Research Interests
My research is at the intersection of transportation, society and
technology. Mobility in cities of the future will require joint
consideration of social and technological challenges. I am interested
in public transportation and bicycle and pedestrian transportation, as
well as in intermodal transportation and collaborative/shared
transportation systems. My research approaches are quantitative and are
stimulated by sustainability and social justice perspectives.
Transportation and Society: Research into questions regarding the social aspects of transportation, particularly those relating to equity and human capital, and ways in which these links vary over space and time. Research methods supporting this line of work include evaluation designs, indicators, decision support systems, survey research methods and modeling, to measure labor-market, health, safety and other outcomes experienced by travelers.
Recent examples in this area of research include:
- Role of consumer credit on transportation-related choices, including car purchases;
- Modeling generational trends in car ownership over a forty-year period;
- Spatial decision support systems for transit and urban planning;
- Safety risks to minority and low-income populations and modeling crash risk;
- Accessibility indicators and mobility services for workers;
- Mobility needs of persons with disabilities and seniors;
- Labor market externalities of transportation programs;
- Impact of truck transportation on employment and economic productivity.
Transportation and Technology: Research into the potential of technology to foster environmental, human, and economic sustainability. I am interested in methods to mine vast amounts of real-time sensor information (from smartphones, cars, non-motorized transportation sources such as bicyclists and pedestrians, fixed infrastructure) using spatio-temporal data mining methods, methods for mining unstructured sources (such as text, web content, microblogs), and, generally, geographic information and participatory sensing for citizen engagement and volunteered information and other approaches to designing location-aware technologies. I am also interested in the questions of understanding and predicting future technology impacts and the long-term consequences of living in a ubiquitous information environment. Recent interests include business and governance models for cooperative transportation systems and data ownership and sharing.
Recent examples in this area of research include:
- Data mining for speed prediction under inclement weather;
- Analysis of problems posed by incomplete data and multi-sensor data fusion;
- Policy analysis and consumer preferences regarding locational privacy;
- User psychology, habits and preferences regarding technology use and domestication;
- Characterizing and spatial analysis of mobile Digital Divide;
- Human-Computer Interaction principles for technology design;
- User-Generated Content: Mining, analysis and online/mobile community formation;
- Digital Citizenship, civil liberties, rights and responsibilities;
- Market identification for location-aware technologies.
Perceived and Functional Independence in Travel: Assessing the Role of
Neighborhood Factors and Community-Based Mobility Services for Persons
with Disabilities. To be presented in 2012 Transportation Research
Board Annual Conference (with W. Vassilakis).
An Assessment of Temporal and Spatial Effects of Bus Arrival Time
Information and Implications for Spatially Targeted Locaton-Based
Services. To be presented in 2012 Transportation Research Board Annual
Conference (with L. Tang and W. Vassilakis).
Geospatial Interoperability and Real-Time Transportation
Systems. NSF CyberGIS Workshop on Geospatial Interoperability,
Semantics, and Representation. Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN on
Sept. 29, 2011.
Spatio-Temporal Effects of Real-Time Bus Arrival Time Information.
Presentation in ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS 2011.
Analysis of Cost-Effectiveness of Employment Transportation
Services. Presented in 889h Transportation Research Board Annual
Conference, Jan. 2011.
Will the Psychological Effects of Real-time Transit Information
Systems Lead to Ridership Gain? Presented in 889h Transportation
Research Board Annual Conference, Jan. 2011. (With L. Tang)
Integrated and Continuing Transportation Services for Seniors:
Case Studies of New Freedom Program. Presented in 889h
Transportation Research Board Annual Conference, Jan. 2011. (With S.
Soot. C. Cottrill, N. Tilahun, E. Blaise and W. Vassilakis).
Protecting Locational Privacy. Policy Evaluation.
Presented in 889h Transportation Research Board Annual Conference, Jan.
2011. (With C. Cottrill).
Incorporating Weather Information into Real-Time Speed
Estimates: Comparison of Alternative Models. Presented in 889h
Transportation Research Board Annual Conference, Jan. 2011. (With N.
Tilahun).
Using Real-Time Weather Information in Traveler Information
Systems and Location-Based Services. Presented in 18th
International Conference on Advanced in GIS, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, San
Jose, CA, November 2010. (With N. Tilahun)
Sketch Planning Methodology for Determining Interventions in
Bicycle and Pedestrian Crashes: An Ecological Approach. Presented
in 879h Transportation Research Board Annual Conference, Jan. 2010.
(With Cottrill, C., N. Thomas and S. Vaughn)
Car-Ownership Among Young Adults: Generational and
Period-Specific Perspectives. Presented in 879h Transportation
Research Board Annual Conference, Jan. 2010. (With L. Tang and S.
Menchu)
Mobility for Persons with Disabilities: Examining the Case of
New Freedom Service Users. Presented in ACSP Annual Conference,
Minneapolis, October, 2010. (With N. Tilahun, S. Soot, W. Vassilakis).
Evaluating Pedestrian Risk in Areas with High Low-Income or
Minority Populations. Presented in ACSP Annual Conference,
Minneapolis, October, 2010. (With Cottrill, C.)
Cooperative Data Sharing: Issues and Challenges.
Research and Innovative Technology Administration, US Department of
Transportation, Washington, DC. Workshop on the IntelliDriveSM Program
on April 28, 2010.
Humans, Society and the Economy in the Context of Computational
Transportation Science. Leibniz Center for Informatics, Dagstuhl,
Germany. Workshop on Computational Transportation Science on March 25,
2010.
Intelligent Transportation Systems Research Needs. Panel
on Technology and Innovations held by U.S. House of Representatives
Chair Jim Oberstar and Congressman Daniel Lipinski, Chicago.
Presentation on March 5, 2010.
Grants to date as sole Principal Investigator: approx. $4.5 million; additional grants as Co-P.I. or researcher: $11.7 million.
Co-Chair, Joint Subcommittee on Computational Transportation
and Society, Transportation Research Board (newly formed subcommittee
will start with the 2012 annual meetings of the TRB).
General Chair, 4th International Workshop on Computational
Transportation Science (IWCTS) in the ACM SIGSPATIAL 19th International
Conference on Advances in GIS, 2011. [Website here]
Member, Program Committee, University Consortium for
Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) - GIScience for Changing Human
Environment, 2011. [Website here]
Treasurer, Faculty Women's Interest Group, Association of
Collegiate Schools of Planning, 2010-Current. [Website here]
Associate Member, MODAP (Mobility, Data Mining and
Privacy) funded by EU, FET OPEN, 2009-2012. [Website here]
Member, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) World
Congress Program Committee, 2005-Current.
Member, Committee on Urban Transportation Data and
Information Systems, Transportation Research Board, National Academy of
Sciences.
University of Illinois at Chicago Faculty Senate. 2010-2012
Term.
Member, UIC Campus Research Review Board, 2008-Current.
Urban transportation planning, operations and policy analysis for highways, public transportation, non-motorized transportation, intermodal transportation;
Statistics, data mining, decision support systems, geospatial analysis and simulations, analysis of User-Generated Content;
User behavior, design and legal aspects of emerging transportation technologies;
Technology policy, urban informatics, digital citizenship, pervasive sensing environment;
Research design, survey and sampling, and program evaluation.
Transportation and Society: Research into questions regarding the social aspects of transportation, particularly those relating to equity and human capital, and ways in which these links vary over space and time. Research methods supporting this line of work include evaluation designs, indicators, decision support systems, survey research methods and modeling, to measure labor-market, health, safety and other outcomes experienced by travelers.
Recent examples in this area of research include:
- Role of consumer credit on transportation-related choices, including car purchases;
- Modeling generational trends in car ownership over a forty-year period;
- Spatial decision support systems for transit and urban planning;
- Safety risks to minority and low-income populations and modeling crash risk;
- Accessibility indicators and mobility services for workers;
- Mobility needs of persons with disabilities and seniors;
- Labor market externalities of transportation programs;
- Impact of truck transportation on employment and economic productivity.
Transportation and Technology: Research into the potential of technology to foster environmental, human, and economic sustainability. I am interested in methods to mine vast amounts of real-time sensor information (from smartphones, cars, non-motorized transportation sources such as bicyclists and pedestrians, fixed infrastructure) using spatio-temporal data mining methods, methods for mining unstructured sources (such as text, web content, microblogs), and, generally, geographic information and participatory sensing for citizen engagement and volunteered information and other approaches to designing location-aware technologies. I am also interested in the questions of understanding and predicting future technology impacts and the long-term consequences of living in a ubiquitous information environment. Recent interests include business and governance models for cooperative transportation systems and data ownership and sharing.
Recent examples in this area of research include:
- Data mining for speed prediction under inclement weather;
- Analysis of problems posed by incomplete data and multi-sensor data fusion;
- Policy analysis and consumer preferences regarding locational privacy;
- User psychology, habits and preferences regarding technology use and domestication;
- Characterizing and spatial analysis of mobile Digital Divide;
- Human-Computer Interaction principles for technology design;
- User-Generated Content: Mining, analysis and online/mobile community formation;
- Digital Citizenship, civil liberties, rights and responsibilities;
- Market identification for location-aware technologies.
Recent Papers, Presentations, Reports and Grants
Papers (since 2010)
- Thakuriah, P., P. Metaxatos, J. Lin and E. Jansen (forthcoming). Factors Affecting Propensity to Use Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities in Suburban Locations. In Transportation Research - Part D: Transport and the Environment.
- Tang, L. and P. Thakuriah (forthcoming). Ridership Effects of Real-Time Bus Arrival System. In Transportation Research - Part C: Emerging Technologies.
- Thakuriah, P., S. Soot. C. Cottrill, N. Tilahun, E. Blaise and W. Vassilakis. (forthcoming). Integrated and Continuing Transportation Services for Seniors: Case Studies of New Freedom Program. In Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
- Thakuriah, P. (2011). Variations in Employment Transportation Outcomes: Role of Site Level Factors. In Papers in Regional Science. Vol. 90, No. 4, pp. 755-772.
- Thakuriah, P. (2011). Analysis of Cost-Effectiveness of Employment Transportation Services. In Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2217, pp. 55-62.
- Tang, L. and P. Thakuriah (2011). Will the Psychological Effects of Real-time Transit Information Systems Lead to Ridership Gain? In Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board . No. 2216, pp. 67-74.
- Thakuriah, P., L. Tang and W. Vassilakis (2011). Spatio-Temporal Effects of Real-Time Bus Arrival Time Information. In Proc. of Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGSPATIAL GIS 2011 International Workshop on Computational Transportation Science , pp. 6-11.
- Cottrill, C. and P. Thakuriah (2011). Protecting Location Privacy. Policy Evaluation. In Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2215, pp. 67-74.
- Thakuriah, P., L. Tang and S. Menchu (2011). Young Women's Transportation and Labor Market Experiences. In Women's Issues in Transportation , Vol. 2, National Research Council, pp. 276-287.
- Cottrill, C. and P. Thakuriah (2011). Privacy and Gender: Reviewing women's attitudes towards privacy in the context of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Location Based Services (LBS). In Women's Issues in Transportation , Vol. 2, National Research Council, pp. 117-126.
- Thakuriah, P. and N. Tilahun (2010). Using Real-Time Weather Information in Traveler Information Systems and Location-Based Services: A Statistical Learning Application Under Alternative Experimental Conditions. In Proc. ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS 2010.
- Thakuriah, P., S. Menchu and L. Tang (2010). Car-Ownership Among Young Adults: Generational and Period-Specific Perspectives. In Transportation Research Record, Vol. 2156, pp. 1-8.
- Cottrill, C. and P. Thakuriah (2010). Evaluating Pedestrian Crashes in Areas with High Low-Income or Minority Populations. In Accident Analysis and Prevention , Vol. 42, Issue 6, pp. 1718-1728.
- Thakuriah, P. (2010). Evaluation of Alternative Data Imputation Strategies: A Case Study of Motor Carrier Safety Data. In Transportation Letters: The International Journal of Transportation Research , Vol. 2, Issue 3, pp. 199-216.
Presentations (since 2010)
Unreviewed reports and working papers (since 2010)
- Thakuriah, P., S. Soot, N. Tilahun, W. Vassilakis and C. Cottrill. (2011). Analysis of Employment Transportation Services for the JobLinks Program. Report submitted to U.S. Department of Labor and Community Transportation Association of America, Washington, D.C.
- Thakuriah, P., S. Soot, C. Cottrill, and E. Blaise (2011). Case Studies of the New Freedom Program. Final Report to Federal Transit Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C for FTA Grant Number IL-26-5001-00.
- Thakuriah, P., N. Tilahun, S. Soot, C. Cottrill and W. Vassilakis. (2011). Case Studies of Job Access and Reverse Commute Program: 2009-2010. Final Report to Federal Transit Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C for FTA Grant Numbers IL-26-5001-00 and IL-37-X007-00.
- Kawamura, K., P. Thakuriah, P.S. Sriraj, L. Dirks, L. Rashidi, D. Miodonski and S. Sherburn. (2011). Understanding Freight-Land Use Interrelationships. Final Report # 02-07 to CFIRE, University of Wisconsin at Madison.
- Thakuriah, P., J. Lin, T. Blaise, L. Gan and W. Vassilakis (2011). Post-Implementation Evaluation of the CMAQ Program in Northeastern Illinois. Phase 2. Final Report to Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, October.
Current or Recently Completed Grants
Grants to date as sole Principal Investigator: approx. $4.5 million; additional grants as Co-P.I. or researcher: $11.7 million.
- Next Generation Intermodal Passenger Transportation System. Principal Investigator. Funded by Illinois Department of Transportation. 2011-2013.
- Analysis of Bicycle Crashes in Chicago Metropolitan Area. Principal Investigator. Funded by Active Transportation Alliance. 2011-2012.
- Post-Implementation Evaluation of Emissions Benefits Of CMAQ Projects: Phase 2. Principal Investigator. Funded by Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. 2010-2011.
- Transportation Alternatives for Persons with Disabilities. Principal Investigator. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. 2010-2011.
- Analysis of Employment Transportation Services for the JobLinks Program. Principal Investigator. U.S. Department of Labor through the Community Transportation Association of America. 2009-2011.
- Land-Use and Economic Impacts of Freight Transportation. Co-PI. National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research - University of Wisconsin. 2008-2010.
- Integrative Graduate Program in Computational Transportation Science. Co-PI. National Science Foundation. 2005-2011.
- Evaluation of Transportation for Disadvantaged Populations. Principal Investigator. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration. 2009-2011.
- Locational Privacy: Legal and Policy Options. Principal Investigator. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. 2008-2011.
- Post-Implementation Evaluation of Emissions Benefits of CMAQ Program. Principal Investigator. Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
- Design of Special Events, Weather and Construction Delay Component of a Dynamic Traveler Information System. Principal Investigator. NAVTEQ, LLC. 2007-2008.
Selected Current Professional Service
- Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA Journal). [Website here]
- Member, Editorial Board, Journal of Transportation and Statistics [Website here]
Editorial Boards
Selected Other Service
Teaching Interests
Teaching Interests
Courses Currently or Recently Taught
For UPP courses, click here.
- UPP 589. Data Analysis and Management II. Specific topics covered include (i) linear and nonlinear regression (ii) qualitative and limited dependent variable models [models for binary, multinomial, ordinal and count data] (iii) categorical data analysis (iv) spatial analysis [including exploratory spatial techniques, spatial clustering, spatial autoregression and lag models] and (v) data quality assessment and methods to address non-response bias. Students are taught SAS, GeoDA and LIMDEP.
- UPP 561. Transportation Policy Analysis. Major policies concerning the transportation-related aspects of the environment, energy, land-use, economic development, community mobility/accessibility, freight transportation, advanced transportation systems, transportation safety and social justice. Basic concepts in transportation policy formulation, cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness and ROI methods, Multicriteria-Decision Making Methods, Spatial Decision Support Systems, soft systems and group decision-making techniques for transportation.
- UPP 584. Methods of Public Policy Analysis. Survey course on methods for formulating and evaluating public policies in transportation, economic development, environment, housing and community development. Experimental, quasi-experimental and non-experimental research designs. Survey methods and sampling designs. Stated preference, contingent valuation and choice experiments. Qualitative methods, cost and benefit assessment and group-decision making techniques.
- UPP 565: Advanced Methods of Transportation Planning and Spatial Analysis. Performance measures, models with transportation examples for cross-sectional, time series, spatial and panel data. MCDM methods and Spatial Decision Support Systems. Statistical learning and data mining and their applications in transportation.
- UPP 502: Planning Skills. Introductory required course in the planning programs. Hands-on introduction to statistics, population and demographic forecasting, economic base analysis, zoning and land-use planning, GIS, illustration and presentation skills. Students learn to use a variety of software such as Excel, SAS, Google SketchUp, ArcGIS and Abobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
- CS 567/UPP 567/CME 567: Principles of Computational Transportation Science. (Co-taught with a faculty member from the Department of Computer Science). Required course in UIC's NSF IGERT program on Computational Transportation Science. Fundamentals of location-aware technologies, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Location-Based Services and New Mobility Technologies. Students are taught basics of moving objects database management, data mining and Human-Computer Interaction as they apply to transportation. Recent group projects include: (A) development of social media-based volunteer tranportation information system; (B) data mining for predicting freeway breakdown in real-time and (C) text mining, web content mining and information extraction to create structured transportation databases from unstructured web and microblog data.