Systems Thinking: Walking Path Evaluation
A Project for Data Mining the City at Columbia University GSAPP
This project begins as a simple exercise in trying to understand an everyday activity, but from a systemic lens. Everyday, many students walk between their residential apartments and campus, this digital twin highlights the walking possibilities between these two points. I have attempted to map the multitude of possible routes between a point near my apartment and the radius I would be able to travel in a given time.
Data Visualization
Analysis
This project was created using a “router” tool provided by the Urbano grasshopper plug-in. This tool allows a visualized analysis of a multitude of transit types along a street network. For this study, we were implementing the “pedestrian” transit type to help simulate a student walking towards class or into adjacent neighborhoods.
Using a timed limit slider, we can visualize that it is much faster to traverse East into Harlem than it is to walk South towards Columbia University and into Morning Side Heights. Overlaying Activity Demand Profile data provided within Urbano, we begin analyze which street networks get the highest amount of foot traffic and potentially correlate their use to efficient pedestrian travel times.
In this case, it looks like the Martin Luther King Boulevard street network moving in the East-West direction could be understood as the catalyst into Harlem. The addition of more diagonal street networks throughout the city may allow for more efficient pedestrian travel.
Data Sources:
