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MIT research finds that commuting distances are standard regardless of city size

2023-01-03T11:24:00-05:00

Researchers from the MIT Senseable City Lab have produced a series of maps visualizing commuting habits across Chinese cities. Titled Potato Project, the study used mobile phone location data from 50 million individuals across 234 cities to understand commuting patterns between a person’s home and work locations.

Image credit: MIT Senseable City Lab

The research project was launched in response to the group’s observation that despite the significant increase in the size of cities over decades, commuting distances and times in larger cities have remained stable versus smaller cities. “The conserved commuting properties are quite counter-intuitive,” the team notes, “as the distance from the periphery to the urban center in larger cities is obviously greater than that in medium- or small-sized cities.”

Image credit: MIT Senseable City Lab

With little existing large-scale modeling on the subject, the researchers analyzed the mobile phone location data to better understand the similarities...

Walking or cycling to work could make you more productive

2019-07-29T14:14:00-04:00

Productivity is one of those things most of us try to optimize. Especially when it comes to the day to day work we have in architecture. As dynamic and wide-ranging as a day can be, the focus and concentration needed to compose those remaining wall details, check those door schedules, or look over that code analysis are quite demanding. There are numerous approaches and methods toward better productivity, perhaps even an endless number. But, one way to improve our performance at work, says Australian researchers, Liang Ma and Runing Ye, is in how we commute to work.

"Our research investigated how and to what extent our daily commuting can influence workplace productivity," the pair write. According to their findings, people who commute longer distances tend to have more days off, while those who commuted shorter distances, walked or cycled, tended to perform better in the workplace. Additionally, driving has also been found to be the most stressful way to commute.

Anyone living in a...

How social equality is linked to health, as manifested in the built environment

2017-08-29T14:13:00-04:00

Residents of the outer suburbs tend to travel much longer distances between home, work and the services they need daily. Getting around necessarily defaults to the car, which has serious long-term implications for health. Driving is particularly associated with extended sitting in a confined space and, as a result, not getting enough exercise each day. When poorer communities are located in areas of lesser amenity due to lower housing costs, this exacerbates their health problems.

The close correlation between socioeconomic status and health has long been out of question. The built environment and the environmental context serve as direct social determinants of health.

Due to lower housing costs, poorer communities are often restricted to residing in areas of lesser amenity that exacerbate the obstacles to mental and physical well-being—lack of quality services and infrastructure, scarcity of green space and long work commutes challenge health. Additionally, poor building design and construction, and the excessive noise that it causes, can significantly contribute to stress, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and sometimes even neighbor conflict and violence. What might appear as light threats, such as sleep deprivation which is linked to obesity, serve as risk factors for many chronic diseases.

While high-density living is increasingly trumpeted as “healthy,” health and well-being of poor communities in high-rise housing heavily depends on the specifics—geographic...

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declares state of emergency after I-85 bridge in Atlanta collapses from fire

2017-03-31T15:03:00-04:00

Transportation officials in Georgia are scrambling to cope with a crisis, after a huge fire caused a bridge on Interstate 85 to collapse in Atlanta on Thursday night. Gov. Nathan Deal has declared a state of emergency, and with the heavily used road closed in both directions, drivers are being told to find other options — from detours to mass transit. Friday morning, officials said they don't yet know what caused the fire or how long repairs will take.

Atlanta's Interstate 85 was first built in 1953 and reconstructed in 1985 to accommodate increased traffic. The closure affects a crucial 3-mile portion, which carries up to 400,000 vehicles a day. U.S. DOT Secretary Elaine Chow directed Federal Highway Administration officials to grant $10 million in emergency funds to begin repairing the bridge.

“Approximately 700 feet of the roadway – 350 feet northbound and 350 feet southbound — will be removed and replaced including support columns. Demolition will begin this weekend and will continue into Monday, April 3,” the Georgia DOT announced today.

A look at the history and future of the American commute

2016-05-02T17:34:00-04:00

"The idea that you can replace the 10 trips with one autonomous car and travel less distance, that’s the biggest misconception," says Fagnant. "You can get rid of vehicles, but not vehicle miles traveled. Without ridesharing, there's an 8 to 10 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled based on simulations we've run in Austin. You’re not replacing trips [..] the vehicle has to bounce between locations, and relocate to where it’s needed. Those in-between miles will create a lot of extra travel."

This startup hopes to bring autonomous campus shuttles to colleges by 2017

2016-03-30T13:34:00-04:00

Since summer 2015, [Alex] Rodrigues and his team [at Varden Labs] have been tinkering with autonomous golf carts on university campuses...On the one hand, campus transit agencies, and particularly university ones, are uniquely posed to experiment with pricier autonomous vehicles...But these shuttles will also need maintenance...Plus, driverless shuttles will be the diving bell for a tricky, tricky question: how important are bus drivers?

Is Waze to blame for heavy traffic on L.A. residential side streets?

2015-11-24T15:00:00-05:00

Waze sometimes sends drivers through little-used side streets such as Cody Road [in Sherman Oaks, Calif]...Some people try to beat Waze at its own game by sending misinformation about traffic jams and accidents so it will steer commuters elsewhere. Others log in and leave their devices in their cars, hoping Waze will interpret that as a traffic standstill and suggest alternate routes.

More about Waze on Archinect:

Throwback Throughway: when GPS fails, these gorgeous "mental maps" help you navigate

Waze takes on the ride-sharing market with new carpooling app

Arnold Schwarzenegger voices Waze app

Waze and its new uneasy bedfellows

Share your creative commute proposals to NY Transit Museum's PLATFORM 2015

2015-02-02T15:51:00-05:00

With the right mindset, commutes can become an abundant source for inspiration. Creative commuters or commuters in need of a creative outlet are invited to send submissions about public transit to the New York Transit Museum's PLATFORM 2015.

Now in its second year, PLATFORM 2015 lets commuters perform and share their work inside the museum's decommissioned subway station home. Entries from all disciplines and academic fields are welcome, including: history, science, engineering, visual + performing arts, urban studies, and city planning.

Submissions may include but are not limited to:

Live performance (music, theater, dance, spoken word, storytelling, comedy)
Film (documentary, fiction, creative media works)
Visual Art (must include a presentation or programmatic discussion of the artwork)
Presentation (academic lecture, informal slideshow, etc.)
Panel discussion (must include participants, moderator, topic, and your expertise)
Other participatory events

Submissions are due by February 20....

Beijing public transit commuters can now pay fares with empty bottles

2014-09-05T14:29:00-04:00

Residents of Beijing can use one of the city’s 34 newly installed recycling machines to trade empty bottles for phone card rebates or free public transit passes. Those who choose the phone card rebate just need to type in their phone numbers or scan their cards and the rebate will be automatically applied. The value of the rebate will correspond to the value of the type of bottle that was recycled.

Read the original Chinese language report here.

Biking to work in the U.S. has increased 60% over last decade

2014-05-14T13:14:00-04:00

Many U.S. cities are seeing an increase in bicycle commuters, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today. Nationwide, the number of people who traveled to work by bike increased roughly 60 percent over the last decade, from about 488,000 in 2000 to about 786,000 during the 2008-2012 period. This is the largest percentage increase of all commuting modes tracked by the 2000 Census and the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.

If you're feeling wonky, you can read the full U.S. Census Bureau report here. It's the Census Bureau's first report to focus entirely on biking and walking to work, with statistics since 1990.

You can also explore commuting statistics for every U.S. neighborhood in the Bureau's Census Explorer, an interactive map that breaks down commuting by commuter age, census tract, type of transportation, and total time.