News and Events

Learning from the Past to Finance Transit in the Future Martin Wachs, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of California The COVID pandemic made the financial fragility of America’s public transit systems obvious, though most of the financial challenges facing transit existed prior to the recent emergency. Services desperately needed by some communities were difficult to provide ...

ASHA WEINSTEIN AGRAWAL Dr. Asha Weinstein Agrawal works at San José State University, where she directs the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) National Transportation Finance Center and also serves as Professor of Urban and Regional Planning. Her research agenda is guided by a commitment to the principles of sustainability and equity: what planning and policy tools ...

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research/Communications Coordinator, UFTI Dimitra Michalaka, MS, PhD, professor, The Citadel Two-lane roads were the main source of transportation infrastructure on Lesvos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, where Dimitra Michalaka was born. At age 12, while traveling through Italy with her family, she remembers sitting at the back of a tour ...

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., UFTI Research/Communications Coordinator Amanda Carpenter, Stacy Hill, and Daniel Soto each came to the Transportation Leadership program from very different careers within the transportation industry, representing areas such as construction, policy, and consulting. In December 2025, the students graduated with a master’s degree in transportation engineering, demonstrating that no single path ...

The 2025 “Research to Practice” Transit Symposium took place October 28-30, 2025. As the transit industry is experiencing significant changes (e.g., new technologies, potential funding shortage) in recent years, the symposium provides a platform where transit experts share insights on how evidence-based research is being or can be, used to make the most of these ...

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research/Communications Coordinator, UFTI Image credit: Alexandra Kondyli, Ph.D. (headshot) Alexandra Kondyli, Ph.D., professor of transportation engineering at the University of Kansas (KU), has always been fascinated by how transportation influences how people move, live, and connect. That interest solidified toward the end of her undergraduate years, when she became interested in measuring ...

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research/Communications Coordinator, UFTI Ally Recalde, UF student working on her doctoral degree in transportation engineering. Transportation is truly interdisciplinary, combining engineering with data science, public policy, human behavior, and more. For Ally Recalde, a first-year doctoral student in the UF Department of Civil Engineering, that blending of disciplines felt like the ...

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research/Communications Coordinator, UFTI Image source: Adobe Stock Meet Sophia. Sophia is a fictitious character created to help illustrate a typical commuter and transit rider. She lives in a large city. Her morning commute includes riding an e-scooter to the nearest subway station, stopping to buy a cup of coffee and catching the ...