Ken Kurani
Ken Kurani has earned an international reputation for his innovative approaches to analyzing demand for new transportation and communication technologies.
His contributions are methodological, theoretical, and empirical. His research intersects with several disciplines, including economics, sociology, and engineering.
Kurani is developing approaches and methods to evaluate user responses to new transportation and information technologies. This research includes activity-based approaches applied within experiments designed around interactive stated preference and reflexive survey methodologies.
Ultimately Kurani’s goal is to determine how consumers can shape efforts to market social and systemic characteristics of transportation and communication networks such as energy efficiency, air quality, safety, and equity. His ongoing research includes the role of energy efficiency and air quality in household travel choices, continued work on household response to electric and hybrid electric vehicles, consumer valuation of automotive fuel economy, efficiency across fuel types, and the process of motorization in China. In addition, he has studied the impact of travel on sensitive environments, which includes a series of studies examining travel to, and in, Yosemite National Park.
His latest publication on the “Symbolism and the Adoption of Fuel-Cell Vehicles” is a qualitative research study examining the early buyers of hybrids to understand the symbolic meanings they perceived in their vehicles and the role symbolism played in their purchases. The findings are then prospectively applied to the future market for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). The study includes four specific recommendations to increase the possibility that FCV buyers can access and communicate important symbolic meanings with their vehicles, thus increasing the likelihood of the FCV’s commercial success.
Kurani has been and continues to be a key researcher at ITS-Davis, helping to manage large research and demonstration programs.
Questions or Comments? Contact Dr. Kurani: knkurani@ucdavis.edu
His contributions are methodological, theoretical, and empirical. His research intersects with several disciplines, including economics, sociology, and engineering.
Kurani is developing approaches and methods to evaluate user responses to new transportation and information technologies. This research includes activity-based approaches applied within experiments designed around interactive stated preference and reflexive survey methodologies.
Ultimately Kurani’s goal is to determine how consumers can shape efforts to market social and systemic characteristics of transportation and communication networks such as energy efficiency, air quality, safety, and equity. His ongoing research includes the role of energy efficiency and air quality in household travel choices, continued work on household response to electric and hybrid electric vehicles, consumer valuation of automotive fuel economy, efficiency across fuel types, and the process of motorization in China. In addition, he has studied the impact of travel on sensitive environments, which includes a series of studies examining travel to, and in, Yosemite National Park.
His latest publication on the “Symbolism and the Adoption of Fuel-Cell Vehicles” is a qualitative research study examining the early buyers of hybrids to understand the symbolic meanings they perceived in their vehicles and the role symbolism played in their purchases. The findings are then prospectively applied to the future market for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). The study includes four specific recommendations to increase the possibility that FCV buyers can access and communicate important symbolic meanings with their vehicles, thus increasing the likelihood of the FCV’s commercial success.
Kurani has been and continues to be a key researcher at ITS-Davis, helping to manage large research and demonstration programs.
Questions or Comments? Contact Dr. Kurani: knkurani@ucdavis.edu
Five students graduate from STEPS Program