Kari Edison Watkins

Professor Watkins is a leading expert in transit, whose research contributes to the goal of expanding mobility options by improving transit, walking, bicycling, and other alternatives to driving. Her projects are wide-ranging, including basic behavioral research that identifies factors influencing individual travel choices and overall travel patterns as well as applied research carried out in partnership with transportation agencies that leads to innovation in practice.

She is especially well-known for her development of the award-winning OneBusAway program, which paved the way for providing real-time next-bus countdown information to riders. Some of her more recent efforts are as an avid cyclist using novel survey research, crowdsourced data, and instrumented bicycles to understand cyclist infrastructure preferences

Honors and Awards
CEE Senior Faculty Teaching Award -2020
SLS Excellence in Community-Engaged Sustainability Teaching Award –Honorable Mention –2020
Class of 1934 CIOS Teaching Award –2020
Engineering Georgia 100 Women to Know –2018, 2019
GVU Impact Award -2017
Council of University Transportation Centers New Faculty Award -2017
CETL / BP Junior Faculty Teaching Award, Georgia Institute of Technology -2014
Bill Schutz Junior Faculty Teaching Award, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering –2013
Top 40 under 40, Mass Transit Magazine –2013
CUTC Wootan Award for Best Dissertation in Transportation Policy and Planning –2012
Women’s Transportation Seminar Puget Sound Chapter Helene Overly Scholarship -2011