Geo3 Kolloquium / Colloquium by Godwin Yeboah in Beuth University - May 24 2012

Many thanks to Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Jürgen Schweikart and team - Dipl. -Ing. Jonas Pieper and Dipl. -Ing. Stefanie Henke - for making it possible for me to do this presentation to both researchers and students during my visit to Beuth University, Berlin. I am grateful! I also thank all the interesting people I have come to know during my visit in Berlin! Hope to keep the contacts alive!!! Cheers!

Poster for Northumbria Research Conference 2012: Understanding cycling behaviours of commuters: Methodological issues

Poster_Understanding Cycling Behaviours of Commuters-Methodological Issues_Version_Final

Above poster presents part of my on-going phd work on active transport. Below is the abstract for the poster which was accepted for the prestigious Northumbria Research Conference in May 2012.


Abstract
This poster gives an illustration of methodological issues encountered during a recent Global Positioning System (GPS) based personal travel survey on everyday utility cycling is presented. Participants (i.e., Utility Cyclists) carried the GPS device for one week (7 days) while filling self-administered questionnaire forms. Utility cycling is defined as any (bi) cycling which is not done primarily for fitness, recreation such as cycle touring, or sport such as cycle racing, but simply as a means of transport. This work is, in part, a response to existing calls, from literature, for further research to incorporate the investigation and discovery of cyclist’s perception and experiences (Skinner & Rose, 2007; Forsyth & Krizek, 2011); to support urban designers as well as cycling policy interventions and transportation engineers and thereby increase cycling uptake. The results of the survey are presented. Additionally, GeoTime with ArcGIS technologies are used to map and visualised the collected data.

Keywords:
GPS, GIS, Space-time visualisation, GeoTime, everyday utility cycling, travel behaviour

References:
Forsyth, A. & Krizek, K. (2011) 'Urban Design: Is there a Distinctive View from the Bicycle?', Journal of Urban Design, 16 (4), pp. 531-549.

Skinner, D. & Rose, P. (2007) 'Hell is other Cyclist: rethinking transport and identity', in Horton, D., Rosen, P. & Cox, P. (eds.) Cycling and Society. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, pp. 83-96.

Newcastle is not alone!!! - Berlin to demonstrate for more cycle lanes!!!

Motivation: Newcastle is not alone in the struggle!!!

Everything is in German! - but, here is a quick translation in English:

"On the third June 2012 is the 36th in Berlin and Brandenburg Bike Rally will be held. The rally under the slogan "Berlin in the wheel tracks," is the largest global bicycle demonstration!

On 19 routes - see the routes here - the cyclists from the Berlin area and via Avus motorway Südring will cycle to the Great Star. The rally ends against 14 clock during the traditional festival environment of the Green League at the Brandenburg Gate.

With this year's slogan "Berlin on the cycle lane!" We demonstrate for more cycle lanes on main roads and set them to be kept free for cyclists traffic areas provided for such use. Again and again be provided for cyclists strip - regardless of composition and labeling - misused for parking motor vehicles. For cyclists this create dangerous situations, sometimes ending fatally. Even in cases of massive parking on these tracks, the authorities rarely take action because they think they see no immediate threat of traffic."

Greetings from Berlin - here is the website for the event: http://www.adfc-berlin.de/aktionenprojekte/sternfahrt/sternfahrt-2012/1159.html

Cheers!

MODAP Clinic: ProAnVis - Processing, Analysis & Visualisation of Tracking Data

As an active MODAP member, I must say that MODAP Clinic has indeed benefited me as a Phd student and also as a young research. Below is a summary of workdone by sub-group formed to explore gps-based data.

Group 2 research focus: Exploration of LISA with Pedestrian data set – Rotterdam case study

The group research focus was derived from an impressive presentation by Arend Ligtenberg, who is an Assistant Professor in Spatial Analysis and Modelling at Wageningen University, during the MODAP Clinic workshop. Participants interested in exploring Local Index of Spatial Association (LISA) concept with pedestrian data from Rotterdam formed this group and worked with Arend.  The team members were Godwin Yeboah from Northumbria University; Steffie Vannieuland from Ghent University; Paolo Cintia from University of Pisa; Joris van den Bossche from Ghent University; and  Lorenzo Gabrielli from University of Pisa.

Using the cluster and outlier analysis too, LISA tool in ArcGIS10 software, and gps data of pedestrians from Rotterdam, spatial clusters of point features – representing pedestrian movements – with recorded speed as attribute were identified. The output from the application of the tool comprises Local Moran’s I value, a p-value, a z-score, and a cluster type of each point feature.  We concentrated on cluster type labelled LL which indicated point features with high statistical significance of spatial association and low speed values – identified stops in the data. Also, HH which indicated High speed values – identified non-stops/passes in the data were visualised together using OpenStreetMap (OSM) as a base-map. Thereafter, LISA Z Score versus Movement speed scatterplot was generated using MS Excel and interpreted. Additionally, extracted stops were further explored vis-à-vis number of trips per stop as well as median number of points per person per stop.  We also investigated the quality of the speed in the raw data by plotting calculated speed versus GPS speed using scatterplots and Boxplot – resulting in non-convergence.

As a way of concluding, the tool was very easy to use in ArcGIS10 but quite slow with large datasets – limiting the group to use only BK Parking data – WestBlaak Parking. We found the largest stop cluster around the area between Cinerama and Keerweer street with the cluster cloud covering the whole segment of Westblaak street segment; the second was in and around Lijnbaan parking area. Calclulated speed against GPS speed did not converge. The group did a twenty minutes presentation of workdone to all participants and students/team from Urbanism/Department of Architecture who collected the Rotterdam data. Kudos to MODAP Clinic organizers – we have been well diagnosed and the prescriptions are worth a good attention!

Further details of the workshop can be found here.

Note:  - Please note that the words are my opinion and do not mean any harm to anyone.