Amserdam in the 70s

A nice photograph that makes us think how of many cities and their transport systems in the world today look very much similar to how Amsterdam used to be in the 1970s. A bit more on this topic on this previous post:  "We are not Amsterdam".

picture via Old Pics Archive

A review of 85 Agent-Based Modelling platforms and tools

A recent paper has conducted a comprehensive literature survey comparing 85 Agent-Based Modelling platforms and tools according to the easy of development (simple-moderate-hard) as well as their capabilities (light-weight to extreme-scale). Via Danilo Freire (Twitter)

Abar, S. et al (2017). Agent Based Modelling and Simulation tools: A review of the state-of-art software. Computer Science Review. Volume 24, May 2017, Pages 13-33

Abstract:

The key intent of this work is to present a comprehensive comparative literature survey of the state-of-art in software agent-based computing technology and its incorporation within the modelling and simulation domain. The original contribution of this survey is two-fold: (1) Present a concise characterization of almost the entire spectrum of agent-based modelling and simulation tools, thereby highlighting the salient features, merits, and shortcomings of such multi-faceted application software; this article covers eighty five agent-based toolkits that may assist the system designers and developers with common tasks, such as constructing agent-based models and portraying the real-time simulation outputs in tabular/graphical formats and visual recordings. (2) Provide a usable reference that aids engineers, researchers, learners and academicians in readily selecting an appropriate agent-based modelling and simulation toolkit for designing and developing their system models and prototypes, cognizant of both their expertise and those requirements of their application domain. In a nutshell, a significant synthesis of Agent Based Modelling and Simulation (ABMS) resources has been performed in this review that stimulates further investigation into this topic.

By the way, one of the large-scale models that is relatively easy to use is the UrbanSim model, developed by Paul Waddell's team at Berkeley and which is freely available on GitHub. MATSim scales well with really large simulations and it's also open-source available on GitHub.

click on the image to enlarge it or go read the paper :) 

My talk at Transforming Transportation 2018 and personal impressions on TRB

As some of you will remember, I was in DC a couple of weeks ago to receive the Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship and to present part of my doctoral research at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) annual meeting and at Transforming Transportation 2018 (TT). In both occasions, I presented an in-progress version of the 3rd paper of my thesis, which can be downloaded/cited from here. 

The two conferences have quite different audiences, though, and I had to adapt my presentation accordingly. While TRB is a typical academic conference, TT is more policy oriented and mostly attended by high-level practitioners. So it was a bit of a challenge to tailor the presentation for TT, particularly because I was only given about 8 minutes  and I was super nervous . I had to cut most of the important 'details' of the research methods and findings which I think make the original contribution of the paper.

Here is the result. My talk at Transforming Transportation 2018 was recorded and you can watch it below.

If you have time, I would recommend watching the whole video and check the talk by Joanna Moody (MIT), who is the other Lee Schipper awardee of 2017 and who is conducting a very interesting research on 'car pride' in different countries. The video also brings a bit more context about the Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship. Applications to the 2018 Lee Schipper award are open, by the way.

Here are a few personal impressions on the TRB conference:

• The TRB annual meeting is perhaps the largest academic conference on transportation, with approx 15 thousand people. And I thought the annual conference of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) was big with 9k
  
• As you can imagine, the most demanded sessions at TRB were on big data, sharing economy and smart cities and all possible combinations of these topics. I am sure there must have been a session on the potentials of big data to inform the mobility sharing economy and create smarter cities
  
• There were a few dozens of studies on transportation equity, multimodal accessibility analysis, socio-spatial inequalities and segregation using all sorts of data sources such as GTFS, GPS, mobile phones, social media etc. A lot of work is now being conducted in R as well. Only few studies, though, would do a good job at combing robust methods/data to a more theoretically grounded view of accessibility measures and transportation equity, including a more critical understanding of these issues.

It was a humbling experience to attend TRB and one of the takeaway lessons I took with me is this. 

1. The academic environment is getting more competitive, with many more good scholars taking advantage of the richer data sources available out there and conducting super interesting research using cutting edge methods and open source software. The frontier is moving quickly.
   
2.  Beyond the increasing challenge of getting published, it is getting harder to stand out from the crowd and write studies that will be read/cited for having a real impact within the academic community. It is easier nowadays to write good papers. It is becoming harder, however, to give an original contribution.
   
3. The bright side of this story, though, it that on the technical side it is getting relatively easier to use the state of art methods/data from academic research to tackle 'real' problems, improve public policies etc  on the political and governance side things are crazier than ever, though 

The urban footprint of the largest metropolitan areas of Europe

The largest urban functional areas in Europe, by Joaquin Dominguez/elOrdenMundial S.XXI, using data from the 2016 Urban Europe (Eurostat)

A challenge for your mental model of the world map

Here is a great exercise to test how accurate is your perception of the relative sizes of countries and continents. My score was 67% in my 1st try and 74% in my second try. Not good considering I'm doing a PhD in geography. sssh don't tell my university otherwise they might not give me my degree

This is part of a PhD research at Ghent University. ht Sebastian Meier‏

Following the advice of my supervisors

"Sure, it is totally doable", I said...  #truestory

many times #truestory

Assorted Links

1. Post-doctoral position at Lund University to work on sustainable urban mobility and accessibility with a focus on economics and transportation equity, HT Jean Ryan
   
   
2. Rainbows make horrible colour maps... let's stop using them
   
   
3. paper : Rich do not rise early: spatio-temporal patterns in the mobility networks of different socio-economic classes
   
   
4. The Internet of Things in unexpected things
   
   
5. An Open Letter from 1,470 Economists on Immigration
   
   
6. There is an app to crowdsource data on shootings in Rio. Great initiative by Cecilia Olliveira
   
   
7. A Catalog of Civic Data Use Cases, via Igor Calzada
   
   
8. An interactive global overview of the magnitude, disparities and trend of infant mortality in the world between 1950 and 2011, by Ramon Martinez

Data visualization of the day

Scott Kerr‏ on Twitter: "Data visualization of where I cut stuff"

image credit: Scott Kerr‏

Thanks Chico Camargo for the pointer!

The effects of rent control on tenants, landlords, and inequality

Good read on the effects of rent control. There are many interesting results and Damon Jones presents a very good summary and discussion in this thread.

Diamond, R., McQuade, T., & Qian, F. (2018). The Effects of Rent Control Expansion on Tenants, Landlords, and Inequality: Evidence from San Francisco. NBER Working Paper No. 24181

Abstract:

We exploit quasi-experimental variation in assignment of rent control to study its impacts on tenants, landlords, and the overall rental market. Leveraging new data tracking individuals’ migration, we find rent control increased renters’ probabilities of staying at their addresses by nearly 20%. Landlords treated by rent control reduced rental housing supply by 15%, causing a 5.1% city-wide rent increase. Using a dynamic, neighborhood choice model, we find rent control offered large benefits to covered tenants. Welfare losses from decreased housing supply could be mitigated if insurance against rent increases were provided as government social insurance, instead of a regulated landlord mandate.

Sao Paulo from above in new year's eve

This video is from 2016/2017 but there are shorter ones from this year and from 2014 which also give a good idea of how Brazilians take year's eve quite seriously.