Everyday cycling in urban environments: Understanding behaviours and constraints in space-time

The title of my paper presentation at the 21st GIS Research UK (GISRUK) 2013 conference was "Everyday cycling in urban environments: Understanding behaviours and constraints in space-time." The presentation generated lots of interest among the audience and also confirmed my own conviction of the importance of active transport - especially cycling - in urban transportation. The paper was in four main parts: description of the methods employed in this research and sample characteristics; spatial analysis to understand the sample’s commonalities and differences with other areas; comparative spatial analysis of the primary tracks with  “official” cycling network data of the study area; and, further discussion and conclusion summarising the findings of the research. Additionally, I introduced what I call the concept of "Corridor Space Analysis" which is a kind of spatial analysis comprising of some combinations of buffering and spatial intersection techniques to compute trip shares of cyclists given a designated cycleway network. The concept was also used to assess the  infrastructural features within the "corridor" such as parkings and crossings found on the network. As part of this research, 79 commuter cyclists have been tracked with small size portable GPS devices while filling detailed travel diary. Socio-demographic and psycho-social variables were also captured to aid in understanding interactions between movement behaviour and the built environment.

There were other interesting presentations, informal discussions and networking that were quite useful. The mix of experienced researchers and early career researchers for the sessions blended so well; kudos to the local and global organizing committees. All aspect of the conference, to me, was brilliant and I was not surprised when praises were showered on the master mind behind the organisation - Dr. Alex Singleton. I must say, that personally meeting and chatting with some of the outstanding scholars in Geographic Information Science (GISc) such as Professor Paul Longley, Professor Jason Dykes, Professor Harvey Miller, Professor Muki Haklay, Professor Chris Brunsdon, and Professor Peter Batey was very insightful. These ephemeral interactions between early career researchers (ECR) and experienced researchers are very useful and must be considered in the next GISRUK2013 at the University of Glasgow. I remember encouraging an ECR who wanted to interact with someone considered to be an expert to do so by simply going to the person and saying something as simple as "Hello .... my name is .....  and from the university of .... and just want to introduce myself and also say that I appreciate your work." As simple as it might seem, it is not all ECR who have the confident to approach someone they see as far ahead and "holding the light at the end of the tunnel." So, from my observation, experienced scholars should deliberately make an attempt to interact with "anybody" they see as ECR in such conferences.

Below is GISRUK2013 delegates map I have put together - based on the list of delegates circulated on the last day of the conference - showing the institution that won the highest number of delegates; the University of Edinburgh had about 28 delegates followed by Leeds University with about 20 delegates.


View GISRUK2013 Delegates Map in a larger map