Chandler Diffee

Degree Program:
MS in Civil Engineering
Hometown:
Madison, WI
Website:
Link
Email:
cdiffee@gatech.edu
Where are they now?
Facing recent transit ridership declines, researchers and practitioners have been seeking new ways to understand and document transit trends. This thesis explores three methods of data preparation for use in transit data analysis. First, agencies are analyzed against peer agencies. Next, a method is developed to compare transit data to census data at the metropolitan level. Finally, case study agencies are identified that have interesting trends or methods to combat declines, and their recent ridership is compared with service level and reliability data.

Chandler currently is an Operations Planner for the NYC Ferry and works on assembling, managing, and streamlining agency data & schedules. He is fascinated with transit information, data, and maps, and his goal is to make riding transit a better experience for everyone. 

Chandler entered the program in the fall of 2017 after completing a Bachelor of Science in Physics at Loyola University Chicago. He graduated from Tech in December 2018 after completeing a thesis on transit ridership and service trends in the context of demographic trends post-recession. He was also involved in research projects surrounding transit data cluster analysis and spatial modeling of bus-stop level ridership and service characteristics. Chandler attended annual meetings of STRIDE and the Transportation Research Board, and was a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.