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 and car-dependent land use shape 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