International Research Seminar on Modeling Urban Pedestrian Mobility 2023

October, 5-7, 2023

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

City Form Lab

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Seminar Report PDF

Background

A growing body of research at the nexus of transportation and urban planning indicates that a shift to sustainable modes of urban travel—walking, biking, and public transit—is necessary to reduce carbon emissions, combat climate change, and address public health crises in urban societies. Although still in the minority, some municipal and state agencies have started addressing non-motorized travel more rigorously, such as requiring pedestrian mobility to be included in travel demand models and development impact reviews. However, mainstream transportation modeling approaches have historically focused on capturing the dynamics of vehicles and public transport, and many still do not know that pedestrian mobility can even be modeled with scientific rigor. While most travel demand models tend to ignore pedestrian trips, the few that do consider pedestrians as a mode of transport tend to focus on aggregate pedestrian trip volumes, not their geographic distribution along city streets. Yet, pedestrian flows are not evenly spread throughout neighborhoods—understanding their geographic distribution along city streets and developing models to explain how the built environment shapes foot-traffic in cities is key to designing policies and plans that can increase the mode-share of non-automobile travel options. A renewed policy emphasis on better pedestrian environments has thus triggered a need to better understand how pedestrian flows are shaped by the built environment in general, and how building and infrastructure developments might affect foot-traffic on surrounding streets in particular. This is critical for prioritizing investment in pedestrian infrastructure as well as understanding how zoning and urban design can be leveraged to increase foot-traffic and improve pedestrian experiences.

This research seminar, co-sponsored by the City Form Lab at MIT and the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF), invites a group of international pedestrian mobility experts to share research approaches for understanding, modeling and operationalizing pedestrian mobility in cities. Invited guest speakers will present and discuss current approaches to pedestrian mobility research, planning and policy.

Program

Day 1: Thursday, October5, 2023

Introductions

Time	Sessions in MIT room 10-485
8:30-9:00 am	Coffee & breakfast
9:00-9:30 am	Introductions
Pedestrian models in urban planning and design.
9:30-10.45 am	Three presenters, 15min presentation + 5min Q&A per presenter. Kelly Clifton, University of British Columbia. The Evolution of the Model of Pedestrian Demand (MoPeD). Alain Chiaradia, University of Hong Kong. Accessibility and Journey Level of Service in Volumetric Transport Interchange Hubs. sDNA model. Adrian Meister, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). Integration of active mobility into the agent-based simulation framework MATSim.
10:45-11.00 am	Coffee break
11:00-12.15 pm	Lars Marcus, Chalmers University of Technology. The Issue of Representation in Modeling Pedestrian Mobility. Aziz Alhassan / Andres Sevtsuk. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pedestrian modeling with Urban Network Analysis and automation with a new Python Library Madina. Rounaq Basu / Andres Sevtsuk. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pedestrian flow model calibration, and pedestrian impact assessment. Louis Merlin, Florida Atlantic University. Reconciling various theoretical models of pedestrian travel behavior.
12:30-1.30 pm	*Lunch break*
Pedestrian models in urban transport and policy.
1:30-3:00 pm	4 presenters, 15min presentation + 5min Q&A per presenter. Geetam Tiwari, IIT Delhi. Pedestrian risk perception and actual risk in city streets in Delhi, Indi. Mark Seaman, Senior Economist \| Office of the Commissioner New York City Department of Transportation. Filipe Moura, University of Lisbon. On the importance of measuring walkability and exposure to changes of the pedestrian environment Kevin Manaugh, McGill University. Visualizing Active Living Potential at various spatial scales
3:00-3:15 pm	Coffee break
3:15-4:45 pm	4 presenters, 15min presentation +5min Q&A per presenter. Mark Zuidgeest, University of Cape Town. Modelling pedestrian crossing behaviour on Cape Town’s freeways: Caught between a rock and a hard place? Winnie V. Mitullah Institute for Development Studies and UNESCO. Juan Antonio Carrasco, Universidad de Concepción. Understanding the experience of traveling and walking: A mixed method perspective. Rosa Félix, University of Lisbon. Jittering: A method for generation pedestrian an bicycle realistic route networks from Origin-Destination data
4:45-5:00 pm	Coffee break
5:00-5:45 pm	Day 1 Summary Discussion (invited group only): opportunities and challenges of pedestrian models. - What are the most important types of application areas for pedestrian models and how do we build Global awareness about them? - What are the policy challenges that prevent or challenge the use of pedestrian modeling in policy support? - How do we achieve more applications in the Global South? More research collaborations? What critical data are needed?
7:00 pm	Group dinner at Harvard Square.

Day 2: Friday, October 6, 2023

Time	Sessions in MIT room 10-485
8:30-9:00 am	Coffee & breakfast
9:00-9.15 am	Day 1 summary
Methodology session: trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice, and route assignment.
9:15-10.00 am	Breakout Discussion 1: Pedestrian Trip Generation. (Roughly 3-4 people per group). Prompt: Using one or two specific pedestrian modeling approach(es) as example, describe: How is trip generation handled in models? What data are needed to calibrate the models? Is accessibility conceptualized in models, and if so how? What are the shortcomings of how the generation of pedestrian trips is represented and how could they be improved? Is the the conceptualization of trip generation useful for policy and planning, if so how? Each group to jointly fill out a Google Slides template .
10:00-10:20 am	Summary discussion (Breakout representative summary 3-5min + quick Q&A)
10:20-10.50 am	Breakout Discussion 2: Pedestrian Trip Distribution. (Roughly 3-4 people per group). Prompt: Using one or two specific pedestrian modeling approach(es) as example, describe: How is trip distribution handled in models? How are pedestrian destinations represented, at what resolution? Are activity schedules handled in models, and if so how? What data are needed to calibrate the models? What are the shortcomings of how the distributions of pedestrian trips is represented and how could they be improved? Is the the conceptualization of trip distribution useful for policy and planning, if so how? Each group to jointly fill out a Google Slides template .
10:50-11:10 am	Summary discussion (Breakout room representative summary 3-5min + quick Q&A)
11:10- 11:40 am	Breakout Discussion 3: Pedestrian Mode Choice. (Roughly 3-4 people per group). Prompt: Using one or two specific pedestrian modeling approach(es) as example, describe: Is mode choice handled in the models? If so how? If not, how could it be included? What data are needed to calibrate the models? What are the shortcomings of handling pedestrian mode choice and how could they be improved? Is the the conceptualization of trip distribution useful for policy and planning, if so how? Each group to jointly fill out a Google Slides template .
11.40-12:00 am	Summary discussion (Breakout room representative summary 3-5min + quick Q&A)
12:00-1:00 pm	Lunch
13:00-13:30 pm	Breakout Discussion 4: Pedestrian Route Assignment. (Roughly 3-4 people per group). Prompt: Using one or two specific pedestrian modeling approach(es) as example, describe: How is pedestrian route choice handled in models? What route characteristics can be accounted for as part of travel costs? What data are needed to calibrate the models? What are the shortcomings of handling pedestrian mode choice and how could they be improved? Is the the conceptualization of trip distribution useful for policy and planning, if so how? Each group to jointly fill out a Google Slides template .
13:30-13.50pm	Summary discussion (Breakout room representative summary 3-5min + quick Q&A)

Challenges and opportunities of pedestrian models
2:00-3:00 pm	Group discussion of challenges and opportunities for modeling pedestrian activity in cities and ensuring models' policy relevance. Prompts: How to accounting for socio-demographic differences in modeling walking trips? Is it important to use activity schedules in models? What are the tradeoffs? How to better integrate mode-choice into pedestrian models?
3:00-3:30 pm	Upcoming grant applications and potential for collaborative work.
3:30-3:45	Coffee break
3:45:4:15 pm	Summary discussion
4:30-6.30 pm	Optional walking tour
7:00 pm	Group dinner

Participants

Kelly Clifton (University of British Columbia)

Bombardier Chair of Regional Transportation Planning – University of British Columbia. Author of the MoPed pedestrian model

Filipe Moura (Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon)

Associate Professor of Transportation Systems in the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture at the Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon.

Mark Seaman (New York City)
Senior Economist | Office of the Commissioner. New York City Department of Transportation.

Juan Antonio Carrasco (Universidad de Concepción, Chile)

Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad de Concepción, Chile. CEDEUSExperience analyst of travel mode choices and accessibility.

Winnie V. Mitullah (University of Nairobi, Kenya)

Research Professor of Development Studies at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) and UNESCO UNITWIN Chair, Non-motorized transport in Africa.

Mark Zuidgeest (University of Cape Town, South Africa)

Professor, Chair of Transport Planning and Engineering. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Tansport modeling, pedestrian modeling, choice modelin.

Geetam Tiwari (Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi)

Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. Transport modeling, vision zero, vulnerable street users.

Alain Chiaradia (University of Hong Kong)

Deputy Head of Department of Urban Planning and Design, Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Architecture. Co-author of the sDNA pedestrian model.

Louis Merlin (Florida Atlantic University)

Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Program Coordinator, Master of Urban and Regional Planning. Co-author of the book “From Mobility to Accessibility: Transforming Transport and Land-Use Planning”.

Lars Marcus (Chalmers University, Sweden)

Professor Urban Design and Planning, Vice Head of Department Research, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Urban Design and Planning, Spatial Morphology Research Group. Co-author of the Place Syntax modeling tool.

Kevin Manaugh (McGill Univeristy, Canada)

Associate Professor jointly appointed to the Department of Geography and McGill School of Environment. Transportation Research Board ACH10: Standing Committee on Pedestrians

Andres Sevtsuk (MIT)

Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning, MIT. Director, City Form Lab. Author of the Urban Network Analysis toolbox for modeling pedestrian trips in cities.

Aziz Alhassan (MIT)

Phd candidate, Computational Science and Engineering at MIT. Resaercher, City Form Lab.

Rounaq Basu (MIT)

Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT.

Adrian Meister (ETH Zurich)

Phd Candidate at the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). Participant in the MatSIM cycling model development.

Rosa Félix ( Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon)

PhD researcher, Urban Mobility U-Shift group, studying active mobility: pedestrians, bicycles and e-scooters.

Rounaq Basu (MIT)

Postdoctoral Associate, MIT City Form Lab, Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Researcher of pedestrian behavior and modeling.

Abdulaziz Alhassan (MIT)

Phd Candidate in Computational Science and Engineering at MIT. Researcher at the MIT City Form Lab. Developer of the open-source Urban Network Analysis for Python toolbox for modeling pedestrian trips in cities

Travel logistics

We have obtained an MIT group booking rate for participants at the Sonder 907 Main hotel close to the MIT campus for $240/night per room + 17.95% tax for three nights (Oct 4-7). Please contact the organizers for the rate details. We suggest participants arrive in Cambridge by the evening of Wednesday October 4th and depart on Saturday, October 7th. The hotel map can be found here:

Contacts

Binzhe Wang, binzhe [at] mit.edu

Prof. Andres Sevtsuk, asevtsuk [at] mit.edu

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