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Tracking and Mapping Cyclists' Behaviours - What GNSS Can Do

Introduction GNSS infrastructure offers an indispensable means to collect spatial temporal data at different scales and in different settings adding new layers of knowledge to urban studies (Van der Spek et al., 2009); which may help in understanding urban transportation with very low impact on the environment. “The obstacles to everyday cycling [utility cycling] are primarily related to the environment in which it takes place.” (Docherty & Shaw, 2008, p. 125). Bottom-up approach to understanding cycling can help strategic investment in cycle infrastructure; but, more empirical evidence is needed. More scientific empirical evidence is needed about cyclist’s perception and experiences on route/destination choices; to support urban designers as well as cycling policy interventions and transportation engineers and thereby increase cycling uptake (Skinner & Rose, 2007; Forsyth & Krizek, 2011).

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1K views1 page

Tracking and Mapping Cyclists' Behaviours - What GNSS Can Do

Introduction GNSS infrastructure offers an indispensable means to collect spatial temporal data at different scales and in different settings adding new layers of knowledge to urban studies (Van der Spek et al., 2009); which may help in understanding urban transportation with very low impact on the environment. “The obstacles to everyday cycling [utility cycling] are primarily related to the environment in which it takes place.” (Docherty & Shaw, 2008, p. 125). Bottom-up approach to understanding cycling can help strategic investment in cycle infrastructure; but, more empirical evidence is needed. More scientific empirical evidence is needed about cyclist’s perception and experiences on route/destination choices; to support urban designers as well as cycling policy interventions and transportation engineers and thereby increase cycling uptake (Skinner & Rose, 2007; Forsyth & Krizek, 2011).

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Godwin Yeboah, Northumbria University at Newcastle upon Tyne.

INTRODUCTION
GNSS infrastructure offers an indispensable means to collect spatial temporal data at different scales and in different settings adding new layers of knowledge to urban studies (Van der Spek et al., 2009); which may help in understanding urban transportation with very low impact on the environment. The obstacles to everyday cycling [utility cycling] are primarily related to the environment in which it takes place. (Docherty & Shaw, 2008, p. 125). Bottom-up approach to understanding cycling can help strategic investment in cycle infrastructure; but, more empirical evidence is needed. More scientific empirical evidence is needed about cyclists perception and experiences on route/destination choices; to support urban designers as well as cycling policy interventions and transportation engineers and thereby increase cycling uptake (Skinner & Rose, 2007; Forsyth & Krizek, 2011).

GNSS BASED TRACKING AND DATA CLEANING METHODS


Fieldwork planning
Five major planning phases (see Fig. 2) Preparation: designed and tested materials with 7 participants. Four GPS devices were evaluated and one chosen (see Fig. 3) for the main survey Invitation: 350 emails were collated and used for the field campaign (including bicycle user group lists of Northumbria and Newcastle Universities) Screening and recruitment: Utility cyclists were screened and invited for face-to-face meeting. Data collection: one week data collection
Processing & Analysis
Stepwise flow (main survey)

PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Spatial analysis of cycleway corridor space characteristics vis-vis route choices of participants
35.1% of cycle trips: off the official network. 55.1% of cycle trips: on the official network. 9.8% of cycle trips: close to official network. 907 detected cycle trips from 76 utility cyclists (304 trips by females; 603 made by males). Total computed distances of all the identified cycle tracks is 4,466km.
Fig. 6: Corridor space definitions using a map: Blue for cycle trips on network (10m buffer around network), green for cycle trips close to network (10-20m buffer) and red is for cycle trips off the network (outside buffers).

Planning & Preparation


Extensive piloting of survey instruments with 7 participants

Stepwise flow (during testing)

Data collection

Evaluated 4 GPS devices: i-gotU GT-600; Atmel BTT08; Canmore GT-750 (L); and Qstarz BT-Q1000XT (selected)

Invitation

Recruitment

Screening

Fig. 2: Fieldwork planning architecture

Tracking cyclists travel behaviour


GPS status LED Power jack (mini USB) OFF/NAV/OFF options Charging GPS with mini USB cable to the PC/laptop/etc. Fig. 3: GNSS device used

Battery status LED (Red/Green)

81 Participants (i.e., Utility Cyclists) carried / use the GNSS device while filling selfadministered questionnaire forms (see Fig. 4). Data collection wave: October November 2011. Participation: 81 out of 118 cyclists The portable GNSS device used is an assisted GPS, A-GPS, capable; meaning it can use available network resources to identify and use satellites under low/poor signal situations Comment from a participant with ID 148: No problem into day 2 cycled in today despite the weather
30th Oct. 2011 (Time Change !!!)

FURTHER WORK
Exploratory analysis of collected data Analysis and visualisation of revealed movement patterns (i.e., actual route and destination choices) using Space-Time Cube Reconstruction of travel behaviour of cyclists using agent based modelling and simulation (ABMS) techniques Cycle Track Modelling (CTM)

GNSS device placed at top compartment of bag GNSS device placed in the pocket Fig. 4: How GNSS device was carried by Participants

AIM OF RESEARCH
The aim of the study is to understand how the built environment constrains or supports the movement behaviour of cyclists in urban environments.

GNSS device placed on key ring

Data cleaning by visual inspection

STUDY AREA
LEGEND
HOME WORK/SCHOOL STUDY AREA

Overview

Fig. 1: The study area of the research covers the city centre of Newcastle upon Tyne and part of Gateshead; the centre of Tyneside conurbation.

Background map: Google Maps 2012

All logged points time on 02:00:00 (HH:MM:SS) UTC time is corrected backwards to 01:00:00 (HH:MM:SS) UTC time the same day to reflect local time. In order to get clean data which is not that messy to enable data analysis, visual inspection method for data cleaning was introduced (see example in Fig. 5) Visual inspection approach: Raw data from GNSS device is imported into SpaceTime-Cube (STC) in GeoTime software. The GPS tracks are inspected using filled travel diaries and secondary data such as openstreetmap.

SELECTED REFERENCES
TO
Forsyth, A. & Krizek, K. (2011) 'Urban Design: Is there a Distinctive View from the Bicycle?', Journal of Urban Design, 16 (4), pp. 531-549. Van der Spek, S., Van Schaick, J., De Bois, P., & De Haan, R. (2009). Sensing Human Activity: GPS Tracking. Sensors, 9(4), 3033-3055.

RAW DATAMESSY! Visual inspection of GNSS raw data

Cleaned DATANot MESSY! Processed / refined data

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Special thanks to Northumbria University for funding this project. To all those who participated in the survey, special thanks for your support. Thanks to Oculus Info, Inc for providing GeoTime Software under special license for this research. Many thanks to Gfg2 team for printing this poster and sponsoring me for the summer school.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION


Supervisors: Dr. Seraphim Alvanides and Dr. Emine M. Thompson,
Fig. 5: An example of visual inspection showing GPS raw data (left) and processed data (left) in space time cube in GeoTime Software
School of Built and Natural Environment, Northumbria University.
PhD Student: [email protected] PhD Research Blog: http://godwinyeboah.blogspot.com

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