Media

Rachael is featured in a video journalism piece by the Associated Press about biking and walking safety and equity in Atlanta and in the United States.

Rachael, a Fort Payne, Alabama, native, has been selected to receive the Fulbright Study/Research grant to study in the United Kingdom. Read the complete article here.

The relationship between mobility and the economy is complicated. Disrupted travel patterns — like those noted in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic – can impact local and statewide economies. See a curated gallery of travel indicators on the GACOVID19.org website.

In honor of Bicycle Safety Month, Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering highlight Rachael’s research, along with her lab-mate Reid Passmore’s work.

Kari Watkins, Frederick Law Olmsted Associate Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Rachael discuss the impact that real-time transit information has had in sustaining urban communities and their economies through her OneBusAway Program. Additionally, Watkins describes the long-term effects pre-COVID and post-COVID trends in human behavior will have on Atlanta’s future transit ridership – particularly with its bus ridership. Rethinking how sustainable transit practices in Atlanta can foster a more livable urban density is currently what Watkins is researching, leading the new T-SCORE Transit Center at Georgia Tech.

How do we know where there is demand for active transportation? Rachael Thompson Panik provided overview of typical demand analysis methodologies used in active transportation planning practice for Clemson University students. Topics included sketch demand modeling, aggregate and disaggregate methods, and typical demand proxy measurements.

Josh Rowan, Commissioner for the Atlanta Department of Transportation (DOT), and Rachael discuss the impacts COVID-19 have had on future urban infrastructures and transportation in the state.

Michael Halicki, Executive Director of Park Pride, and Rachael discuss the evolutions COVID-19 has had on Atlanta-based non-profits to engage local communities in activating the power of parks on a metropolitan scale.

Howard Wertheimer, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer for the Piedmont Park Conservancy, and Rachael discuss the present and future impacts public infrastructures have on the local and regional economies of metropolitan cities like Atlanta and New York City.

MARTA’s David Springstead, Chief of Rail Operations, and Collie Greenwood, Chief of Bus Operations, and Rachael discuss the future of mass-transit in the City of Atlanta with regard to mobility as the driving force for the regional economy. In order for Atlanta to thrive, David and Collie envision a future MARTA with blended services and options which leverage pilot technologies as a solution to the regional economy.

Rachael Panik joins the Urban Transportation Information Lab (UTIL) at the Georgia Institute of Technology as a PhD student. She matriculated in the Fall of 2020. Learn more about Rachael’s work and the UTIL group here.

Rachael Thompson, a junior honors student in the UAB School of Engineering minoring in Japanese, has been selected for the highly competitive Critical Language Scholarship Program. Read the complete article here.

Research conducted by David Ederer, Rachael Panik, and their colleagues describe transportation engineers as part of the public health workforce, and they argue that safety programs should emphasize strategies that reduce risk for greater proportions of the population. Their work has been presenting in this article at Governing.com.

Rachael Thompson Panik, PhD, shares about her research on student attitudes towards safety with the National Safety Council's magazine, Safety + Health.

Rachael Thompson Panik, AICP, PhD, was invited to speak at the Arkansas Department of Transportation's Annual Research Committee Conference about the Safe Systems Pyramid.

Rachael was invited to participate in the inaugural Safety and Public Health Round Table at the Transportation Research Board Annual meeting, where she met with Vision Zero and public health leaders from across the United States to discuss implementation of the Safe Systems Pyramid.

Meghan Mitman, Rachael Thompson Panik, and Leah Shahum summarized key findings from the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting's first roundtable on Transportation and Public Health, focusing on implementation process for the Safe Systems Pyramid.