
Position Title
PhD Candidate
Favorite transit systems (tried to date): Muni Light Rail in San Francisco and Sydney Trains
Maha Ahmad is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Transport Studies (ITS) at UC Davis.
Maha has a background in Economics and is interested in designing sustainable transportation
systems to improve lifestyles in cities. Her research interests include public transportation,
micromobility and travel behavior. Her dissertation focuses on demand for subsidized station
access modes for regional rail in Northern California, and how various market segments value
service offerings of the rail service. Taking Capitol Corridor as a case study, she is conducting a
survey-based study to investigate how to boost post-pandemic ridership. She has also worked
previously on the substitution versus complementarity (as station access) between e-scooters and
public transit.
Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I6vy6dIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Publications at ITS: https://itspubs.ucdavis.edu/author_detail.php?id=3448
Dissertation project funded by NCST: https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/project/changing-markets-
commuter-and-suburban-rail