She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Transportation Engineering and Logistics at the Faculty of Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She also works as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sydney and as a visiting researcher at the Institute of Complex Engineering Systems (ISCI). Since early 2024, she has been the president of the Chilean Society of Transportation Engineering (SOCHITRAN).
She holds a degree in Civil Industrial Engineering with a specialization in Transportation and a Master’s in Transportation from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She obtained her PhD in the same field at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) at the University of Sydney.
RESEARCH AREAS
She specializes in the formulation and estimation of transportation demand models and discrete choice models, as well as in data collection and survey design.
She is the principal investigator of the Fondecyt Initiation project “Understanding the influence of underlying attitudes and identifying the main drivers for sustainable travel behavior mode choices” (2024 – 2027).
LATEST 10 PUBLICATIONS
Balbontin, C., Hensher, D. A., & Beck, M. J. (2024). The influence of working from home and underlying attitudes on the number of commuting and non-commuting trips by workers during 2020 and 2021 pre- and post-lockdown in Australia. Transportation Research. Part A, Policy And Practice, 179, 103937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103937
Smith, G., Hensher, D. A., Ho, C. Q., & Balbontin, C. (2023). Mobility-as-a-Service users: insights from a trial in Sydney. European Transport Research Review, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12544-023-00612-2
Balbontin, C., Hensher, D. A., & Beck, M. J. (2023). How are life satisfaction, concern towards the use of public transport and other underlying attitudes affecting mode choice for commuting trips? a case study in Sydney from 2020 to 2022. Transportation Research. Part A, Policy And Practice, 176, 103827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103827
Nelson, J. D., Balbontin, C., Hensher, D. A., & Beck, M. J. (2023). A comparative analysis of University Sustainable Travel Plans – Experience from Australia. Transport Policy, 141, 197-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2023.07.021
Balbontin, C., Hensher, D. A., & Beck, M. J. (2023). Relationship between commuting and non-commuting travel activity under the growing incidence of working from home and people’s attitudes towards COVID-19. Transportation. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-023-10403-2
Hensher, D.A., Beck, M.J. and Balbontin, C. (2023) Working from home 22 months on from the beginning of COVID-19: What have we learned for the future provision of transport services?. Research in Transportation Economics, 98, 101271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2023.101271
Balbontin, C., Hensher, D.A., and Ho. C. (2023) Light commercial vehicles destination choice: understanding preferences relative to the number of stop and tour-based trip type. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 171, 103042. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2023.103042
Balbontin, C., Hensher, D. A., & Beck, M. J. (2022). Advanced modelling of commuter choice model and work from home during COVID-19 restrictions in Australia. Transportation Research. Part E, Logistics And Transportation Review, 162, 102718. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2022.102718
Hensher, D.A., Beck, M. J. and Balbontin, C. (2022) Time allocation of reduced commuting time during COVID-19 under working from home. Journal of Transport, Economics and Policy, 56, 4, 399-428.
Balbontin, C., Hensher, D. A., Ho, L., & Wei, E. (2022). Identifying the relationship between tyre performance, fuel consumption and maintenance costs in operating urban bus services: A case study in Sydney, Australia using telematics and fitted sensors. International Journal Of Sustainable Transportation, 17(4), 348-368. https://doi.org/10.1080/15568318.2022.2039977
