Lindiwe’s current research focuses on the interplay between public transit and race-based equity in urban environments. Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, she is examining the determinants and universality of transit-proximity premiums with respect to housing costs, looking at perceptions held within the Black community toward different methods of roadway infraction enforcement in Boston, and developing a means of operationalizing reparations within transit planning in the US.

Prior to joining LSE, Lindiwe was a Transit Planner. During her time in the private sector with Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, she worked on long-range municipal development strategies, campus masterplans, fare structure adjustment, system network redesigns, downtown parking plans, and Title VI equity analyses. As a public sector planner with the City of Boston Transportation Department, her work largely focused on combatting racial and spatial inequities in quality of life through rail service enhancements, the implementation of Bus Rapid Transit projects, and the institutionalizing of race-centric metrics into the department’s prioritization and project evaluation processes. 

Lindiwe holds a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with a specialization in Transportation Planning, and a Bachelor’s in Development Economics from Harvard University.

• Transportation: specifically transit planning
• Racial Justice: reparations in the context of Black America
• Enforcement: equity-led enforcement redesign pertaining to mobility systems
• Data accessibility: quantitative data as empowerment tool for the public 
• Gentrification: namely in the US

Provisional thesis title
Transit and the Urban: A Collection of Essays on the Seen and Unseen Interplay between Public Transit and Life in our Built Environments

Academic publications

Rennert, L. (2023). Perceptions of Surveillance: Exploring feelings held by Black community leaders in Boston toward camera enforcement of roadway infractions. Cities, 137, 104308. Read Paper.

Navarrete-Hernandez, P., Rennert, L., & Balducci, A. (2022). An evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 safety measures in public transit spaces on riders' Worry of virus contraction. Transport Policy. Read Paper. 

Rennert, L. (2022) “A Meta-analysis of the Impact of Rail Stations on Property Values: Applying a Transit Planning Lens.” Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 163, 165-180. Read Paper. 

Rennert, L. (2016). Where Desperation Planning meets Reparations Planning: Transit as an Agent of Equity in the Shaping of Detroit’s Future. Diss. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Blog articles and podcast features

• Rennert, L. “We’re Down. We Can’t Afford to be Out: Saving US Transit Systems May Require Efforts in Creative Persuasion.” Published in Progressing Planning (Blog). October 2021. Read Paper.
• Rennert, L. & Blanc, F. “Urban Planning as Change Agent.” Hosted on Progressing Planning (Podcast Episode Feature). May 2021. Listen to Episode.
• Rennert, L. “Black Women in Planning: Where are We?” Published in Progressing Planning (Blog). December 2020. Read Paper.
• Rennert, L. “Corridors Where Bus is King.” Hosted on Rail~Volution Podcast (Podcast Episode Feature). March 2020. Listen to Episode.
• Forman, B. & Rennert, L. “The Geography of Incarceration in a Gateway City: The Cost and Consequences of High Incarceration Rate Neighborhoods in Worcester.” MassINC Gateway Cities Innovation Institute (Report). September 2017. Read Report.
• Rennert, L. “Reading Employer Demand for Transit in the Job Growth Tea Leaves” MassINC Gateway Cities Innovation Institute (Blog). August 2017. Read Paper.
• Forman, B. & Rennert, L. “Bending the ‘Business as Usual’ Growth Curve” MassINC Gateway Cities Innovation Institute (Blog). May 2017. Read Paper.

Supervisors
Dr. Nancy Holman
Prof. Gabriel Ahlfeldt