Map++: A Crowd-sensing System for Automatic Map Semantics Identification

Digital maps have become a part of our daily life with a number of commercial and free map services. These services have still a huge potential for enhancement with rich semantic information to support a large class of mapping applications. In this paper, we present Map++, a system that leverages standard cell-phone sensors in a crowdsensing approach to automatically enrich digital maps with different road semantics like tunnels, bumps, bridges, footbridges, crosswalks, road capacity, among others. Our analysis shows that cell-phones sensors with humans in vehicles or walking get affected by the different road features, which can be mined to extend the features of both free and commercial mapping services. We present the design and implementation of Map++ and evaluate it in a large city. Our evaluation shows that we can detect the different semantics accurately with at most 3% false positive rate and 6% false negative rate for both vehicle and pedestrian-based features. Moreover, we show that Map++ has a small energy footprint on the cell-phones, highlighting its promise as a ubiquitous digital maps enriching service.Comment: Published in the Eleventh Annual IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication, and Networking (IEEE SECON 2014

Smartphone sensing methods for studying behavior in everyday life

Human behavior is the focus of many studies in the social, health, and behavioral sciences. Yet, few studies use behavioral observation methods to collect objective measures of behavior as it occurs in daily life, out in the real world — presumably the context of ultimate interest. Here, we provide a review of recent studies focused on measuring human behavior using smartphones and their embedded mobile sensors. To draw attention to current advances in the field of smartphone sensing, we describe the daily behaviors captured using these methods, which include movement behaviors (physical activity, mobility patterns), social behaviors (face-to-face encounters, computer-mediated communications), and other daily activities (non-mediated and mediated activities). We conclude by pointing to promising areas of future research for studies using Smartphone Sensing Methods (SSMs) in the behavioral sciences.This research was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Award BCS-1520288

Individual accessibility and segregation on activity spaces: an agent-based modelling approach

One of the main challenges of cities is the increasing social inequality imposed by the way population groups, jobs, amenities and services, as well as the transportation infrastructure, are distributed across urban space. In this thesis, the concepts of accessibility and segregation are used to study these inequalities. They can be defined as the interaction of individuals with urban opportunities and with individuals from other population groups, respectively. Interactions are made possible by people’s activities and movement within a city, which characterise accessibility and segregation as inherently dynamic and individual-based concepts. Nevertheless, they are largely studied from a static and place-based perspective. This thesis proposes an analytical and exploratory framework for studying individual-based accessibility and segregation in cities using individuals’ travel trajectories in space and time. An agent-based simulation model was developed to generate individual trajectories dynamically, employing standard datasets such as census and OD matrices and allowing for multiple perspectives of analysis by grouping individuals based on their attributes. The model’s ability to simulate people’s trajectories realistically was validated through systematic sensitivity tests and statistical comparison with real-world trajectories from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and travel times from London, UK. The approach was applied to two exploratory studies: São Paulo, Brazil, and London, UK. The first revealed inequalities in accessibility by income, education and gender and also unveiled within-group differences beyond place-based patterns. The latter explored ethnic segregation, unveiling patterns of potential interaction among ethnic groups in the urban space beyond their residential and workplace locations. Those studies demonstrated how inequality in accessibility and segregation can be studied both at large metropolitan scales and at fine level of detail, using standard datasets, with modest computational requirements and ease of operationalisation. The proposed approach opens up avenues for the study of complex dynamics of interaction of urban populations in a variety of urban contexts

Mis-Guided Exploration of Cities: an ambulant investigation of participative politics of place

The politics of place and walking as an arts practice form the core concerns of my research. The research is being conducted with particular reference to the ongoing Mis-Guide projects, conceived and produced by the site-specific arts company, Wrights & Sites, of which I am a member. Our apparent rejection of performance-making for an audience has led to walking with spectators as collaborators in the work, and has made the physical journeys and verbal exchanges along the way an integral part of the practice. Through this work, which revolves around place, site-specific arts and urban walking, I am harnessing existing knowledge about cities as spectacle in the footsteps of the Flaneur, the Dadaist, and the Situationist and in recognition of contemporary works by artists who use journey and place as the text, reference points and resources that generate or support their research and practice. I am exploring a sense that urban spaces and places can offer passages to utopian, creative and optimistic relationships with the everyday. I am engaged in a research writing or re-writing of the city activated by wanderings and explorations that can lead, for example, to an active engagement in issues of ecology and environmental planning. In the spirit of a walk between places and ideas I have attempted to structure the writing as if the writer and the reader are passing though or over different thresholds. We pass through thresholds or doorways or across boundaries in our physical and mental development but we also employ such concepts practically and imaginatively in the devising of performance work. As theatre-makers we could make claim to be leaving the everyday and entering a dedicated space called a studio where by degrees we often engage in vocal, physical and mental practices that might appear very strange and out of place in any other context. The crossing of thresholds and boundaries is also part of the composition of performance with entrances and exits, appearance and disappearance, transformations and shape shifting as key aspects of such work. Some of these thresholds in this thesis might be regarded as doorways or obstacles whilst others might verge closer to the ambient hubs noted by poets and pychogeographers. I see this writing as a means of interrogating and exploring and developing my own practice towards particular social and environmental issues

The Temporality and Rythmicity of Lived Street Space

Tämä väitöskirja, lyhyesti ilmaistuna, tarkastelee arjen katutilan ja kaupunkiliikkumisen ajallisuuksia ja rytmisyyksiä. Kadut ja muut liikkumisen tilat kaupungissa ovat urbaanin arkielämän tärkeimpiä tapahtumapaikkoja – ne ovat keskeisessä roolissa siinä, miten (rutiininomaisesti) käytämme ja olemme vuorovaikutuksessa rakennetun ympäristön kanssa, miten juurrumme asuinympäristöihimme, ja miten kohtaamme muita ihmisiä kaupunkitilassa – ja näin ollen ovat olennaisessa roolissa elävien, kestävien ja tasa-arvoisten kaupunkien muodostumisessa. Tarkastellen katua mobiilina kokoutumana (mobile assemblage), tutkimus selvittää ja käsitteellistää eräitä keskeisimpiä liikkumisen ja katutilan rytmejä, ja pyrkii tuottamaan yksityiskohtaisen kuvan kaupunkiympäristön toistuvista (mikro-)ajallisuuksista liikkumisen näkökulmasta, mitkä osaltaan määrittävät kaupunkiympäristöä jokapäiväisenä ’elettynä’ tilana. Työn teoreettinen kehys ammentaa useista eri kaupunkien ajallisuutta käsitteellistävistä perinteistä, erityisesti Lefebvreläisestä rytmianalyysistä, ja määrittelee tarkasteltavat liikkumisen rytmit tilan, ajan ja kehollisen liikkumisen erottamattomiksi keskinäissuhteiksi. Tutkimuksen empiirisessä keskiössä on ruohonjuuritason liikkuminen. Liikkuminen, tai mobiliteetti, ymmärretään tässä laajasti (seuraten uutta mobiliteetin paradigmaa) toimintoina, jotka muodostavat merkityksiä, kokemuksia, kuulumisen tunteita, sosiaalis-materiaalisia vuorovaikutuksia, mielikuvia ja (liikkumisen) kulttuureita samalla, kun ne siirtävät ihmisiä paikasta A paikkaan B. Tutkimuksessa on tarkasteltu arjessa toistuvia kävely- ja ajoreittejä sekä liikkumisen tapahtumaa tavanomaisissa katuympäristöissä kahdessa suuressa suomalaisessa kaupungissa eri liikkumisen tutkimuksen menetelmiä (mobile methods) (mukaan menemiseen perustuvia syvähaastatteluita, valokuvia, reittivideoita ja reittikarttoja; videoituja paikkahavainnointeja) sekä jälkifenomenologista tutkimusotetta hyödyntäen. Tutkimusaineiston analyysi – mikä on tarkemmin esitelty sisällytetyissä tutkimusartikkeleissa (#01–04) – tuo esiin, yhtäältä, miten ihmiset (inter)subjektiivisesti hahmottavat, kokevat ja toiminnallaan muokkaavat kadun (ja laajemmin kaupungin) rytmisyyksiä omien liikkumisrutiiniensa konteksteissa, ja toisaalta, miten tilallisen toiminnan ja liikkeen kautta tilassa liikkujat tuottavat ajallista, tai hetkellistä, kadun arkkitehtuuria sopeutumalla tai haastamalla muualta asetettuja rytmisyyksiä. Analyysi tuo lisäksi esiin erilaisia rytmien välillisyyksiä (#01) ja rytmityksen prosesseja (#02), kaupunkiympäristön morfologian vaikutuksia näiden rytmien muodostumiseen (#03), sekä katutilan haltuunoton ajallisesti määrityviä rytmisiä muotoja (#04). Työ esittää, että nouseva rytmianalyyttinen tutkimusote on soveltuva ja hyödyllinen tapa lähestyä ja kartoittaa dynaamisia ja alati muuttuvia kaupunki- ilmiöitä. Arjen katutilan suhteen rytmianalyysi paljastaa erilaisia mikrotason ajallisuuksia (yhdessä makrotason kanssa), joiden valossa katuympäristö näyttäytyy monien heterogeenisten ja samanaikaisten ajallisuuksien tilana. Rytmianalyysi auttaa myös ymmärtämään kaupunkiliikkumisen moniulotteisuutta sekä arjen reittien merkityksiä funktionaalisten tekijöiden ohella, tuoden esiin ajallisten keho-ympäristö suhteiden moninaisuuden kirjoa. Yhdessä ne piirtävät vivahteikkaan kuvan kaupunkirakenteista kartoittaen sekä formaaleja (suunnitellut, ’ylhäältä’ asetetut) että informaaleja (sattumanvaraiset tai rutiininomaiset, ’alhaalta’ asetetut) liikkumisen rakenteita. Ne korostavat ihmistoiminnan jatkuvaa, niin rytmistä kuin kitkaista sykettä, kaupunkikudoksen intensiteettiä. Toisin sanoen, ne tuovat esiin kaupungin ja katuympäristöjen tahdin moninaisuuden sekä ennalta suunniteltuna että liikkeellä olevien ihmisten tuottamana.This dissertation, in short, examines the temporalities and rhythmicities of day-to- day urban mobility practices on the city street. Streets, and other mobility-centred spaces of the city, are the main stages of public urban life – they are essential to how we (routinely) use and interact with the built environment, connect to our neighbourhoods, and encounter other city dwellers – and thus play a key part in the making of liveable, sustainable and just cities. Examining the street as a mobile assemblage, the study probes and conceptualizes some of the key rhythms that emerge from such daily mobility patterns of the street, aiming to draw a detailed picture of the recurring urban (micro)temporalities from a mobilities perspective that partially constitute the ‘lived’ aspects of the day-to-day built environments. The theoretical framework on temporalities draws from various conceptual lineages, notably a Lefebvrian rhythmanalytical framework, and defines the studied mobility rhythms of the street as the inseparable relations between spaces, times and mobile embodied practices. The practical research focus is set on the grassroot-level embodied mobilities. Here mobility practices are understood in a broad sense (following a new mobilities paradigm) as activities that, whilst physically moving people from place A to place B, also produce meanings, experiences, sense of belonging, socio-material interactions, imageries, and (mobile) cultures in the process. Utilizing various mobile research methods (in-depth go-along interviews, participant-produced photographs, route videos and route maps; extensive videoed site observations), and by taking a postphenomenological research perspective, the dissertation examines recurring walking and driving routes, and the mobile event of day-to-day street space in two major Finnish cities. The analysis of the data – presented in four research articles (#01–04)– reveals, on one hand, how people (inter)subjectively make sense of and modify the rhythmicities of the street (and the city in general) inside their own mobile daily routines, and, on the other, how people – through their (mobile) uses of the space – produce temporal, or momentarily perceivable, architecture of the street by adapting to, or contesting, pre-set rhythmicities. The analysis further reveals different mediacies (#01) and processes of pacing (#02) of such rhythmicities, the role of urban morphologies in the formation of these rhythmicities (#03), and the time-sensitive rhythmic modes of appropriating the street through mobile uses (#04). The work proposes that the emerging rhythmanalytical research framework is an applicable and advantageous mode for approaching and mapping the urban phenomena that are inherently caught in a continuous flux and flow. In the case of the day-to-day street space, rhythmanalysis can be used to reveal micro-level (next to macro-level) temporalities that depict the street as a site of multiple heterogeneous and simultaneous temporalities and timings. Likewise, rhythmanalysis, helps us to understand the complexity of urban mobilities and day-to-day routes beyond their strictly functional means, revealing the multiplicities of temporal relations in such recurring body-environment relations. Together, they are able to draw a nuanced picture of some of the key urban structures, mapping both formal (planned and designed, set from the ‘above’) as well as informal (accidental and routine-like, set from the ‘below’) mobility structures of the city. They highlight the continuous, rhythmic and arrhythmic, pulses of human activity in the city, the intensities of the urban fabric. In other words, they reveal multiplicities of the beat of the city and its streets, both the planned and designed as well as the ones produced by their inhabitants on the move

What It’s Like to Ride a Bike: Understanding Cyclist Experiences

Cyclists can make important contributions to transport policy, if only we ask them. This thesis explores how people experience cycling in three case study cities – Perth, Melbourne and Utrecht. Cyclists were recruited for semi-structured and go-along interviews. The key findings indicate that the combination of traditional and mobile methods yield valuable information for developing understandings of the embodied experience of cycling, which can be used to inform policy and guide the creation of sustainable cities

Constructing pedestrian-centric street mobility: Observation and simulation for design

There are three principal components to the research presented in this thesis: a video-observation study of pedestrian behaviours and interactions with traffic, leading to the development of an agent-based digital simulation, and demonstrating the potential of this simulation for designing pedestrian-centric interventions in the streetscape. The long-term objective is to devise streetscapes that responsively adapt to the needs of pedestrians. Since the advent of car culture in the late 1930s, the approaches to street design have prioritised efficient motorised traffic flow, restricting walking and neglecting the pedestrian point of view. In recent years, however, a growing interest in making urban spaces more pedestrian-friendly has emerged, popularising concepts such as walkability, shared space, and traffic calming. These approaches aim to promote active travel and reduce car dependency in order to mitigate congestion, pollution, accidents and other harms. Urban studies have concentrated primarily on pedestrian-only zones and utilised spatial features as a way to reach pedestrian-friendly streets. Meanwhile, transport studies have tended to approach the street from a throughput and vehicle-oriented stance. Despite these endeavours, pedestrian-oriented approaches appear to lack systematic consideration of pedestrian behaviours as they interact with motor vehicles and street infrastructure. My PhD research differs from prior studies by focusing on these behaviours and interactions to support a pedestrian-oriented street mobility system. The current design of streets communicates to pedestrians via its structures and signs, such as barriers, crossings, and lights, while its capacity to respond and adapt is minimal. In contrast, this thesis argues that, since the street environment is inherently dynamic, we should analyse its dynamics and design the street to be responsive. Through responsiveness, my aim is to increase the convenience of pedestrian movement whilst creating a safe experience. This PhD asks the question 'how to design a pedestrian-centric street system that dynamically manages street mobility?'. The research takes a practice-based and reflective approach, designing agent-based simulations based on a qualitative observational study. Designing a simulation accomplishes two things: 1) it creates a space for implementing and evaluating possible design interventions, and 2) it prompts new insights into the behavioural processes of pedestrians. My research has followed an iterative cycle in line with second-order cybernetics: in two feedback loops, the first study informed the second study while the second informed the first. The video observation of street behaviours particularly explored pedestrian decision and interaction processes, identifying pedestrians’ own observational strategies and their varying levels of risk-taking. These aspects are reflected in the simulation. The first chapter introduces the pedestrian issues on the street and sets out the key concepts in pedestrian-centric street design. The second chapter examines the literature and existing practice that addresses pedestrian and vehicle interactions on the street. Chapter three sets out the theoretical framework and the following chapter describes the methodology. The three subsequent chapters present the following studies: (1) understanding the context by conducting qualitative video observation in a real street environment to observe and document the relations between streets, pedestrians and vehicles; (2) creating an artificial pedestrian society for simulation purposes, using agent-based modelling, both to refine the understanding developed through video analysis and to create a platform for experimentation; (3) design and implementation of prototype responsive interventions within the simulation, focusing on localised changes in the environment to empower pedestrians. The last chapter reflects on these projects by discussing the research contributions in terms of methods, techniques, and practices. The methodological innovation includes combining qualitative and computational tools as well as the use of simulation and video analysis in an iterative and reflexive cycle. Theoretical contributions include evaluating streets through pedestrian dynamics, creating a taxonomy of existing pedestrian interventions according to their spatial and temporal impacts, and rethinking the street as a responsive environment. The practical component advances the technical state of the art by expanding the capabilities of pedestrian agents when negotiating with vehicles and making crossing decisions and demonstrates the potential for designing novel interventions in the streetscape, including those that respond to pedestrian behaviour. The last chapter, also, emphasises the role of reflective design practice and the place of simulation within it

Sustainable | Sustaining City Streets

Streets are an integral part of every city on Earth. They channel the people, vehicles, and materials that help make urban life what it is. They are conduits for the oft-taken-for-granted infrastructures that carry fresh water, energy, and information, and that remove excess stormwater and waste. The very air that we breathe—fresh or foul—flows through our street canyons. That streets are the arteries of the city is, indeed, an apt metaphor. But city streets also function as a front yard, linear ecosystem, market, performance stage, and civic forum, among other duties. In their various forms, streets are places of interaction and exchange, from the everyday to the extraordinary. As the editors affirm, the more we scrutinize, share, and activate sustainable approaches to streets, the greater the likelihood that our streets will help sustain life in cities and, by extension, the planet. While diverse in subject, the papers in this volume are unified in seeing the city street as the complex, impactful, and pliable urban phenomenon that it is. Topics range from greenstreets to transit networks to pedestrian safety and walkability. Anyone seeking interdisciplinary perspectives on what makes for good city streets and street networks should find this book of interest

Word on the Street

As the site of everyday social interaction, the street has always provided a source of inspiration for writers, artists and musicians. It has also become the focus for critical theorists such as Walter Benjamin and Michel de Certeau in their attempt to push the limits of textual analysis beyond literature and art towards our daily experience of the world. This collection of essays and interviews examines the street as both the site and space of competing discourses and also a form of discourse in its own right. Covering a broad range of topics including the role of the street in literature, photography and journalism, practices which take place upon the street such as skateboarding, graffiti and flânerie and the politics and philosophy involved in negotiating the street, Word on the Street affirms the continued and renewed importance of the pedestrian street in the social consciousness of the 21st century