

Transport Reviews

Candace Brakewood, Kari Watkins

2018-05-04

2018

Recently, it has become common practice for transit operators to provide real-time information (RTI) to passengers about the location or predicted arrival times of transit vehicles. Accompanying this is a growing body of literature that aims to assess the impacts of RTI on transit passenger behaviour and perceptions. The main objective of this research is to compile a literature review of studies that assess the passenger benefits of RTI provision. The results suggest that the primary behavioural changes associated with providing RTI to passengers pertain to decreased wait times, reductions in overall travel time due to changes in path choice, and increased use of transit. RTI may also be associated with increased satisfaction with transit service and increases in the perception of personal security when riding transit. A second objective of this review was to identify areas for future research based on remaining gaps in the literature; two keys areas that were identified are assessing actual behavioural changes of path choice of transit riders and conducting cost–benefit analyses post implementation of RTI systems. The results of this study have immediate implications for public transit operators considering implementation or expansion of RTI systems and researchers seeking topics for future investigation.

View more

Show All +