Asha Weinstein Agrawal, PhD

Asha Weinstein Agrawal is Director of MTI’s National Transportation Finance Center at San José State University, the MTI Education Director, and a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at San José State. Her research agenda is guided by a commitment to the principles of sustainability and equity: what policy and planning tools can communities adopt to encourage environmentally-friendly travel and improve accessibility for people struggling with poverty or other disadvantages? She has explored these issues most frequently through work on transportation funding policy, travel behavior survey methods, and planning for pedestrians, bicyclings, micromobility riders, and transit passengers. She has authored over a hundred publications and been the PI or CO-PI on sponsored projects that received more than $3 million in funding.

Dr. Agrawal has researched transportation funding policy for more than 25 years and is recognized as a national expert on fuel taxes and mileage-based user fees, especially with respect to public opinion, equity, and climate considerations. Recent publications include What Do Americans Think About Federal Tax Options to Support Transportation? Results from Year Fifteen of a National Survey (2024), Getting Mileage Fees Right: What Does the U.S. Public Think? (2024), How Will California's Electric Vehicle Policy Impact State-Generated Transportation Revenues? Projecting Scenarios through 2040 (2024), Pay-As-You-Go Driving: Examining Possible Road-User Charge Rate Structures for California (2023), and Understanding COVID-19’s Impact on Local Transportation Revenue—A Mid-Crisis View from Experts (2022).

With respect to active transportation and public transportation, her studies have explored the distances pedestrians walk, survey methods for collecting active transportation behavior, analyzing the “rules of the road” for micromobility users, harassment of public transportation passengers, and, most recently, e-bike safety policy and micromobility use. Publications include Learning about Street Harassment on Transit: A Survey Instrument for Transit Agencies (2023), How Older Adults Use Ride-Hailing Booking Technology in California (2022), Harassment and Assault in Transit Environments: A Review of the English-Language Literature (2020), Evolution of the American Street: A View from 2070 (2020), How and Where Should I Ride This Thing? “Rules of the Road” for Personal Transportation Devices (2019), Comparing Data Quality and Cost from Three Modes of On-Board Transit Surveys (2017), and Exploring Bicycle and Public Transit Use by Low-Income Latino Immigrants: A Mixed-Methods Study in the San Francisco Bay Area (2016).

Dr. Agrawal is regularly invited to serve on appointed boards and service committees. Current and recent appointments include the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal System Funding Alternative Advisory Board, California Department of Transportation’s California Transportation Plan (CTP) Policy Advisory Committee, California Transportation Commission’s Road User Charge Technical Advisory Committee, Metropoltian Transportation Commission (MTC) Next Generation Freeways Study Advisory Group,  MTC's Regional Means-Based Transit Fare Pricing Study Technical Advisory Committee, the National Academy of Sciences’ Oversight Panel for NCHRP Project Panel 20-123(22) - Update of the Active Transportation Council Research Roadmap, and the Eno Center for Transportation Board of Regents.

Her research on contemporary policy issues is regularly cited in the popular media, including stories in The Washington Post (gas taxes and mileage fees), CNN (electric vehicle policy), CBS Evening News (mileage fees), ABC News/KGO-TV (mileage fees), the San Diego Union-Tribune (transit fare policy), WBUR (the history of traffic congestion), and the San Francisco Chronicle (transportation taxes).

Dr. Agrawal earned a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Contact: asha.weinstein.agrawal@sjsu.edu