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Rethinking the Right-of-Way 2025 Year in Review
It’s been a busy year for us at Rethinking the Right-of-Way, and we wanted to share some of our successes with you.
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Supported by the UBC Vancouver Research Excellence Cluster Initiative. Our funding was renewed for two more years! https://research.ubc.ca/vpri-competitions-initiatives/research-excellence-clusters/research-excellence-clusters-funded
We hosted our second Mobility +1 Workshop Regional Leadership Workshop. Bringing together regional leaders, practitioners, and UBC researchers, the workshop focused on strengthening university–civic collaboration around key challenges in designing and managing urban streets. Discussions generated emerging research questions and laid out the groundwork for continued regional partnerships. A report summarizing the workshop is available for download here.
We had our first Student Symposium, where 11 students shared their research work with ReROW members. The cross-disciplinary event fostered knowledge exchange between Civil Engineering, Forestry, Architecture, and Planning.
We also sponsored multiple student-led events, including our very first student IDEAthon! The event, led by the National Association of Minority Architects (NOMAS), provided students with an opportunity to develop practical, multidisciplinary, and innovative solutions for urban streets. A total of 19 Teams with 67 undergraduate students from 16 different programs reimagined University Boulevard from East Mall to Wesbrook. Read more about the competition and about the student proposals here: https://rerow.ubc.ca/ideathon-2025/
ReROW members with the Civic Innovation Lab presented at UBC Sustainability HUB COP30 Symposium. The panel, titled Taking Climate Action to the Streets: Research Partnerships for Change, focused on sharing how different ReROW faculty partnered research can be an effective agent for climate action. Discussing both challenges and opportunities, the panelist shared how various interest-holders value and benefit from knowledge production and mobilization through university-community research.
ReROW StreetSmarts Collaboratory has been selected for the UBC PhD Collab pilot program! This initiative offers awards and guidance to support PhD students from different disciplines to co-develop new knowledge and applications to address complex questions. More information about the PhD Collab on our website here: https://rerow.ubc.ca/phd-collab/
ReROW’s first Student Representative, Polina Polikakhina, graduated and is now a Transportation Engineering Associate at Kittelson & Associates, Inc., in Portland, Oregon. Polina was a master student in Civil Engineering and was a member of Dr. Alex Bigazzi’s REACT Lab focusing on understanding the influence of e-bike incentive programs on driving behavior and reduction of CO₂ emissions.
Congratulations, Polina!
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This year, we launched the ReROW Research Talks series. The series brings together faculty, students, and invited speakers to share interdisciplinary research on mobility, accessibility, and public space. Recent talks include:
- Why Urban Planning and Cognitive Neuroscience Need to Talk — Dr. Todd Handy, Department of Psychology
- Rethinking Accessibility: Multi-dimensional, Multi-scale, and Multi-modal Approaches to Urban Nature — Dr. Keun Park, Assistant Professor of Urban Forestry
- Climate Justice, Equity, and Right-of-Way Research — Dr. Amanda Giang, Associate Professor, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES)
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Our faculty has also been busy! Here are just a few samples of our accomplishments
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- Keun Park and PhD Student (and current ReROW student representative) Yiyang Wang published their study on multi-modal accessibility of 58 large parks in Metro Vancouver. Using data from 3590 neighborhoods, they assessed park accessibility through minimum distance, cumulative opportunities, and gravity models. Wang, Y., Park, K., & Mau, K. H. Access for whom? Inequality and inequity in multi-modal accessibility to large parks. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.
- Alex Bigazzi published a commentary on attributional carbon accounting methods, offering a conceptual framework for consequential accounting of the climate impacts from passenger travel. “A consequential framework to quantify the climate impacts of passenger travel.” Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science.
- Alex Bigazzi also published results on Personal Mobility Devices’ (MPDs) changes in mode share and speed over 4 years (2019-2023) in metropolitan Vancouver. Hassanpour, A., and A. Bigazzi, “Four-year trends of personal mobility devices in metropolitan Vancouver: The evolution of mode shares, speeds, and comfort in off-street paths.” Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice.
- Andi Binet published results of a study evaluating BC Municipal Child Care Plans. Their findings highlight common strategies for child care expansion, as well as areas for improvement in identifying and addressing current inequities. A Binet, A Saha, J Lam, D Al Houseini, I Espanol, E Roberts. Planning for Universal Child Care: An Evaluation of BC Municipal Child Care Plans, Canadian Planning and Policy.
- Amanda Giang published a study on the establishment of cooling and cleaner air centers as a temporary refuge during extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and wildfires, in the Greater Vancouver area. GO Apantaku, A Polgár, F Giroux, A Giang, D Gladwin, N Ellis. “Heat, smoke, and urban health: cooling and cleaner air centres as a tool for adaptation in a Canadian urban region,” Cities & health.
- Amanda Giang also published results from a survey of small fleet operators in British Columbia to categorize the barriers related to cost, incompatibility (real or perceived), and availability of electric vehicle adoption. B Javed, A Giang, M Kandlikar. “Addressing the electric vehicle adoption gap for small fleets: A case study of local energy transitions in British Columbia,” Case Studies on Transport Policy.
- Theo Lim secured a $15,000 MITACS Business Strategy Internship grant to serve as Principal Investigator on a 2025 project dedicated to creating an accessible emergency management communications scorecard for public information.
- Melissa McHale secured one of two prestigious WALL Fellowships. The fellowship will fund innovative research to help B.C. communities adapt to climate change and address rising housing demands.
- Mahmudur Fatmi published a study on individuals’ electric vehicle charging location preferences in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. The results reveal that individuals’ socio-demographics, travel attributes, built-environment characteristics, and accessibility measures significantly influence EV charging location preferences. MS Hossain, MR Fatmi, M Ahmed, B Saha. Where to plug in? Assessing the users’ preferences for EV charging location. International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology.
- Kelly Clifton published survey results concerned with the factors leading to progressive behavioral change towards cycling in Lisbon, Portugal. The paper proposes a Pyramid of Cycling Needs to inform interventions and policies, so they have a greater impact on the different stages of transition to bicycling. R Félix, F Moura, KJ Clifton. The Hierarchy of Cycling Needs: Modeling the self-assessed propensity to bicycle. Journal of Urban Mobility.
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We have lots of plans for 2026 here are a few highlights
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- We are hosting Corridors in Motion: Understanding Active Transportation Networks in Context in January. This day-long workshop co-hosted with TransLink and Vancouver Coastal Health. With a mix of presentations, panels, and group activities, we will explore the active travel policy and research needs, shared data collection and management strategies, and best practices of data sharing agreements.
- In February, ReROW students will come together for a Student Symposium to present their recently completed work as well as ongoing research.
- We will be hosting our second IDEAthon in March! Students will be challenged to reimagine UBC Flagpole Plaza near the Rose Garden – https://rerow.ubc.ca/ideathon-2026/
- Our ReROW Research Talks series will continue as well with upcoming talks by the Civic Innovation Lab, Alex Bigazzi, and Theo Lim.
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Thank you to everyone who has engaged with us this year!
We cannot wait to see you again in 2026.
Interested in attending ReROW events in 2026? Find out more at https://rerow.ubc.ca/events/
Want to collaborate with ReROW members? email us at info.rerow@ubc.ca