Joseph Chestnut specializes in transportation research and data analysis, with a focus on quantitative methods, spatial analysis, and survey design. At RSG, he leads the design and analysis of large-scale household travel surveys and supports projects that inform travel demand modeling, transportation planning, and public policy. Joe is highly skilled in R, Python, GIS, and spatial statistics and is known for distilling complex datasets into clear, actionable insights.
His recent work includes survey efforts for clients such as the Southern California Association of Governments, Puget Sound Regional Council, Oregon and Massachusetts Departments of Transportation, and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. He has developed methodologies to convert travel demand model outputs for use in energy productivity metrics and has applied spatial analytics to traffic safety and public transit access.
Joe’s work has been published in academic journals and presented at national and international conferences. He is also an experienced educator and communicator, with a talent for bridging technical depth and strategic clarity.
Career Highlights
- Chestnut, J., and E.E. Boschman. (2022) Exploring the Utility of Gini Goefficients as a Measure of Temporal Variation in Public Transit Travel Time. Papers in Applied Geography 8 (1):112-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/23754931.2021.1964582
- Chestnut, J., A. Goetz, A. Jonas. (2024) Neoliberalism and the splintering of city-regionalism: the case of Denver’s regional transit agency in times of COVID-19 urban austerity Urban Geography, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2024.2367389
Education
- PhD, Geography, University of Denver
- MS, Geography, George Washington University
- BA, Geography, George Washington University
