Mapping our daily commutes

link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/nyregion/citi-bike-nyc-bronx.html

Commutes can be daunting in a city such as New York. I wanted to explore the different parameters that have a direct effect on the quality and lengths of our commutes. I chose to focus in on the Citi Bike program which has faced many problems since the bike-sharing program was launched in 2015. Do fleet sizes and their locations relative to hubs, subway stations or parks matter? Do changes in climate influence our decision in pursuing one form of transportation over another, and how does cost factor in?

Citi Bike has been criticized of not catering yo ‘transit deserts’ located in the outer boroughs which face limited transportation options, and where residents often faced longer commutes.

Citi Bike ridership and station statistics — Morningside Heights, Manhattan. Fewer bikes are available by the Cathedral Pkwy & broadway Station.

The simulation simply tests a speculative morning commute and the number of people who may choose to grab a bike right out of the subway on their way to work. Another scenario tests how that could change if the fleet by the subway is smaller, with added fleets located further away and assume that most choose to continue walking at that point. The simulation is not designed to be a quantitive study, but a reflection on other unapparent parameters that could have effected our commuters’ decisions (e.g. proximity of added stations by their places of work/ home, cost, being short on time…etc) and how to best design for urban ride sharing programs.

Quick sketch of outputs

Agents : Pedestrians coming out of subway

Environment : Urban environment (NYC City Blocks)

Behavior : The agents are either attracted to the bikes and grab one, or simply evade and continue on their path.

Parameters: Number of pedestrians who choose to take a bike, versus those who don’t.

Inputs:

Location and number of bikes available, and the pedestrians’ preferences (walk and no bike, or bike)

Output: Pedestrian movement and collection, and bikes used based on availability, commute preference and length.

Speculative map of NYC blocks with change of fleet size and location relative to subway and commute length.

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
//Pedestrians are players that are attracted to bikes and upon collision or trigger bike to follow pedestrian
public class AttractorScript : MonoBehaviour{
public float AttractorSpeed;
private void OnTriggerStay(Collider other)
{
if (other.CompareTag(“Player”))
{
//Agents attracted to bikes if close to subway and if they choose to grab bike have bike removed
transform.position = Vector3.MoveTowards(transform.position,other.transform.position,AttractorSpeed * Time.deltaTime);
}
}
private void Update()
{
if (transform.childCount > 1)
{
Destroy(gameObject);
}
}
}
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.AI;
public class AgentControl : MonoBehaviour
{
public Transform home;
NavMeshAgent agent;
// Start is called before the first frame update
void Start ()
{
agent = this.GetComponent<NavMeshAgent>();
agent.SetDestination(home.position);
}
}