We’re happy to announce Seula Lee as NABSA’s 2022 Meddin Emerging Researcher Scholarship recipient! Seula’s research aims to understand how slow streets affected scooter traffic and volumes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seula Lee is a Ph.D. student at the University of Southern California studying Urban Planning and Development. Her research focuses on understanding people’s travel behaviors with new mobility modes, including micromobility. In addition, she aims to understand how technology and mobility can reshape urban spaces and what transportation policies are needed to promote more sustainable and equitable mobility for urban populations.

While pursuing her master’s degree, Seula began to question how services like shared micromobility affect travel behaviors, the benefits and problems they bring to cities and people, and how cities, planners, and policy-makers can maximize the benefits and minimize the social costs of them. That interest led Seula to publish a paper analyzing bikesharing trips in Seoul, Korea. Additionally, Seula is co-authoring the book Post Mobility, Device Innovation to Space Revolution, which is expected to be released this month in Korea.

Recently, Seula’s interests have shifted to slow streets and their effect on micromobility usage. Her current research is analyzing pandemic-era slow streets in four US cities. The study will try to understand the impact of slow street programs on e-scooter use by examining the changes in scooter traffic based on different slow street implementation dates.

NABSA looks forward to learning more about how slow streets impacted e-scooters during the pandemic and what those findings mean for the industry. The Meddin Emerging Researcher Scholarship is offered annually for emerging researchers in the field of shared micromobility. Click below to learn more about the scholarship and how to apply for it in the future.