State of the Field: Street Cleaning and Car Usage in New York City

Frequent street cleaning in New York City has induced more car driving. Because half of car owners in the City can only park on streets, during periodic street cleaning about 5 to 15% of street parking capacity is removed from the market of available spaces. This talk will tell a unique story of a contended public space--the duet of the parking commons in a dense urban setting.

Zhan Guo studies individuals’ travel behavior and explores innovative ways to influence that decision-making process to produce better social outcomes such as reduced congestion and carbon emissions. At the micro level, he focuses how travelers perceive travel alternatives and attributes and what discrepancies exist between perception and reality. The ability to reinforce, change, or even deceive that perception to promote the "right" behavior, and the methods used to do so, also figure largely in his research. At the macro level, he is interested in the effect of regulations, such as parking and street standards, mandatory affordable housing, and speed limit, on accessibility, equity, and safety, with a special focus on the (dis)connection between these regulations, market forces, and consumer preferences.  Zhan has conducted empirical work in Boston, London, Washington DC, New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, etc.  His work has been covered by New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Economist, Le Monde, ABC Evening News, XInhua News Agency, People's Daily, the Atlantic Cities, Nudges.org, etc.