Research Centers

Penn Center for Safe Mobility
Founder and Scientific Director

Streets are designed for vehicle efficiency. Engineers reference vehicle-based codes, use detailed models to optimize traffic flow, and conduct driving simulator evaluations before implementing design. A constraint, rather than a design variable, is pedestrian and cyclist safety, as street designers currently lack the ability to quantify and test safety prior to construction. Collecting this missing data is at best challenging and expensive, and at worst, unsafe.
The Center for Safe Mobility fills this gap by using eye tracking technology to collect and study the user-based perspective.  Our research informs new  metrics for defining and understanding safety, and will transform how street designers understand, measure, and implement safety interventions. The Center studies safety implications for specific users, with emphasis on the most vulnerable. We explore how age, mobility limitations, experience, and other factors influence one’s perception of safety and how information is taken in and processed.
Mobility21 USDOT University Transportation Center
Research Director

Mobility21 is a National University Transportation Center in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, Penn, the Ohio State University and the Community College of Allegheny County. Mobility21 investigates technologies, policies, incentives and training programs for improving the mobility of people and goods in the 21st century efficiently and safely. Mobility 21 Research centers on: Smart City Technologies; Multi-Modal Connections; Assistive Technologies for People with Disabilities; Data Modeling and Analytical Tools; Novel Modes of Transport; Regional Planning, and Improved Transportation Access to Disadvantaged Neighborhoods.