Research Practice & Professional Background
The OKEN Transit Research Lab is directed by a transportation researcher working at the intersection of public transportation planning, urban analytics and geospatial data science. The practice focuses on extracting practical, implementable service improvements from data agencies already publish.
Areas of Practice
Public Transportation
Network structure, frequency planning and service coordination for regional bus systems.
Sustainable Mobility
Mode shift, accessibility and the environmental case for high-frequency transit.
Urban Analytics
Quantitative analysis of service, demand, population and employment geography.
GIS
Spatial analysis of route overlap, corridor alignment, stop coverage and access catchments.
Transit Planning
Corridor identification, headway design and coordinated schedule development.
Data Visualization
Timeline, stringline and scorecard visualizations for technical and public audiences.
Financial & Strategic Management
Cost-aware service design and evidence-based investment prioritization.
Approach
The work begins from a simple observation: on streets where several bus routes overlap, riders experience the combined schedule, not any single route. Where those schedules are uncoordinated, buses cluster and long gaps follow — degrading service without any operational failure. Measuring that condition rigorously, from open GTFS data, creates an evidence base for coordination improvements that need no additional vehicles.
Every metric published here is defined openly, versioned, and reproducible from the underlying dataset. The lab distinguishes carefully between what schedule data can prove and what requires operational observation.
Research Endeavor Note
This platform also documents an ongoing U.S. transportation research endeavor. The research is intended to stand on its own professional and methodological merit, and is presented here for transit authorities, planners, universities and community stakeholders.