Zhan Guo
Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Transportation Policy
Zhan Guo studies transportation and land use, public transit, and pedestrian behavior. His research interest is to understand the multiple travel options faced by individual travelers and how government policies could affect the availability of these options and the subsequent individual decisions. His research has focused on two interesting and interconnected questions. First, how does the governmental regulation over the built environment (e.g. land use planning and infrastructure investment) limit travel options and encourage one particular travel means-car driving? Second, how do travelers perceive different travel options? Could we reinforce, change, or even deceive that perception in order to promote the "right" behavior. Within this framework, He has conducted empirical studies in Boston, Chicago, London, Portland, and New York City. Below are recent and ongoing research projects.
Land use, Travel Options, and Car Driving
Built Environment and Congestion Pricing in Portland, OR
In 2006, Portland, OR conducted a pilot program to charge car drivers based on the distance traveled instead of the amount of gasoline consumed. The mileage-based fee could vary across time, zones, and vehicle types. It is designed as both a financing and a congestion pricing program. In this project, I investigate whether the built environment is able to affect drivers' response to this program with respect to their travel decisions. The findings could help policymakers understand the interaction between land use planning and congestion pricing policies.
Residential Parking and Household Travel in New York City
I believe that the disconnection between transportation and land use is most obvious in parking regulation. In this research, I plan to answer the following questions: whether governmental parking regulation responds to household parking demand, and how residential parking supply affects households' long-term and short-term travel decisions. The purpose is to explore an integrated parking policy in residential neighborhoods.
Perception and Alternative Travel Modes
Measuring the Utility of Pedestrian Environment in Boston
This project explains why people walk more in a more walkable environment, by measuring the utility of that environment perceived by pedestrians. In downtown Boston, such a utility averages from 2 to 3 minutes of walk. In other words, a 10-minute walk is perceived as 7 or 8 minutes due to the plenty of sidewalk amenities in downtown Boston. The finding calls for more government investments in pedestrian infrastructure, and provides a specific approach to justify the investments. See map
Mind the Map: System Map and Travel Decisions in the London Underground
In this project, I am interested in two questions: If a system map represents a distorted reality, could the distorted information affect passengers' travel decisions in a public transit system? If the answer is Yes, should we be able to manipulate such distortion to influence passengers' choices and decisions for the benefit of the system? See map
Assessing the Negative Perception of Transfers in Public Transit
Unlike private car that is able to provide door-to-door services, public transit often requires passengers to transfer across different modes or services to reach their destinations, especially in large and multimodal networks. In this research, I explore how transfers are perceived by passengers, and how that perception affects whether many travelers will find public transit an acceptable option. See map
Other Projects
How could weather affect transit Ridership in Chicago? Click here
Evaluating yellow-dust mitigation programs in Northern China. Click here
