Realtime tracking of passengers on the London underground transport by matching smartphone accelerometer footprints

Passengers travelling on the London underground tubes currently have no means of knowing their whereabouts between stations. The challenge for providing such service is that the London underground tunnels have no GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or any kind of terrestrial signals to leverage. This paper presents a novel yet practical idea to track passengers in realtime using the smartphone accelerometer and a training database of the entire London underground network. Our rationales are that London tubes are self-driving transports with predictable accelerations, decelerations, and travelling time and that they always travel on the same fixed rail lines between stations with distinctive bumps and vibrations, which permit us to generate an accelerometer map of the tubes’ movements on each line. Given the passenger’s accelerometer data, we identify in realtime what line they are travelling on and what station they depart from, using a pattern-matching algorithm, with an accuracy of up to about 90% when the sampling length is equivalent to at least 3 station stops. We incorporate Principal Component Analysis to perform inertial tracking of passengers’ positions along the line when trains break away from scheduled movements during rush hours. Our proposal was painstakingly assessed on the entire London underground, covering approximately 940 km of travelling distance, spanning across 381 stations on 11 different lines

Peoples’ perspectives on the walking environment in rapidly growing cities: The case of Dar es Salaam City

Goal and Objectives:The overall objective of this paper is to examine the perspectives of pedestrians on the walking environmennt in a stuation of increased transport and to recommend for policy and planning interventions through which the walking environment in cities of developing countries can be improved.Methodology:On methodological fronts, the study adopted a mixed research methodological approach and a caste study research strategy. Data were collected by using observations, unguided group discussions, questionnaire and checklist. Open and closed questions were developed and addressed to the resident households, pedestrians and professional experts to provide views regarding the walking environment in Sub Saharan African cities. A total of 100 respondents (72 resident households and 28 pedestrians) and 22 pupils were purposely selected from three sub/cases for in-depth interviews. Out of 100 respondents 28 were women, 12 were people with disabilities and 15 were the elderly (aged 60+) persons.Results:The findings revealed that the physical environment in Dar es Salaam is not pedestrian friendly as the pedestrians’ requirements are inadequately considered in the national related policies and project implementations. People in Dar es Salaam perceive that the walking environment is uncomfortable, dangerous and insecure from crime. The walkways provided lacked continuity, maintenances, safety, street furniture and fixtures. The walkways also experienced encroachments by street vendors, flooding and damping of solid wastes. The National policies give little attention to pedestrians and other NMT road users, who are often the losers in the struggle for urban space and have little power to influence the urban transport agenda.

Planning for Secure Surface Bus Stops in Toronto

This paper evaluates the ways spatial planning understands and engages with personal security through a study of inner-suburban surface transit stops in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Although often considered by planning, personal security does not appear to be subjected to the same level of attention as other design and planning priorities. The foundation for this study was a review of security focussed criminological, spatial planning, and a small quantity of legal texts in order to analyze overlaps and deviations. This was followed by analysis of relationship between personal security and the city’s public transit operator, the Toronto Transit Commission, through a review of historical texts and current policy documents guiding surface transit stop placement and design. The final component of this paper is a discussion of an audit of the design and placement of a selection of conventional bus stops in inner-suburban areas. Overall, there are indications that some progress is being made in addressing personal security but there is still significant room for improvement

Stations as Nodes

At the main point of intersection between the railway and the city, stations are key elements in the organization of the intermodal transport as well as catalysts of urban developments in metropolises, medium and small cities. The focus of this publication is to explore the enrichment of a renewed approach of railway stations as intermodal nodes, therefore acting as breeding grounds for both urban and social developments. This book has been initiated and built upon several activities currently running at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), Delft University of Technology (DIMI, Delft Deltas Infrastructure Mobility Initiative and Department of Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment) and University of Paris-Est (l’École d’Urbanisme de Paris). These activities have been framed within the context of two rapidly developing metropolitan areas: Randstad in the Netherlands and Métropole du Grand Paris in the Ile de France. This volume forms the basis for a research on the ‘role of stations in future metropolitan areas’ with the ambition to link the two countries, learning from their different cities and distinct geographical context through comparable mobility challenges on the levels of the inner city, suburban and peripheral areas. In line with these considerations, in 2018 AMS Institute, TU Delft/ DIMI and the Dutch Embassy in Paris with Atelier Néerlandais organized a successful workshop: ‘Stations of the Future’, in collaboration with La Fabrique de la Cité. Together with Dutch and French planning entities, involving mass transit operators and railway companies, this workshop focused on several case studies in both metropolitan areas to understand the role of station hubs as intermodal nodes. During this joint French-Dutch event that took place in Paris, we spoke on topics like Station as intermodal node, Station as destination and Station as data center, including a debate on the relation between public space and architecture, densification and programming of station areas, pedestrian flows management and the integration of data. Following the Paris workshop, the summer school ‘Integrated Mobility Challenges in Future Metropolitan Areas’ was organised by AMS Institute and Delft University of Technology/DIMI with the collaboration of the ARENA architectural research network, University of Paris-Est and the City of Amsterdam. This 8-day workshop extended the debate among international young professionals, academics and master students by looking at an important rail-metro node in the metropolitan area of the city Amsterdam: Sloterdijk Station – a crucial hub in a bigger urban area for mobility and exchange, and for urban growth. The main question was: which approaches and scenarios can be tested and applied to these intermodal nodes, particularly when dealing with lack of space and growing number of users? The results were four very different plans to improve the Sloterdijk Station area and to make the station a ‘future proof’ intermodal hub. In this publication, invited experts from practice and knowledge institutes in France and the Netherlands share their common experience and draw on specific aspects and problems of conception, management and development of stations. A brief overview of the results of the two initiatives ‘Stations of the Future’ and the summer school ‘Integrated Mobility Challenges in Future Metropolitan Areas’ is here illustrated, accompanied by photo reportages of both events and by a curated reportage of the Amsterdam Sloterdijk station area

Stations as Nodes:

At the main point of intersection between the railway and the city, stations are key elements in the organization of the intermodal transport as well as catalysts of urban developments in metropolises, medium and small cities. The focus of this publication is to explore the enrichment of a renewed approach of railway stations as intermodal nodes, therefore acting as breeding grounds for both urban and social developments. This book has been initiated and built upon several activities currently running at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), Delft University of Technology (DIMI, Delft Deltas Infrastructure Mobility Initiative and Department of Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment) and University of Paris-Est (l’École d’Urbanisme de Paris). These activities have been framed within the context of two rapidly developing metropolitan areas: Randstad in the Netherlands and Métropole du Grand Paris in the Ile de France. This volume forms the basis for a research on the ‘role of stations in future metropolitan areas’ with the ambition to link the two countries, learning from their different cities and distinct geographical context through comparable mobility challenges on the levels of the inner city, suburban and peripheral areas. In line with these considerations, in 2018 AMS Institute, TU Delft/ DIMI and the Dutch Embassy in Paris with Atelier Néerlandais organized a successful workshop: ‘Stations of the Future’, in collaboration with La Fabrique de la Cité. Together with Dutch and French planning entities, involving mass transit operators and railway companies, this workshop focused on several case studies in both metropolitan areas to understand the role of station hubs as intermodal nodes. During this joint French-Dutch event that took place in Paris, we spoke on topics like Station as intermodal node, Station as destination and Station as data center, including a debate on the relation between public space and architecture, densification and programming of station areas, pedestrian flows management and the integration of data. Following the Paris workshop, the summer school ‘Integrated Mobility Challenges in Future Metropolitan Areas’ was organised by AMS Institute and Delft University of Technology/DIMI with the collaboration of the ARENA architectural research network, University of Paris-Est and the City of Amsterdam. This 8-day workshop extended the debate among international young professionals, academics and master students by looking at an important rail-metro node in the metropolitan area of the city Amsterdam: Sloterdijk Station – a crucial hub in a bigger urban area for mobility and exchange, and for urban growth. The main question was: which approaches and scenarios can be tested and applied to these intermodal nodes, particularly when dealing with lack of space and growing number of users? The results were four very different plans to improve the Sloterdijk Station area and to make the station a ‘future proof’ intermodal hub. In this publication, invited experts from practice and knowledge institutes in France and the Netherlands share their common experience and draw on specific aspects and problems of conception, management and development of stations. A brief overview of the results of the two initiatives ‘Stations of the Future’ and the summer school ‘Integrated Mobility Challenges in Future Metropolitan Areas’ is here illustrated, accompanied by photo reportages of both events and by a curated reportage of the Amsterdam Sloterdijk station area

Human mobility: Models and applications

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this recordRecent years have witnessed an explosion of extensive geolocated datasets related to human movement, enabling scientists to quantitatively study individual and collective mobility patterns, and to generate models that can capture and reproduce the spatiotemporal structures and regularities in human trajectories. The study of human mobility is especially important for applications such as estimating migratory flows, traffic forecasting, urban planning, and epidemic modeling. In this survey, we review the approaches developed to reproduce various mobility patterns, with the main focus on recent developments. This review can be used both as an introduction to the fundamental modeling principles of human mobility, and as a collection of technical methods applicable to specific mobility-related problems. The review organizes the subject by differentiating between individual and population mobility and also between short-range and long-range mobility. Throughout the text the description of the theory is intertwined with real-world applications.US Army Research Offic

MULTI-SENSOR LOCALIZATION AND TRACKING IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND INDOOR WAYFINDING FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED USERS

This dissertation proposes a series of multi-sensor localization and tracking algorithms particularly developed for two important application domains, which are disaster management and indoor wayfinding for blind and visually impaired (BVI) users. For disaster management, we developed two different localization algorithms, one each for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which enable the disaster management system to track patients in real-time. Both algorithms work in the absence of any pre-deployed infrastructure along with smartphones and wearable devices. Regarding indoor wayfinding for BVI users, we have explored several types of indoor positioning techniques including BLE-based, inertial, visual and hybrid approaches to offer accurate and reliable location and orientation in complex navigation spaces. In this dissertation, significant contributions have been made in the design and implementation of various localization and tracking algorithms under different requirements of certain applications

Walking, Crossing Streets and Choosing Pedestrian Routes: A Survey of Recent Insights from the Social/Behavioral Sciences

Walking at first appears to be a relatively simple, mundane behavior that should pose no great puzzle for the diligent researcher in the social and behavioral sciences. The review presented here of recent studies, however, demonstrates that the behavior and experiences of ordinary pedestrians are filled with opportunities for empirical investigation and intricate theory building. But, why bring these studies together for synthesis in this volume? I suggest here that there are, in fact, several reasons that argue in favor of a timely focus on the apparently simple behavior of the pedestrian. First, the deceptive simplicity of the pedestrian experience provides an excellent empirical focus for examination of a wide range of topics prominent in recent work in the emerging field of human-environment studies. Readers unfamiliar with the scope and intensity of research in this interdisciplinary enterprise would do well to consult the pages of Environment and Behavior; Man Environment Systems; Environment and Planning; the annual proceedings of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA); and the topical volumes in the new review series entitled Human Behavior and Environment: Advances in Theory and Research, edited by Irwin Altman, Amos Rapoport, and Joachim Wohlwill. Even summary consideration of the many topics that have become the focus of considerable investigation in the last decade reveals that empirical and conceptual work regarding territoriality, crowding, privacy, personal space, sensory overload and deprivation, approach-avoidance, navigation and orientation, mental mapping, search processes, and environmental perception, evaluation, and decision making all bear on various facets of the pedestrian experience. Empirical verification of the viability of these conceptual ideas reveals a void which the study of the pedestrian helps to fill. The inner processes and complexity of pedestrian behavior are far greater, for example, than the outward simplicity suggested by the simple geometrical representation of a pedestrian trip as a line connecting an origin and a destination. The complexity that lies behind this apparent simplicity provides a major challenge for the students of human-environment relations