In recent years we have seen an increase in attention to intelligent transportation systems (ITS) around the globe. It is the technological pillar supporting the operations of sustainable smart cities and improving their accessibility and resilience. In this regard, 5G technology is on the way to revolutionize how we exploit different data sources in our […]
Category: BLOG
Advancing multi-modal transportation modelling systems
This project is led by Dr. Mahmudur Fatmi, Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering, University of British Columbia – Okanagan (UBCO) campus. Dr. Fatmi leads the Centre for Transportation and Land Use Research (CeTLUR) group at UBCO. CeTLUR team contributes to different domains of transportation planning research including transportation and land use interaction, activity-based […]
Using existing data to tackle big urban forest questions: Introducing Sophie
Credit: Sophie Nitoslawski Did you know, you can actually visit many city websites and download data about all the street trees in your neighborhood? So cool. But if you are like me, you will wonder about the real potential for this data and how it can help cities deal with problems like climate change. Sophie […]
Yes, but where do we put the front door? How a visualization of smartphone data can help architects design better buildings
Credit: Angela Rout The most common question I get asked when I tell people I use smartphone data to design better places and spaces is…“Really?…How?” Most people wonder how I use a bunch of numbers in a spreadsheet to help designers make environments that people love. When I started my PhD I wondered the same […]
Understanding human relationships with urban forests in cities: being a better roommate.
Greetings! My name is Angie, and I am a postdoc researcher working in the Natural Assets team on the Rogers 5G Smart Campus research project. I am excited to be hosting this blog, where I will talk about cities, nature, technology, smart cities, data, sustainable urban design, forestry, big data, remote sensing… and the kitchen sink. […]
Energy Efficiency Finance
What is energy efficiency finance? What are the common financing mechanisms? In this article, Urban Data Lab’s collaborator Yang Zhou will share his thoughts on energy efficiency finance. Improving energy efficiency in the built environment is an essential part of Canada’s strategy to cope with the issue of climate change, which calls for large-scale investments in energy […]
Mobility Trends Report
Vancouver’s residents are gradually driving and walking more compared with the first weeks of self-isolation. According to Apple Maps Mobility Trends, although we’re seeing more cars and pedestrians, public transit share is relatively stable at around 81% lower than the pre-isolation baseline. We should keep in mind that “The goal of transit, right now, is […]
How coronavirus is disrupting public transit
The City of Vancouver has seen a significant drop in public transit demand based on data collected and published by TransitApp. TransitApp helps millions of commuters navigate their destinations without losing time. They recently shared data shows how often app users looked up transit information during covid19. The attached graph illustrates how those daily patterns […]
Community Mobility Report
Sharing is caring. Google shared some interesting data on the impacts of COVID19 on mobility to be used for making critical decisions to combat the coronavirus disease. Based on their Community Mobility Report, British Columbia (BC) has seen a 59% drop in visits to transit stations, a 54% drop in visits to retail & recreation […]
Transportation Demand Management
When commuters are changing habits is the best time to intervene. I see Covid19 as a great opportunity to radically change people’s travel behaviour. It seems that the coronavirus has been the most potent restriction to reduce private car usage as you can see all green signs for UBC parking availability. This crisis has also […]