Rachel Weinberger, Ph.D., is Vice President for Transportation and the Peter W. Herman Chair. An internationally recognized transportation researcher and policy expert, she has more than 35 years of experience advancing evidence-based transportation policy and planning. Her work focuses on research design, travel behavior, transportation economics, land use and transportation interactions, parking and curb management, and the economic performance of transportation systems.

At RPA, Dr. Weinberger leads research on transportation policy and regional mobility across the New York metropolitan region. She has authored and co-authored major analyses examining congestion pricing, transit investment, regional economic competitiveness, and transportation system performance. Recent work includes New York Penn Station Constraints and Considerations for Meeting Future Demand; The False Promise of Building Roads: Transit Outpaces Highways for Economic Value; RPA’s analysis of the MTA 2025–2029 Capital Plan; Congestion Pricing: What it Means to Save Time, which estimated up to $1.3 billion in annual commuter time savings; and The Value of NJ TRANSIT, which quantified the economic, mobility, and quality-of-life benefits generated by the nation’s third-largest transit system. Her research and public testimony have helped shape debates on congestion pricing, rail investment, transportation funding, and the economic value of transportation infrastructure, bringing rigorous quantitative analysis to some of the region’s most consequential transportation decisions.

Before joining RPA, Dr. Weinberger served in transportation policy and advisory roles for a variety of clients representing the private, public, and non-profit sectors. She was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania and currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University. She served for many years as an editor of the Transportation Research Record.

She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. and Master of Urban Planning from Hunter College, City University of New York.