Jasmine Siyu Wu is a PhD candidate in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania and a Research
Trainee at The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Jasmine Siyu Wu is a PhD candidate in City and Regional Planning at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research lies at the intersection of transportation safety, equity, and accessibility, with a focus on understanding why certain populations face greater vulnerability to injury and unsafe mobility conditions. She is committed to advancing transportation systems that are safe, efficient, and just by leveraging insights from planning, public health, data science, and engineering. Her work centers on adolescent mobility and injury prevention, particularly the role of driver education, graduated driver licensing, and access to transportation resources in shaping teen driver safety outcomes. Through close collaborations with researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), she has examined how licensing policies, training requirements, and social and geographic barriers influence both crash risk and mobility opportunities for young drivers.
More broadly, Jasmine develops spatial, computational, and visual analytics methods to support decision-making under risk and uncertainty in complex transportation systems. Her research integrates large administrative and operational datasets, spatial analytics, causal inference, and data visualization to identify opportunities for improving safety, resilience, and system performance. While much of her work focuses on injury prevention and transportation safety, she also studies operational disruptions and resilience in aviation systems. Across these domains, her goal is to translate data-driven insights into actionable policy and planning solutions.
Master of City Planning, University of Pennsylvania, 2023
BS, GeoDesign and Architecture (minor), University of Southern California, 2021
Research Trainee, Center for Injury Research and Prevention, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania
Lifesavers Traffic Safety Scholar, Lifesavers Conference on Roadway Safety, 2026
Penn Prize for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, University of Pennsylvania, 2025
Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships, US Department of Transportation, 2022, 2023 & 2024 (program discontinued in 2025)
Witte-Sakamoto Family Prize, University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, 2022
EdMcClure Award for Best Masters Paper Award, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, 2022
Vision for Equity Award, Women's Transportation Seminar Philadelphia Chapter, 2022
Wu, J.S.. “Driving Delayed: Transportation Planning and Public Health Perspectives on Adolescent Safe Mobility”. Transportation Research and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2026.102083.
Dong, X., Wu, J.S., Guerra, E., Ryerson, M.S.,Walshe, E.A. “GDL-Mandated Comprehensive Driver Training Reduces Novice Young Drivers’ Involvement in Seriously Injurious and Fatal Crashes”. Journal of Transport Policy. doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2026.104172.
Wu, J.S., Dong, X.,Walshe, E.A.,Winston, F.K., and Ryerson, M.S. (2025). “Association between Young New Drivers’ Skills and Driver Training, Home Neighborhood Income Level, and Urbanicity: Evidence from the State of Ohio”. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi.org/10.1177/0361198125135275.
Wu, J.S., Dong. X., Green, J., and Ryerson, M.S. (2024). “The Role of the Built Environment, Roadway Characteristics, and Socioeconomic Factors in Keeping Teen Drivers Safe: An Investigation of the Factors most Related to Teen Driver Fatalities” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi.org/10.1177/03611981241275543.
Dong, X., Wu, J.S., Jensen, S.T.,Walshe, E.A.,Winston, F.K., and Ryerson, M.S. (2023). “Financial status and travel time to driving schools as barriers to obtaining a young driver license in a state with comprehensive young driver licensing policy” Accident Analysis and Prevention. doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2023.107198.
Ryerson, M.S., Davidson, J., Wu, J.S., Feiglin, I.,Winston, F.K. (2022). “Identifying community-level disparities in access to driver education and training: Toward a definition of driver training deserts” Traffic Injury Prevention. doi.org/10.1080/15389588.2022.2125305.