Ralph Buehler is an Assistant Professor in the Urban Affairs and Planning Program at Virginia Tech’s Alexandria Center. His teaching and research interests include transportation policy and planning, land use, energy, and regional governance. Most of Ralph’s research has an international comparative perspective. Over the last five years his research has compared bicycling in Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K., and the U.S. Currently, Ralph is comparing bicycling trends and policies in large American cities.

His other research seeks to disentangle the influence of demographic and socioeconomic factors, spatial development patterns, land use regulation, and public policies to explain similarities and differences in individual travel behavior between Germany and the U.S. The main goal is to determine what the two countries could learn from each other to improve the sustainability of their urban transportation systems.

His work has appeared in several peer reviewed journals including: Transport Policy; Transport Reviews; the Transportation Research Record; World Transport Policy and Practice; International Planning Studies; Plan Canada; the Journal of Physical Activity and Health; the Journal of the American Planning Association (book review), and as a chapter in the Handbook of Transportation Strategy, Policy, and Institutions.