Chester Harvey

Transportation, Environmental Design, and Urban Data Science

I am the Director of the Transportation Policy Research Group at the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth and hold a PhD in City & Regional Planning from UC Berkeley. My research uses data science and mixed methods to examine how microscale urban design influences pedestrian accessibility, psychology, and behavior. This work bridges urban design and transportation, encouraging researchers and practitioners in these highly related but too-often-separated corners of planning to collaborate in making walking and other energy-efficient transportation not only practical but preferable compared with more resource-intensive modes like driving.

Research & Teaching Videos

World Symposium on Transport and Land Use Research

Download and demo the code on GitHub.

Introduction to Urban Data Analytics

Guest lecture on accessibility, one of my favorite transportation concepts.

Introduction to Urban and Regional Transportation

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I moved this course fully online and recorded bite-sized lecture videos to reduce Zoom fatigue and reserve class time for discussion. Lectures for the entire course are available on YouTube.

Research

Harvey, C. (2024). Sensing walkability? Opportunities and limitations of electrodermal activity as an indicator of walkable urban environments. Planning Practice & Research.

Harvey, C., Rodríguez, D. A., & Fang, K. (2024). Comparing methods and data sources for classifying bicycle level of traffic stress: How well do their outcomes agree? Sustainable Cities and Society, 101, 105151.

Ugwu, N. M., Harvey, C., & Niemeier, D. (2024). Understanding Racial Disparity in EV Adoption: A Survey of Marylanders. Environmental Justice.

Harvey, C., Fang, K., & Rodriguez, D. A. (2019). Evaluating Alternative Measures of Bicycling Level of Traffic Stress Using Crowdsourced Route Satisfaction Data. Mineta Transportation Institute. Report 19-20.

Ruggeri, D., Harvey, C., & Bosselmann, P. (2018). Perceiving the Livable City: Cross-Cultural Lessons on Virtual and Field Experiences of Urban Environments. Journal of the American Planning Association, 84(3–4), 250–262.

Aultman-Hall, L., Harvey, C., Sullivan, J., & LaMondia, J. J. (2018) The Implications of Long-Distance Tour Attributes for National Travel Data Collection in the United States. Transportation, 45(3), 875-903.

Dowds, J. Harvey, C., LaMondia, J. J., Howerter, S., Ullman, H., & Aultman-Hall, L. (2018). Advancing Understanding of Long-Distance and Intercity Travel with Diverse Data Sources. National Center for Sustainable Transportation.

Harvey, C., & Rodriguez, D. A. (2017). What makes an active public realm? Opportunities and challenges for research. Preventive Medicine. 103, S5-S6.

Harvey, C., Aultman-Hall, L. (2016). Urban Streetscape Design and Crash Severity. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (2500), 1-8.

Harvey, C., Aultman-Hall, L., Troy, A., Hurley, S. E. (2016). Streetscape Skeleton Measurement and Classification. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 44(4), 668-692.

Sullivan, J., LaMondia, J., Harvey, C., Garrison, C., Aultman-Hall, L. (2016). Analysis of the Long Distance and Overnight Travel Tour-Planning Process. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (2594), 1-10.

Harvey, C., Aultman-Hall, L., Hurley, S. E., Troy, A. (2015). Effects of Skeletal Streetscape Design on Perceived Safety. Landscape and Urban Planning, 142, 18-28.

Harvey, C., Aultman-Hall, L. (2015). Measuring Urban Streetscapes for Livability: A Review of Approaches. The Professional Geographer, 68(1), 149-158.

Aultman-Hall, L., Harvey, C., LaMondia, J. J. (2015). Design and Response Quality in a One-Year Longitudinal Survey of Overnight and Long-distance Travel. Transportation Research Procedia, 11, 136-153.

Harvey, C., Aultman-Hall, L., LaMondia, J. J., Sullivan, J., Greene, E., & Ritter, C. (2015). Conducting a Longitudinal Survey of Overnight Travel: Methods and Preliminary Findings. University of Vermont Transportation Research Center.

Jaskot, P. B., Knowles, A. K., Harvey, C., with Blackshear, B. P. (2014). Visualizing the Archive: Building at Auschwitz as a Geographic Problem. In A. K. Knowles, T. Cole, A. Giordano (Eds.), Geographies of the Holocaust (pp. 159-91). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Knowles, A. K., Jaskot, P. B., Harvey, C. (2013). Visualizing Auschwitz: 'Placing History' with GIS Technology. In L. Groat, D. Wang (Eds.), Architectural Research Methods (2nd ed., pp. 207-9). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.