November 2023
Yaxuan Zhang (she/her/hers) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Society at the University of Minnesota. You can reach her via email at zhan6322@umn.edu and LinkedIn for connections, collaborations, and opportunities.
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What drew you to transportation research and what is your current area of study?
My research fields include urban mobility and geospatial/spatiotemporal analysis. My current research, including my dissertation, is focused on better understanding individuals’ travel behaviors and patterns across space and time to promote equitable and healthy mobility. By adopting activity-based approaches, my research considers the interrelationships between activities and trips in the context of everyday life.
As a GIS student, I have had the opportunity to explore various inequity and inequality maps, which has guided my academic interests towards equity research in the field of transportation. I worked on a research project funded by Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) from 2021 to 2022. We examined whether and how gender, in a broader sense, can result in distinctly different activity-travel patterns and subjective well-being (SWB) outcomes using survey data. Through the literature review process, I realized that gender gaps could be inherently explained by activity-based approaches. For example, prevailing gender norms often assign a disproportionate share of domestic responsibilities to women, which may significantly restrict their mobility. More importantly, the intersection of gender with other identities creates unique travel needs and experiences. Hence, employing an intersectionality lens proves invaluable in studying and addressing gender disparities in transportation.
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Specifically, I designed surveys to collect gender-related information alongside GPS-enabled activity-travel survey data. By adopting data mining and statistical analysis, I can identify travel patterns within the context of individuals' daily schedules. Furthermore, my research uncovers intersectional groups of people that are most associated with specific travel patterns. The data-driven research framework has the potential to capture unexamined marginalized populations in previous studies. The novel insights derived from data-driven methodologies have motivated me to implement innovative data and analytics techniques to address social equity issues more effectively within the field of transportation.
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In what ways do you think your research has the potential to impact other people?
I am highly motivated by both academic and practical impacts of my research. Through innovative analytics, my work deepens our understands of how gender intersects with other identities to shape travel behaviors. By recognizing previously overlooked vulnerable populations, my work can enhance overall transportation inclusivity and enable targeted interventions and resource/opportunity allocation. I am enthusiastic about collaborating with policymakers and fellow researchers to propose data-driven solutions tailored to specific research goals, capturing the complex and intersectional nature of gender in mobility behaviors. I am very excited to advance accessibility and promote social equity in transportation, ultimately benefiting diverse communities in my future research and professional work.
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Where do you hope this career path can take you?
I am thankful for the opportunity to engage in a collaborative environment during my PhD studies, which allows me to gain diverse experiences and discover my true interests. I will explore my career path in the transportation domains, especially being a transportation data scientist, after my graduation. I would love to focus on modelling, data analytics, and innovation in support of urban mobility and achieving equitable outcomes. I'm passionate about leveraging cutting-edge data and technology to deliver innovative transportation solutions and support data-driven decision-making.
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This profile was prepared by AME20 volunteer Dr. Erin Robartes, Research Scientist at the Virginia Transportation Research Council (Virginia Department of Transportation).