About

Daniel G. Chatman is a Professor and Chair of City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, holding the Perloff Family Chair in City & Regional Planning. His research examines how transportation systems and land use jointly influence travel behavior, economic opportunity, and urban equity. He focuses on policies aimed at reducing driving and promoting sustainable travel modes, with empirical studies that disentangle built environment effects from residential self-selection, evaluations of congestion-priced parking and transit-oriented development programs, and recent work on ride-hailing and pandemic-era transit use. His research also includes efforts by California state agencies to estimate how affordable housing developments impact vehicle miles traveled. Using survey experiments, quasi-experimental designs, and policy evaluation, he seeks to demonstrate whether and under what conditions transportation and land use policies improve social welfare and equity. Prior to his current role, he was an assistant professor of urban planning and policy and director of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Business
• Geography
• Engineering
• Transport engineering
• Economics
• Demographic economics
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Advertising
• Mathematics
• Environmental health
• Medical emergency
• Statistics
• Data science
• Gerontology

Selected publications

• Early Pandemic Behaviors and the Role of Vaccines in Reversing Pandemic Mobility Trends: Evidence from a U.S. Panel

  Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board · 2024-06-07 · 2 citations

  article

  The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel behavior and resulted in the emergence of new mobility trends. In this paper, we study the degree to which vaccines played a role in reversing pandemic-induced travel behaviors and contributed to a “return to normal.” Using five waves of original U.S.-based survey data combined with passive smartphone tracking data collected in 2020 and 2021, we show that in the early phases of the pandemic, the behavioral response of people in the United States was heterogeneous: individuals with low levels of concern about being infected with COVID-19 engaged in riskier behaviors than those with higher levels of concern, such as traveling more, eschewing masks, attending large gatherings, and using public transportation. Vaccine availability in early 2021 played a significant role in reducing those concerns, which in turn was reflected in significantly increased mobility and travel frequency. We also found a strong positive association between getting vaccinated and the frequency of using public transportation. Telecommuting and working from home remained high after vaccine availability, but we found that the fraction of full-time employees that worked from home every day significantly dropped. This reduction in fully remote work was no different among vaccinated and unvaccinated people, which suggests that the decision to return to in-person work was not only driven by employees’ safety concerns and preferences, but was also a function of employers’ expectations and their decision to reopen their offices. We discuss the implications of our findings on understanding travel behavior during pandemic impact- and recovery periods.

  PublisherDOI

• Tracking the state and behavior of people in response to COVID-19 through the fusion of multiple longitudinal data streams

  Transportation · 2023 · 4 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Geography
  PublisherDOI

• Tracking the State and Behavior of People in Response to COVID-1 19 Through the Fusion of Multiple Longitudinal Data Streams

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2022-09-23 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  The changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of comprehensively considering its impacts and considering changes over time. Most COVID-19 related research addresses narrowly focused research questions and is therefore limited in addressing the complexities created by the interrelated impacts of the pandemic. Such research generally makes use of only one of either 1) actively collected data such as surveys, or 2) passively collected data. While a few studies make use of both actively and passively collected data, only one other study collects it longitudinally. Here we describe a rich panel dataset of active and passive data from U.S. residents collected between August 2020 and July 2021. Active data includes a repeated survey measuring travel behavior, compliance with COVID-19 mandates, physical health, economic well-being, vaccination status, and other factors. Passively collected data consists of all locations visited by study participants, taken from smartphone GPS data. We also closely tracked COVID-19 policies across counties of residence throughout the study period. Such a dataset allows important research questions to be answered; for example, to determine the factors underlying the heterogeneous behavioral responses to COVID-19 restrictions imposed by local governments. Better information about such responses is critical to our ability to understand the societal and economic impacts of this and future pandemics. The development of this data infrastructure can also help researchers explore new frontiers in behavioral science. The article explains how this approach fills gaps in COVID-19 related data collection; describes the study design and data collection procedures; presents key demographic characteristics of study participants; and shows how fusing different data streams helps uncover behavioral insights.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Use of app-based ridehailing services and conventional taxicabs by adults with disabilities

  Travel Behaviour and Society · 2021 · 37 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Gerontology
  • Demographic economics
  • Psychology
  PublisherDOI

• Impacts of commute trip reduction programs, rail station area built environment changes, and ride-hailing services on traveler behavior

  2021-12-01 · 1 citations

  reportOpen accessSenior author

  Traffic congestion is a recurring problem with temporal and spatial aspects that affect our lives daily. Providing choices such as increasing transit ridership is part of a balanced and diversified approach to addressing the problem. This project is divided into three parts to address how transit can address this multifaceted congestion problem. The first part investigates the successes and failures of transit and transportation network company (TNC) partnerships on ridership. Transit agencies have partnered with TNCs to attract ridership by providing first/last mile access or substituting for low performing fixed route service. TNCs may have induced travel demand by car and reduced public transportation ridership in other areas. The second part examines employer-provided financial incentives on commute behavior. Using an extensive data set from State of Washington’s Commute Trip Reduction program and other sources, the role of fare discounts and parking prices will be analyzed. The third part analyzes changes in ridership due to changes in the built environment, evaluating the impact of transit station area built environment changes (e.g., crosswalks, bicycle lanes) on transit ridership and access mode. We will identify changes in walking and biking infrastructure around rail station across time using longitudinal satellite imagery and compare changes relative to control areas.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Public transit use in the United States in the era of COVID-19: Transit riders’ travel behavior in the COVID-19 impact and recovery period

  Transport Policy · 2021 · 218 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Business
  • Geography
  • Transport engineering

  COVID-19 has upended travel across the world, disrupting commute patterns, mode choices, and public transit systems. In the United States, changes to transit service and reductions in passenger volume due to COVID-19 are lasting longer than originally anticipated. In this paper we examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual travel behavior across the United States. We analyze mobility data from Janurary to December 2020 from a sample drawn from a nationwide smartphone-based panel curated by a private firm, Embee Mobile. We combine this with a survey that we administered to that sample in August 2020. Our analysis provides insight into travel patterns and the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on transit riders. We investigate three questions. First, how do transit riders differ socio-demographically from non-riders? Second, how has the travel behavior of transit riders changed due to the pandemic in comparison to non-riders, controlling for other factors? And third, how has this travel behavior varied across different types of transit riders? The travel patterns of transit riders were more significantly disrupted by the pandemic than the travel of non-riders, as measured by the average weekly number of trips and distance traveled before and after the onset of the pandemic. This was calculated using GPS traces from panel member smartphones. Our survey of the panel revealed that of transit riders, 75% reported taking transit less since the pandemic, likely due to a combination of being affected by transit service changes, concerns about infection risk on transit, and trip reductions due to shelter-in-place rules. Less than 10 percent of transit riders in our sample reported that they were comfortable using transit despite COVID-19 infection risk, and were not affected by transit service reductions. Transit riders were also more likely to have changed their travel behavior in other ways, including reporting an increase in walking. However, lower-income transit riders were different from higher-income riders in that they had a significantly smaller reduction in the number of trips and distance traveled, suggesting that these lower-income households had less discretion over the amount of travel they carried out during the pandemic. These results have significant implications for understanding the way welfare has been affected for transportation-disadvantaged populations during the course of the pandemic, and insight into the recovery of U.S. transit systems. The evidence from this unique dataset helps us understand the future effects of the pandemic on transit riders in the United States, either in further recovery from the pandemic with the anticipated effects of mass vaccination, or in response to additional waves of COVID-19 and other pandemics.

  PublisherDOI

• Bus rapid transit arrives in Barranquilla, Colombia: Understanding a changing landscape through residents' travel experiences

  Travel Behaviour and Society · 2020 · 18 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Transport engineering
  • Business
  • Geography

  In this article, we describe how the travel experiences of residents of Barranquilla, Colombia have changed since a new bus rapid transit system was deployed in 2010 along with changes to pre-existing private transit services. We recruited interview participants using intercept methods at more than fifteen locations, conducted dozens of semi-structured interviews, and used collaborative and iterative coding to analyze the data. Interviewees expressed mixed feelings about the transition from private transit to the hybrid BRT-private transit system. Many were pleased about reductions in travel time, the air conditioning on BRT vehicles, and an increased sense of safety from crime. But most interviewees also identified significant drawbacks, most notably overcrowding, the insufficiency and complexity of BRT feeder routes, and the elimination of several private transit bus routes. While the free transfer between BRT trunk and feeder routes reduced some users’ out-of-pocket costs, some interviewees, expressed disappointment at losing the ability to bargain over fares. Our findings raise questions about equity in access and affordability, as well as issues of system legibility that emerged with BRT implementation. Another critical lesson from our research points out to a potentially significant problem: while BRT planners tended to focus on safety improvements and mitigating environmental damage, such goals seem to have come at the expense of other aspects that users see as more important, such as reducing improving travel times. Finally, our interviews revealed a complex interaction among transport services, in which some private transit lines complement BRT services while others compete with them.

  PublisherDOI

• The Internet City: People, Companies, Systems, and Vehicles

  Journal of Urban Technology · 2020-12-15 · 4 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  "The Internet City: People, Companies, Systems, and Vehicles." Journal of Urban Technology, 28(1-2), pp. 331–332

  PublisherDOI

• Equity Implications of TNC Fare Variation: A Case Study of Didi Chuxing, Shanghai, 2015

  Transportation Research Board 98th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board · 2019-01-01

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

• Autonomous Vehicles in the United States: Understanding Why and How Cities and Regions Are Responding

  eScholarship (California Digital Library) · 2019-08-01 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This report analyzes how cities, transit agencies, and metropolitan planning organizations are responding to autonomous vehicles (AVs), both in terms of current testing and pilot services, as well as long-term implications of broad AV adoption. The report is based on 21 interviews with staff at cities, transportation agencies, MPOs, and select AV companies, as well as extensive document review. We found a broad spectrum of activity on the part of the public sector regarding AVs, as well as a taxonomy of motivations, which ranged from attempting to harness these vehicles to help boost transit ridership, to speeding the adoption of road pricing, increasing density, stimulating technology-sector economic development, generating revenue, and improving pedestrian safety. Agency responses to AV testing vary dramatically – from complex permitting processes and RFPs to intentional delay in developing policy so as not to deter AV activity. Publicly-led AV shuttles provide the largest opportunity for municipalities to shape AV testing, while private passenger AV testing and pilot services often provide inadequate information to cities to appraise their operations. A prospective future in which AVs make up a large share of travel has led some “early adopter” agencies to develop policies such as partnerships between public transit and AV services, changes to zoning codes to reduce parking requirements in exchange for AV drop-off and pick-up zones, and plans to tax AV passenger trips.

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Robert B. Noland

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  11 shared

• Joan L. Walker

  8 shared

• Nicholas J. Klein

  Cornell University

  7 shared

• Raja Sengupta

  KIIT University

  6 shared

• Karen Trapenberg Frick

  University of California, Berkeley

  6 shared

• Randall Crane

  6 shared

• Daniel A. Rodrı́guez

  University of California, Berkeley

  5 shared

• Xinyu Cao

  China National Institute of Standardization

  5 shared

Education

• PhD, Urban Planning

  University of California, Los Angeles

  2005