Urban Studies Major Presents at National Transportation Conference

Urban Studies Major Sara Maurer '16 presented her research on bicycle share programs at the Transportation Research Board's Transportation for Sustainability Conference in Washington, DC.  Maurer carried out the research in Vienna, Austria with the support of an Urban Studies Fellowship during the summer of 2014.  In her work with bicycle urbanism think tank Smarter Than Car, Maurer used interviews and surveys to identify how bicycle sharing programs can be made more accessible to underserved populations, including immigrants and low-income populations. 

Maurer's poster, entitled "How Can Bike Share Serve Everyone?," identified barriers that prevent disadvantaged communities from taking full advantage of many current bike share programs, including issues of cost, geographic accessibility, cultural barriers, and usability problems.  She also studied best practices in overcoming these barriers, comparing CityBike Vienna with programs in several U.S. cities: New York, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Washington DC.  

Maurer was "really glad" that she attended the conference.  "I had a really good time meeting a lot of cool people, including someone who knew my supervisor in Vienna, and had a good amount of interest in my poster," Maurer reported after returning to campus.