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Nicholas Klein

  • Associate Professor
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies
Curriculum Vitae (CV)

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Academic Research Areas

  • Regional science
  • Sustainability
  • Transportation planning
Nicholas Klein’s research examines critical questions about how transportation shapes individual lives, how transport policy shapes cities, and the challenges and opportunities of new transportation technologies. His primary research examines the role of transportation in social and economic mobility. A second stream of research focuses on transportation policy, public opinion, and education. A third focuses on new transportation technologies and their effect on cities and travel. He uses quantitative and qualitative research methods drawing on primary and secondary data collection.

He received his Ph.D. from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, a master’s degree in urban spatial analytics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University. Klein previously taught at Columbia University, Temple University, and Pratt Institute.

headshot of a man with tortoise shell glasses wearing a blue plaid shirt and a tan sweater

Academic Research Areas

  • Regional science
  • Sustainability
  • Transportation planning

I teach students how to look at cities, neighborhoods, and streets to provide ways of thinking about how they could be changed.

Featured Work

  • First page of research article by Nicholas J. Klein
    Subsidizing Car Ownership

    This article presents the findings from interviews with thirty individuals, living in Maryland and Virginia, who received subsidized cars from a nonprofit organization to examine how their lives changed when they received a subsidized car.

  • First page of magazine article by Nicholas J. Klein and coauthors.
    Spreading the Gospel of Induced Demand

    Induced demand is commonly misunderstood, and planners need to help.

  • First page of research article by Nicholas J. Klein and coauthors.
    Pathways to Car Ownership

    We examine how lower-income households in the United States acquire automobiles.

Publications

Selected Awards, Grants, and Fellowships

  • Grant, Cornell Center for Social Sciences

    “Transport Affordability and Automobile Debt in the United States”
    2025–26

  • Faculty Fellowship, Cornell Center for the Social Sciences

    2021–22

  • Civic Innovation Challenge, National Science Foundation

    “Community Based Ride-Hail Pilot: One Car, Multiple Opportunities.” Co-PI with Anne Brown (University of Oregon), Michael Smart (Rutgers University), and Vehicles for Change.
    2021

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