What is the experience of riding a bicycle in Magic City?
In recent years, bicycles and other green and low-carbon transportation modes have become increasingly important in urban planning, especially in megacities such as Mordor, yet the road construction to match has been poor.
Imagine: in a high autumn afternoon, you and your buddies rode bicycles, singing songs to go on excursions. After riding for a while on the traffic police uncle stopped, a fine of 20 yuan, because this road can not ride a bicycle; and rode for a while, encountered a lot of wind speed like aids, thrilled to rub shoulders; and then ride for a while, and even the bike lane is no longer available, can only be and motor vehicles and side by side.
At this point, as a cycling enthusiast, the author's heart is broken. But the data warriors who are also cycling enthusiasts don't want to let it go so easily. From the Tongji University School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Mr. Zhu Wei and his team, in the study of 12,417 road environmental data in the central city of Shanghai, drew a "Shanghai cycling map".
In Data Man Lab 03, held on November 5, Mr. Zhu Wei dissected how such a cycling map was made.
What kind of cycling map is this?
Simply put, it's a map that incorporates the cycling environment. On this colorful map of Shanghai, there are five levels of cycling environment: good, good, medium, poor, and bad. The red lines are for sections of the city's downtown that are not ideal for cycling, which may have no bike lanes, a lack of vegetation, or narrow roads.
With this map, cyclists can easily identify the better roads to ride on. In addition, the red and yellow sections of the map provide a reference point for Shanghai to further improve the city's slow-moving transportation system.
How to make a cycling map
The most important part of the map is to develop evaluation criteria for the cycling environment. Zhu Wei said: "In urban planning, there must first be a "rule", and then we can "draw" (paint)." The first step in making a map is to make a "ruler". The five levels of evaluation criteria, is based on this "ruler" divided out.
So how to make this "ruler"?
Zhu Wei's main method is to design experiments and construct mathematical models based on the SP method. The SP method is the Standa Preference Method (SPM), which is used to study respondents' preferences in virtual situations. Compared with the general scale scoring method, this method allows respondents to make choices in a more natural state.
First, Zhu Wei used a questionnaire to select the 10 elements that have the greatest influence on the riding environment. This was followed by identifying different levels of evaluation for each of the influencing elements.
They then combined the different levels of the different elements to form the selection and present it visually. Visualization is done here to make the respondents perceive the options more intuitively and to reduce the cognitive burden of the respondents.
Finally, a mathematical model (a common method for analyzing choice behavior) is built through the Discrete Choice Model to obtain a series of criteria for evaluating the riding environment of a road section.
In this model, Mr. Zhu found three interesting results:
People think more about safety than comfort.
People's demand for different levels of elements shows a law of diminishing margins - going from low to medium is more rewarding than going from medium to high.
People demand more riding comfort for leisure than for commuting.
With the model, the next step is to collect and analyze the data. Zhu's team collected environmental data from 12,417 road sections in central Shanghai on Tencent Street View maps. They also developed their own cycling environment evaluation system, which is used to analyze cycling environment data and rate road sections. In this way, a Shanghai cycling map can be initially completed.
Hard transformation is more urgent, to protect the right of way is the focus
Through the analysis of the riding environment data, Mr. Zhu found that the riding environment in the old city of Shanghai is generally poor, the red low-scoring road sections are more. In addition, in the better sections of the riding environment, such as Yanji Xincun Street and New Jiangwan City Street, the connectivity of the routes is only no more than 30%, which means that the cyclists can not enjoy the quality of the cycling experience continuously.
In response to the problems reflected in the map, Mr. Zhu suggested that in the future construction of urban bicycle transportation, priority should be given to the renovation of hardware, such as renovating the type of bicycle lanes and restricting on-street parking of motor vehicles, in order to effectively protect the rights and interests of cyclists on the road.
Crowd building a cycling map, how many people are needed
The current cycling map, Zhu Wei led a team of 60 students, with the help of Tencent Street View maps, with manual interpretation of the way to evaluate made, Zhu Wei mocked this is called "human big data", there is an error of manual interpretation, is obviously not enough. It's not enough.
So Zhu Wei's next plan is to let more cyclists participate in the construction of the map. Everyone will be able to share their own riding experiences on the map and build a continuously updated map of Shanghai.
Regarding crowd-sourced maps, openstreet map is a successful example from abroad, but to promote this model in China, the progress so far has not been ideal. Zhu Wei said that the team is now working with some cycling enthusiast groups to collect cycling data. Afterwards, if these interest-based cycling activities can lead to some consumer behavior, then the cycling map may also become the basis for related businesses to choose the location, to achieve commercial landing.
With this map, you can ride with your buddies in the future, and you'll be able to ride in style.
Source DT Finance