Laurie Garrow is co-director of the Center for Urban and Regional Air Mobility and professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research focuses on modeling airline customer behavior and understanding how customer preferences translate to demand for products and services.
Garrow’s research group has been conducting focus groups and market surveys to predict demand for new air taxi services and to better understand how air taxis could influence the urban landscape. “Air taxis hold the potential to transform our cities,” she states. “Air taxis can benefit rural and urban areas by better connecting people and jobs, particularly in metropolitan areas that have geographic features such as mountains or waterways that result in circuitous roadway or transit networks. However, air taxis could further encourage urban sprawl by drastically reducing commute times between suburban communities and urban centers.”
Garrow’s research group is also exploring potential competition between air taxis and self-driving cars. “The future is unknown, but if self-driving cars provide a smooth ride that allows individuals to productively use their laptops, the attraction of using an air taxi to avoid traffic congestion could decrease.”
Learn more about Garrow’s research group here.