MIT commuter common : measuring and improving the transportation footprint of an urban institution

[摘要] This thesis develops a system for observing, visualizing, and understanding transportation behavior at the scale of an urban institution;;s entire population. In particular, the Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT) will serve as a case study. This research does not accept the presumption that the individual is a purely autonomous decision maker when it comes to transportation behavior. Rather, decisions can be a result of following the example of others;; in a given community, not necessarily a process of autonomous utility optimization. As such, human transportation behavior is examined within the context of ;;social institutional;; and ;;urban tribal;; constructs. By recognizing such social institutional tribes as fundamental affecters of transportation behavior, we can develop new analytical units called ;;commuter footprints.;; These footprints are derived from the ;;digital breadcrumbs;; of user behavior within an institution. By bringing these footprints to light, it will give policy makers a new avenue to influence transportation behavior in urban areas by targeting these social institutional tribes as a whole. Given the growing desire for policies to be evaluated with performance-based metrics, this thesis also strives to articulate metrics for a social institution;;s transportation behavior. These metrics will aid in annual reporting, and may even serve as useful indicators from which to measure change over time. Furthermore, the thesis proposes potential avenues for ;;living lab;; style research and experiments that could utilize such a system.

[发布机构] Massachusetts Institute of Technology