Sustainable and Healthy Communities through Integrating Mobility Simulations in the Urban Design Process

With previous CTECH funding, the PIs were able to implement a proof-of-concept software tool called Urbano.io. Urbano automates the gathering of simulation inputs such as urban form, amenities, and population density from geographic information systems (GIS) and OpenStreetMaps and hence allows users to create complete mobility networks with a few clicks. Based on these networks, Urbano computes simple active mobility metrics such as Walkscore and Streetscore using shortest path routing. In this project, the research team aims to further develop Urbano to address the following high-level questions: How does a specific design choice influence active mobility and transit use, and what kind of health and sustainability impacts will stem from that? The team identifies four major novel contributions that are needed to provide actionable feedback to the designer towards creating healthier and more sustainable urban neighborhoods (e.g. designs that promote active transportation and reduce personal vehicle trips): (1) Integration of different mobility modes including bikes, on-demand services, transit, taxi. (WIP). (2) Validation of outdoor comfort simulations using field measurements in Ithaca (WIP) and NYC (New). (3) Adapting statistical and behavioral models from the transportation literature to incorporate street quality and comfort-aware active mobility mode choices over others (New). (4) Validation and training of the above models using existing mode choice models, NYC open data, historic weather in conjunction (New). (5) Development of high-level metrics that predict mobility related public health, economic, environmental, and energy parameters for urban design proposals: Mobility (Vehicle miles, walkability), public health (daily activity), economic (amenity utilization), environmental (energy and carbon footprint) and social (street segment, park and public space utilization). The details of the metric system will be developed in close collaboration with urban designers at KPF and the NYC Department of City Planning to capture the insight of major stakeholders in urban design projects (New).

• Record URL:
  http://ctech.cee.cornell.edu/research/project-descriptions/

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $120663
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747119

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  USDOT/OST-R

  Washington DC,   United States 
• Project Managers:

  Kline, Robin

• Performing Organizations:

  Center for Transportation, Environment, and Community Health

  Cornell University
  Ithaca, NY  United States  14853
• Principal Investigators:

  Dogan, Timur

  Samaranayake, Samitha

• Start Date: 20191001
• Expected Completion Date: 20200930
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Activity choices; Communities; Health; Impacts; Metrics (Quantitative assessment); Mobility; Mode choice; Public transit; Simulation; Software; Sustainable development; Urban design; Validation
• Geographic Terms: Ithaca (New York); New York (New York)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Design; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01714505
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Transportation, Environment, and Community Health
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747119
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Aug 22 2019 11:36AM