Asha Weinstein Agrawal

Dissertation: The Congestion of Evil: Perceptions of Traffic Congestions in Boston in the 1890s and 1920s

Advisor: Elizabeth Deakin

PhD City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley, 2002

MS Urban and Regional Planning, London School of Economics, 1994

BA Folklore and Mythology, Harvard-Radcliffe College, 1993

San Jose State University - Present

• Professor of Urban & Regional Planning

Asha Weinstein Agrawal is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at San José State University, Director of the MS in Transportation Management program in the Lucas College and Graduate School of Business, and Director of MTI’s National Transportation Finance Center. Her research agenda is guided by a commitment to the principles of sustainability and equity: what planning and policy tools can communities adopt to encourage environmentally-friendly travel and improve accessibility for people struggling with poverty or other disadvantages? She has explored this question most deeply through two substantive areas, transportation finance policy and the travel behavior of pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders. Dr. Agrawal also works in the area of urban history and is currently Chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Sub-Committee on Transportation History.

Dr. Agrawal’s research on contemporary policy issues has been cited in the popular media. Stories quoting her or citing her work have appeared in such outlets as The Washington Post(on gas taxes and mileage fees), CBS Evening News (on mileage fees), ABC News/KGO-TV (on mileage fees), the San Diego Union-Tribune (on transit fare policy), WBUR (on the history of traffic congestion), and the San Francisco Chronicle (on transportation taxes).

In addition, she has been invited to share her research findings at events such as a briefing session for staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, a meeting of the California Road Charge Pilot Program Technical Advisory Committee, and an Informational Hearing for Subcommitttees of the California State Senate Committees on Housing and Transportation.

Dr. Agrawal is actively involved with service to the professional planning and policy community. For example, she has served on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Regional Means-Based Transit Fare Pricing Study Technical Advisory Committee, Santa Clara County's Traffic Safe Communities Network Steering Committee, and the Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority's Pedestrian Access to Transit Task Force.

Dr. Agrawal earned a B.A. from Harvard University in Folklore and Mythology, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science in Urban and Regional Planning, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in City and Regional Planning.