Rate My Professor Derlie Mateo-Babiano

Associate Professor Derlie Mateo-Babiano holds the position of Associate Professor in Urban Planning within the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, where she also serves as Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. Trained as an architect, urban planner, and transport planner, she earned her PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 2008, a Master's degree from the same university, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of the Philippines between 1990 and 1996. Prior to her current role, she was a Lecturer in Planning at the University of Queensland. Her academic career emphasizes sustainable transportation science, with research interests encompassing active transport—particularly bicycle sharing systems and pedestrianisation—gender and transport dynamics, Indigenous transport challenges, transport history, and policy implications in both Australian and Asian urban contexts. She leads the Women in Transport Leadership in Australasia Knowledge Network, dedicated to empowering women and fostering female leadership in transport across the region. Her investigations explore how interactions between people, land use, and transport generate mobility and accessibility issues, advocating for behavioral shifts toward active transport to foster sustainable and inclusive cities. The built environment's role in influencing transport participation is a central theme in her scholarship.

Mateo-Babiano's influential publications include 'Spatio-temporal patterns of a Public Bicycle Sharing Program: the effect of weather and calendar events' (Journal of Transport Geography, 2014, with J. Corcoran et al.), 'How does our natural and built environment affect the use of bicycle sharing?' (Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2016, with R. Bean et al.), 'A comparison of perceived and geographic access to predict urban park use' (Cities, 2015, with D. Wang et al.), 'Exploring Bus Rapid Transit passenger travel behaviour using big data' (Applied Geography, 2014, with S. Tao et al.), 'Pedestrian's needs matter: Examining Manila's walking environment' (Transport Policy, 2016), and 'Dynamics of bike sharing in Washington, DC and Brisbane, Australia: Implications for policy and planning' (International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 2016, with M. Ahillen and J. Corcoran). She received the Best Paper Award from the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies for 'Street Space Renaissance: A Spatio-Historical Survey of Two Asian Cities' (with H. Ieda). Her work contributes to urban planning by highlighting pathways for equitable transport solutions and positive place-based transformations.