“Gridlock Sam” Schwartz to speak at Ohio State on September 20th

The Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA) is pleased to welcome Samuel Schwartz to Ohio State University for a free public lecture on Tuesday, September 20, 2016, 4:00pm at the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater, 1871 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210

Sam Schwartz is the most famous traffic engineer in the world, serving as New York City Transportation Commissioner under several mayors, and now leads an international and highly influential consulting firm, Sam Schwartz Engineering.  Mr. Schwartz invented the word ‘gridlock,’ earning the enduring moniker “Gridlock Sam.”

Sam is called the “Jane Jacobs of Traffic” due to his long fight to create room for humans and social space in city streets and an “urban alchemist” for his uncanny ability to grow green space from asphalt.  In Canada, is he known as “[The] Wayne Gretzky of Traffic Planning.”

Gridlock Sam will speak about his recent book, Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and Fall of Carsa lively history and discussion of how to move cities beyond automobile dominance.

The lecture is free and open to the public, but space is limited, so RSVP today at: http://cura.osu.edu/920rsvp

More information about Sam Schwartz

CURA Gridlock Sam

The Most Sophisticated Map Ever

An article at the Columbus Underground blog by Dr. David Staley (Associate Professor of History at THE Ohio State University, and – paradoxically? – President of the Columbus Futurists) features some of my ideas on the future of urban data and mapping, and the possibility of creating mirror worlds to help us understand and manage our increasingly complex world.

Check it out – NEXT: The Most Sophisticated Map Ever

Estimating the most likely space–time paths, dwell times and path uncertainties from vehicle trajectory data: A time geographic method

Tang J, Song Y, Miller HJ, Zhou X (2015) “Estimating the most likely space–time paths, dwell times and path uncertainties from vehicle trajectory data: A time geographic method,” Transportation Research Part C, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2015.08.014

Highlights
• Develop a time-dependent graph model to estimate their likely space–time paths.
• Find network-time paths, link travel times and dwell times at possible intermediate stops.
• Develop a dynamic programming algorithm for both offline and real-time applications.
• Use the potential path area for all feasible network–time paths to estimate path uncertainty.

Abstract.  Global Positioning System and other location-based services record vehicles’ spatial locations at discrete time stamps. Considering these recorded locations in space with given specific time stamps, this paper proposes a novel time-dependent graph model to estimate their likely space–time paths and their uncertainties within a transportation network. The proposed model adopts theories in time geography and produces the feasible network–time paths, the expected link travel times and dwell times at possible intermediate stops. A dynamic programming algorithm implements the model for both offline and real-time applications. To estimate the uncertainty, this paper also develops a method based on the potential path area for all feasible network–time paths. This paper uses a set of real-world trajectory data to illustrate the proposed model, prove the accuracy of estimated results and demonstrate the computational efficiency of the estimation algorithm.