The Across Latitudes and Cultures BRT Centre of Excellence invites to its monthly webinar series to share timely public transit research and encourage ongoing collaboration. Our August Webinar will be:
“Emotional Travel: Role of Social Psychology in Shaping Mobility Decision”
Presented by Jinhua Zhao on September 20th, 10:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT, UTC -4:00). Dr. Zhao is the Edward and Joyce Linde Assistant Professor of Transportation and Urban Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT.
For future webinars, you can register here to be noticed. Below you can find the Video and Slides from this webinar, and here from previous meetings.
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Summary:
The seemingly mundane chore of travel is laden with emotional and social meaning. Emotional associations—like pride, loneliness, annoyance, pleasure, and stress—accompany travelers and can influence behaviors beyond time and cost considerations. The webinar will present a few examples of the human emotions underlying travel behavior, including car pride, car dependence, implicit social bias in mode choice, and emotional responses to bus waiting times. These research projects aim to bring psychology, sociology and neuroscience to bear on travel behavior and embed emotion in transportation system and policy design.
Bio:
Jinhua Zhao is the Edward and Joyce Linde Assistant Professor of Transportation and Urban Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He holds Master of Science, Master of City Planning and Ph.D. degrees from MIT and a Bachelor’s degree from Tongji University. He studies i. the behavioral foundation for transport policies, ii. public transit management using information technology, and iii. China’s urbanization and urban mobility. Prof. Zhao directs the urban mobility lab at MIT and co-directs the Transit Lab at MIT.
