There is an increasing trend of people leaving digital traces through social media. This reality opens new horizons for urban studies. With this kind of data, researchers and urban planners can detect many aspects of how people live in cities and can also suggest how to transform cities into more efficient and smarter places to live in. In particular, their digital trails can be used to investigate tastes of individuals, and what attracts them to live in a particular city or to spend their vacation there. In this paper we propose an unconventional way to study how people experience the...
Human mobility in a city represents a fascinating complex system that combines social interactions, daily constraints and random explorations. New collections of data that capture human mobility not only help us to understand their underlying patterns but also to design intelligent systems. Bringing us the opportunity to reduce traffic and to develop other applications that make cities more adaptable to human needs. In this paper, we propose an adaptive routing strategy which accounts for individual constraints to recommend personalized routes and, at the same time, for constraints imposed...
The trend of digitalization and smart cities is enabling new Traffic Signal Control methods, with urban transportation Digital Twins acting as a key asset, enabling data-based approaches for reducing urban traffic congestion. We propose a Digital-Twin-enabled Deep-Q-Network Traffic Signal Control scheme, trained to improve the signal control efficiency of a single intersection in spite of possible sensor failures. The controller is trained using a Digital Twin of the western half of Södermalm, Stockholm, with rewards mirroring the Max-pressure signal control. We demonstrate in simulations...
Researchers investigated the testing and evaluation of radio and communication protocol standards for the 5.9 GHz spectrum that has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission for exclusive transportation use. This spectrum allocation is intended for use as Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) in the context of high-value Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. In this report, we summarize the Wireless Access in a Vehicular Environment (WAVE) standardization effort for 5.9 GHz DSRC, its current status, and related issues of the IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 1609...
Miguel Street is a winding, narrow route through the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco. Until a few years ago, only those living along the road traveled it, and they understood its challenges well. Now it's packed with cars that use it as a shortcut from congested Mission Street to heavily traveled Market Street. Residents must struggle to get to their homes, and accidents are a daily occurrence. The problem began when smartphone apps like Waze, Apple Maps, and Google Maps came into widespread use, offering drivers real-time routing around traffic tie-ups. An estimated 1 billion...
The transportation landscape is in transition. Rising congestion, failing infrastructure, changing behaviors, adapting to a more inclusive definition of mobility, the desire for cleaner and more efficient engines, and grappling with the role of autonomous vehicles and drones, to name just some of the factors, demands that we take a fresh approach to designing for mobility. Yet the rapid pace of technology development is creating emerging trends that are driving change faster than our ability to model, design, and manage them. This could potentially result in undesirable economic,...
The rapid introduction of mobile navigation aides that use real-time road network information to suggest alternate routes to drivers is making it more difficult for researchers and government transportation agencies to understand and predict the dynamics of congested transportation systems. Computer simulation is a key capability for these organizations to analyze hypothetical scenarios; however, the complexity of transportation systems makes it challenging for them to simulate very large geographical regions, such as multi-city metropolitan areas. In this article, we describe enhancements...
