Michael D. Garber
As a social and environmental epidemiologist, I study how transportation systems, urban design, and land-use policy shape population health and climate resilience. I have led research examining:
how bike infrastructure affects bicycling levels and safety,
how urban design can support active transportation resilience during extreme heat, and
how parking policy shapes population health and health equity.
My methodological expertise includes:
policy evaluation and quasi-experimental causal-inference methods,
case–control study designs and sampling methods for smartphone-generated active-transportation data,
health impact assessment,
spatial data science and visualization using R.
I earned my MPH and PhD in Epidemiology from Emory University Rollins
School of Public Health. I have authored 25+ peer-reviewed journal
articles, including 15 as first author. In 2022, I received the Rothman
Epidemiology Prize for our article published in Epidemiology.
mdgarber@ucsd.edu
Selected recent publications
High-stress
paint-only bike lanes in US cities: prevalence in 2024 and patterns of
geographical variation over 442 municipalities
Michael Garber,
Reid Passmore, Katie Crist, David Rojas-Rueda, Tarik Benmarhnia.
Journal of Cycling and Micromobility Research.
2026
Cool
routes: Assessing how green space and paved paths modify heat’s effects
on urban bicycling
Michael Garber, David Rojas-Rueda, Paquito
Bernard, Tarik Benmarhnia. Journal of Transport &
Health. 2025
Parking
and Public Health
Michael Garber, Tarik Benmarhnia, Jacob Mason,
Emily Morales-Zamora, David Rojas-Rueda. Current
Environmental Health Reports. 2025
The
epidemiologic case for urban health: conceptualizing and measuring the
magnitude of challenges and potential benefits
Michael Garber,
Tarik Benmarhnia, Audrey de Nazelle, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, David
Rojas-Rueda. F1000 Research. 2025
Copyright © 2026 Michael D. Garber