Jones is a doctoral student in the Urban and Regional Planning program whose research seeks to bridge the gap between time poverty and transportation planning. His research explores the relationship between travel time, time poverty, and well-being. Specifically, he aims to uncover the true costs of long travel times for various socioeconomic groups, providing insights for more comprehensive transport project evaluations.
Prior to his doctoral studies, Jones obtained both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in urban planning, during which he accumulated a diverse range of practical experiences from different geographical contexts. He had his undergraduate studies in Settlement Planning at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, and earned a master’s in urban planning degree from the Minnesota State University Mankato.
After his undergraduate studies, Jones contributed to evaluating highway and railway projects in Ghana. While pursuing his master’s, he worked as a transportation planning intern with city and county governments, delving into public transportation challenges and their policy solutions. He also worked as an Active Transportation Planner with Dakota County in Minnesota. While at Dakota County, he co-led projects, such as evaluating pedestrian crossing locations and integrating city-level bike-ped plans with county-level plans.
Most recently, Jones collaborated with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to conduct an ethnographic study on the Midtown Bus Terminal. Drawing on behavioral data, he proposed recommendations to enhance the user experience of the terminal’s frontage and seating areas.