Smart Trip Alternatives for the Curious

International audienceWhen searching for flights, current systems often suggest routesinvolving waiting times at stopovers. There might exist alternative routes which aremore attractive from a touristic perspective because their duration isnot necessarily much longer while offering enough time in anappropriate place. Choosing among suchalternatives requires additional planning efforts to make sure thate.g. points of interest can conveniently be reached in theallowed time frame. We present a system that automatically computes smart tripalternatives between any two cities. To do so, it searchespoints of interest in large semantic datasets considering theset of accessible areas around each possible layover. It then elects feasible alternatives and displays theirdifferences with respect to the default trip

Priorities, policies and (time)scales : the delivery of emissions reductions in the UK transport sector

Peer reviewedPreprin

Neighborhood Crime and Transit Station Access Mode choice - Phase III of Neighborhood Crime and Travel Behavior

This report provides the findings from the third phase of a three-part study about the influences of neighborhood crimes on travel mode choice. While previous phases found evidence that high levels of neighborhood crime discourage people from choosing to walk, bicycle and ride transit, consistent with the authors’ hypothesis, they also produced counterintuitive findings suggesting that in some cases, high crime neighborhoods encourage transit ridership at the expense of driving—the opposite of what common sense would suggest. Phase 3 tested possible explanations for these counterintuitive findings with a series of methodological improvements. These improvements were: Improvement 1: Used the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system‘s 2008 Station Profile Survey travel data set to replace the Bay Area Travel Survey (BATS) 2000 data used in previous phases. Improvement 2: Separated drop-off and drive-alone modes in logit models. Improvement 3: Variables at the corridor level replaced previous variables at the transportation analysis zone (TAZ) level. Improvement 4: Average parcel size (APS) variable replaced the intersection density measure of urban design. Improvement 5: Used nested logit modeling techniques. These yielded strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that high-crime neighborhoods encourage driving, and they generated none of the counterintuitive findings from previous phases

Assessment of Metropolitan Urban Forms and City Geo-spatial Configurations using Green Infrastructure Framework: The Case Study of Lagos Island, Lagos State, Nigeria

For over three decades, the economic and commercial activities of both local and foreign organizations, firms, industries and institutions have been moving to the Lagos Island in search for a reputable business atmosphere and this has led to the emergence of vertical urbanizations of the area thereby turning it into a foremost Central Business District (CBD). The Lagos metropolis is the economic hub of West Africa and the Lagos Island has the bulk of the economic activities. Most of the ill-controlled infrastructural developments are along the major streets and the Island districts are supposed to have certain spatial configurations expected of a metropolitan city like Lagos. The basic urban form design policies and theories had beenneglected long time ago thereby making the streets faced with chaotic smart growths, worrisome urban resilience and harsh biophilic architecture with little or no consideration to green landscapes. This study is situated upon the Urban Morphological Theory which investigates the relationships between urban designspatial configurations, landscape and ecological urbanism and some other green city conceptual frameworks. Scholars in the field of landscape urbanism had made divergent or opposed theoretical, conceptual and methodological choices, opportunities in the metamorphosis of a city forms and streetscapes. The normative, descriptive and the critical analysis of the theories were holistically investigated and assessed which informed the study objectives. How do we conceptualize the spatial order of contemporary Lagos Island?What models can best describe its emergent urban forms almost without any green innovations and infrastructures? Land use and detailed geodetic data were obtained from various analysis conducted by the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), interviews and personal deductions. This study identifies the different barriers, green innovative strategies for achieving sustainable urban morphology, exploring relationships between quality of life in cities, wellbeing of citizens and mobility, exploring relationships between spatial configurations and equity, exploring implications of emerging technologies for urban development and dynamics, exploring implications of emerging lifestyles and/or business practice for dwellers. This paper demonstrates and evaluates the present upheavals in the urban spatial configurations and geomorphology, social development framework and socioeconomic masterplans for Africa’s business districts

A People's History Of Recent Urban Transportation Innovation

Who are the people leading the charge in urban transportation? As our report explains, the short answer is that it takes leaders from three different sectors of urban society to make change happen quickly.First, there needs to be a robust civic vanguard, the more diverse their range of skills and participation, the better. Second, mayors, commissioners and other city leaders need to create the mandate and champion the change. The third sector is the agency staff. When these three sectors align, relatively quick transformation is possible. Several cities, including New York and Pittsburgh, recently experienced this alignment of a healthy civic community, a visionary and bold mayor and transportation head, and internal agency champions. Our report also highlighted the potential of other cities, such as Charlotte, where the civic sector continues to build on and widen their base

Enhancing travel recommendations: Ai-driven personalization through user digital footprints

Esta tesis tiene como objetivo examinar la manera en que la huella digital que dejan los usuarios en internet puede utilizarse para optimizar la personalización de los servicios turísticos, mediante el uso de inteligencia artificial. El documento propone que el auge de la inteligencia artificial ha abierto un mundo de oportunidades para desarrollar nuevas herramientas para mejorar la experiencia de viaje digital. El enfoque se basa en la idea de que las huellas digitales son únicas y particulares de cada individuo y estos valiosos datos pueden dar lugar a sugerencias de viaje más inteligentes y certeras. Se consideran las actitudes de comportamiento del usuario, como la influencia del contenido generado por el usuario en las redes sociales y el boca a boca electrónico en el proceso de planificación del viaje, así como las implicaciones de este rastro de datos en la optimización de los servicios de viaje personalizados. Este modelo describe la relación entre la inteligencia artificial y la hiper personalización de servicios. Como es una tendencia creciente que está alterando nuestra realidad actual, la tesis presentada desarrolla una aplicación de viajes a medida que, con el permiso del usuario, aprovecha los datos recopilados de las redes sociales personales para construir un plan de viaje específico basado en las preferencias individuales.This thesis aims to examine the way the digital footprint users leave behind can be utilized to optimize the personalization of tourism services, through the use of artificial intelligence. The paper proposes that the surge of artificial intelligence has opened a world of opportunities to develop new tools to improve the digital travel experience. The approach is based on the idea that digital footprints are unique and particular to each individual and this valuable data can result in smarter and unerring travel suggestions. Behavioral attitudes of the user, such as the influence of user-generated content in social media and e-word of mouth in the travel planning process, are considered, as well as the implications of this data trail in the optimization of customized travel services. This model describes the relationship between artificial intelligence and hyper-personalization of services. As it is a growing trend that is disrupting our current reality, the presented thesis develops a tailor-made traveling application that, with permission of the user, leverages the data collected from personal social media to build a specific travel plan based on each user’s preferences