Urban Currents

2026-06-21

7 arXiv categories· 96 journals· 198 candidates — 13 worth your time· 4 without an open abstract

No headline

a quiet day in urban data science

Today, together

tag shift
no tag ran above its 30-day average
canon
2 items cite Living with difference: reflections on geographies of encounter (Gill Valentine (2008))
coupling
no items share references today
institutions
University of Hong Kong on 10 papers in 30 days; Tsinghua University on 9 papers in 30 days; Chinese Academy of Sciences on 7 papers in 30 days; Hong Kong Polytechnic University on 6 papers in 30 days

Three of today's papers carry the tag "Traffic Prediction and Management Techniques," focusing on an IoT-based accident detection and prevention mechanism, the spatial and temporal mapping of noise levels at Varanasi traffic intersections, and evaluating the need for traffic signal retiming using connected vehicle data. Outside this group, another paper analyzes the governance of informal settlements in Jakarta through a comparative study of five neighborhoods. Additionally, a study examines the governance and socio-spatial dynamics of commodity-resettlement mixed communities in urbanizing China. Finally, researchers modeled the adoption potential of demand-responsive transport services in the UK using survey data from the Greater Leeds region.

published: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

Kadek Wara Urwasi
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · was arXiv

Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Asian Studies and History · Urban Planning and Governance · interview · Jakarta

EVICT, NEGLECT, OR INVEST? Community Power and the Politics of Urban Informality Governance in Jakarta

This study analyzes the governance of informal settlements in Jakarta through a comparative analysis of five neighborhoods in North Jakarta, utilizing field observations, interviews, and policy analysis. It examines why state responses to urban informality vary widely, ranging from violent evictions and neglect to collaborative, community-led infrastructure investments.

Why it matters — The research demonstrates that the treatment of informal settlements is not solely dictated by capitalist expansion or colonial legacies, but is actively shaped by community power. It establishes that neighborhoods with stronger organizational capacity, strategic alliances, and political embeddedness can successfully leverage discretionary state authority to secure accommodative policies.

Caveat: The findings are based on a comparative analysis of five specific settlements within a single city, which may limit their direct applicability to different national or political contexts.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · doi

published: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

Rong Cai, Yongshen Liu
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · was arXiv

China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Urban Planning and Governance · China

SOCIO ‐ SPATIAL RECONFIGURATION OF RURAL – URBAN INTERSTICES: Multiscalar Governance of Commodity‐Resettlement Mixed Communities in Urbanizing China

This study examines the governance and socio-spatial dynamics of commodity-resettlement mixed communities (CRMCs) in China, which are created when local states transfer resettlement responsibilities to private developers through price-capped land auctions. It analyzes how these policies fragment rural communities into scattered urban neighborhoods and details how the state manages the resulting tensions between resettled villagers and middle-class homeowners by facilitating tacit spatial segregation within the same developments.

Why it matters — It reveals how the Chinese state maintains social stability in newly urbanized areas by shifting from direct resettlement provision to a multiscalar governance approach, combining infrastructure delivery, neighborhood committees, and informal spatial segregation to manage class conflicts.

Caveat: The findings are based on a qualitative analysis of governance structures and community dynamics without quantitative measures of the scale or geographic distribution of these mixed communities.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · doi

published: Discover Cities

Roohi Rawat, Avijit Sahay, Saumya
Discover Cities

Banaras Hindu University

Noise Effects and Management · Traffic and Road Safety · Traffic Prediction and Management Techniques · Banaras Hindu University · Doon University

Spatial and temporal mapping of noise levels at major traffic intersections in Varanasi, India

This study measured equivalent, minimum, and maximum A-weighted sound levels in decibels at 27 major traffic intersections across Varanasi, India, during morning, afternoon, and evening hours. The measurements revealed that noise levels at all 27 locations exceeded permissible urban limits throughout the entire day, with the highest noise concentrations recorded at commercial intersections like Pandeypur, Maidagin, and Lanka.

Why it matters — The study establishes that noise pollution in Varanasi is continuous and ubiquitous, proving that even the lowest recorded sound levels in quieter areas exceed recommended safety standards, leaving residents with no period of relief from harmful noise exposure.

Caveat: The study focuses on mapping spatial and temporal variations in noise levels but does not analyze the specific technical or vehicular causes behind the elevated decibel readings.

Discover Cities · pdf · doi

published: Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice

Shobhit Saxena, Chiara Calastri, Christine Currie, et al.
Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice

University of Leeds

Transportation and Mobility Innovations · Transportation Planning and Optimization · Urban Transport and Accessibility · University of Leeds · University of Southampton · King's College London

Understanding the influence of public transport perceptions on the adoption of demand responsive transport services in the UK: A case study

This study models the adoption potential of demand-responsive transport (DRT) using revealed and stated preference data from 1,490 survey respondents in the Greater Leeds region, UK. It employs a parsimonious hybrid choice model with a single-indicator approach to integrate latent perceptions of public transport reliability, safety, connectivity, and affordability. The analysis reveals that positive perceptions of public transport safety and connectivity significantly increase the likelihood of choosing DRT.

Why it matters — It demonstrates that DRT functions as a complement to, rather than a competitor with, conventional public transit. This allows planners to design 'carrot-and-stick' policies that simultaneously upgrade transit infrastructure and discourage private car use to boost both transit and DRT ridership.

Caveat: The empirical findings are based on a single urban region in the UK, which may limit generalizability to areas with different baseline transit quality or spatial structures.

Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice · doi

published: Journal of Transportation Engineering Part A Systems

P. Bagheri Ghaleh, Chris Bachmann, Liping Fu
Journal of Transportation Engineering Part A Systems

University of Waterloo

Traffic Prediction and Management Techniques · Transportation Planning and Optimization · Traffic control and management · University of Waterloo

Evaluating the Need for Traffic Signal Retiming Using Connected Vehicle Data

This study developed a new metric called the traffic signal suboptimality index to estimate avoidable intersection delay using only connected vehicle trajectory data. The methodology was tested using VISSIM microsimulation software across various traffic scenarios, demonstrating that it can successfully identify signal retiming needs under fluctuating demand and imbalanced saturation levels with connected vehicle penetration rates as low as 10%.

Why it matters — It provides traffic agencies with a way to quantify and predict the specific delay reductions achievable through signal retiming, allowing them to prioritize interventions without conducting expensive physical traffic surveys.

Caveat: The methodology and its sensitivity to penetration rates were evaluated using microsimulation software rather than real-world empirical traffic data.

Journal of Transportation Engineering Part A Systems · doi

published: Transportation Planning and Technology

Pengyuan Sun, Dingtong Yang, R. Jayakrishnan
Transportation Planning and Technology

Oak Ridge Associated Universities

Network Traffic and Congestion Control · Traffic control and management · Real-Time Systems Scheduling · simulation · Oak Ridge Associated Universities · Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A generalizable dynamic real-time trajectory smoothing algorithm for traffic bottlenecks

The Dynamic Real-Time Trajectory Smoothing Algorithm (DRTSA) was developed to optimize vehicle arrival times and speeds at traffic bottlenecks, generating piecewise optimal accelerations as advisory controls. The framework was evaluated via simulations of two bottleneck scenarios—a slow-moving vehicle and a signalized intersection—across varying traffic densities, connected automated vehicle (CAV) penetration rates, and control ranges.

Why it matters — It provides a single, generalizable trajectory optimization framework capable of mitigating both recurrent and non-recurrent bottlenecks under mixed-autonomy traffic conditions, improving throughput and reducing speed oscillations simultaneously.

Caveat: The algorithm's performance and safety benefits are demonstrated solely through simulated scenarios rather than real-world physical deployments.

Transportation Planning and Technology · doi

published: Social & Cultural Geography

Niamh Nelson-Owens
Social & Cultural Geography

University of Manchester

Geographies of human-animal interactions · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation · Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact · University of Manchester

The political potential of (extra)ordinary encounters with vegan street activism

Based on autoethnographic fieldwork in Manchester, UK, this study examines how public encounters with graphic vegan street activism function as aesthetic interventions. It analyzes how these street displays challenge conventional norms of animal product consumption, while also tracing how passersby neutralize these encounters as 'noise' through protective disengagement or by absorbing them into the sensory clutter of the commercial high street.

Why it matters — The research moves beyond binary measures of activist success or failure to show how hegemonic human-animal relations are contested in public space, revealing the specific affective and aesthetic mechanisms that either enable or block political transformation during everyday encounters.

Caveat: The findings are based on qualitative, autoethnographic fieldwork in a single city, which may limit generalizability to different cultural or urban contexts.

Social & Cultural Geography · pdf · doi

published: Social & Cultural Geography

Joan García, Bettina van Hoven, Julia Doornbos
Social & Cultural Geography

University of Groningen

Geography Education and Pedagogy · Disability Rights and Representation · Children's Rights and Participation · Netherlands · University of Groningen

Where different abilities meet: participatory game development as a site of encounter in the classroom

This study analyzes a participatory game development project in the Netherlands where vocational students aged 15 to 28 collaborated with people with disabilities. The partnership produced digital games that addressed spatial and social barriers, mainstreamed disability in narratives, and created accessible gameplay. The research examines how the institutional arrangements, labor distribution, and risk structures of the classroom setting shaped these interactions.

Why it matters — It demonstrates that while structured pedagogical settings can temporarily reconfigure power dynamics and foster social connections between disabled and non-disabled individuals, these organized encounters face significant limitations in shifting broader, everyday geographies outside the classroom.

Caveat: The findings are based on a specific, localized educational collaboration in the Netherlands, which may limit generalizability to other institutional or cultural contexts.

Social & Cultural Geography · pdf · doi

published: Mobilities

Róbert Braun, Johannes Starkbaum, Fabian Seiser
Mobilities

Institut für Höhere Studien - Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS)

Geographies of human-animal interactions · Global Security and Public Health · Information Systems Theories and Implementation · Institut für Höhere Studien - Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS)

Doing things with things: the European Accident Statement (EAS)

This study analyzes the European Accident Statement (EAS) to demonstrate how standardized collision forms translate physical and emotional traffic violence into structured, administratively manageable events. Drawing on ethnomethodology, phenomenology, and science and technology studies, the paper conceptualizes these documents as 'text acts' that actively reconstruct the social and epistemic order of mobility.

Why it matters — It reveals that the continuity of automobility relies on mundane bureaucratic paperwork to frame systemic traffic violence as isolated, episodic occurrences, thereby restoring traffic flow and normalizing vehicular harm.

Caveat: The study is a theoretical and conceptual analysis of a document type rather than an empirical evaluation of specific collision datasets or driver behaviors.

Mobilities · doi

published: Transportation Letters

Yandong He, Lianmin Zhang, Wei Yang, et al.
Transportation Letters

Shenzhen Polytechnic University

Vehicle Routing Optimization Methods · Metaheuristic Optimization Algorithms Research · Urban and Freight Transport Logistics · Shenzhen Polytechnic University · The Polytechnic University of Japan · Chinese University of Hong Kong

A stochastic vehicle routing problem with roaming customers under joint delivery

This study models and solves two stochastic variants of the vehicle routing problem with roaming customers under joint delivery, accounting for either stochastic travel times or stochastic time windows. The problem is formulated as a two-stage stochastic model with recourse and solved using an adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic combined with a late acceptance hill-climbing strategy. Computational experiments compare two sampling strategies, showing that Sample Average Approximation outperforms Fixed Sample Size sampling in reducing costs for large-sized instances, while both perform similarly on small and medium instances.

Why it matters — It introduces a optimization framework for joint delivery systems that can handle the real-world uncertainty of both customer locations and travel times, demonstrating that accounting for these stochastic elements yields significant operational cost savings.

Caveat: The performance and cost-saving claims are based on computational experiments rather than a deployment in a real-world logistics network.

Transportation Letters · doi

published: ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information

Yixin Zhang, Jian Liu, Michele Bonino
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information

Politecnico di Torino

Urban Transport and Accessibility · Urban Design and Spatial Analysis · Urban Green Space and Health · Politecnico di Torino · Tsinghua University

What Facilities and Layout Create a 15-Minute Living Circle for Green Travel

This study analyzed 634 living circles in Tangshan, China, using 20 million mobile phone travel records and point-of-interest data to model how facility layouts affect walking and cycling. Using Extreme Gradient Boosting and Shapley Additive Explanations, the research identified that vegetable markets and primary schools are the most critical facilities for promoting green travel, while also revealing diminishing marginal benefits for high densities of certain facility types. K-means clustering categorized three distinct types of low-performing living circles, which are predominantly located in peripheral and newly developed urban areas.

Why it matters — It quantifies the specific density thresholds and accessibility levels of different facility types required to support active travel, moving beyond general planning concepts to provide concrete numerical ranges for 15-minute city designs.

Caveat: The empirical findings and specific facility thresholds are derived from a single Chinese city, which may limit their direct applicability to different national or cultural urban contexts.

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information · pdf · doi

published: Urban Science

Deng Zhi-tuan, Jiaojiao Kang
Urban Science

Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies · China · Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences · Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Urban Housing Status and Re-Migration Intentions Among Floating Populations: Evidence from China

This study analyzed 370,477 individual migration records from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey to evaluate how housing status affects the re-migration intentions of floating populations. The analysis reveals that owner-occupied housing and government-provided low-rent housing are associated with lower intentions to move again, though the strength of this relationship varies by household registration status, city tier, and generation.

Why it matters — It demonstrates that housing stability, rather than just labor income, acts as a critical anchor for migrant retention, showing that access to secure housing can actively shape the spatial distribution of labor across different tiers of cities.

Caveat: The study relies on self-reported migration intentions rather than observed, actual re-migration behaviors.

Urban Science · pdf · doi

preprint

Prabhu Pugalenthi, Pramod Krishnaa Dhanbalan
arXiv cs.ET

IoT and GPS-based Vehicle Safety Systems · Traffic and Road Safety · Traffic Prediction and Management Techniques

Enhancing Road Safety: An IoT-Based Accident Detection and Prevention Mechanism

The researchers designed an Internet of Things (IoT)-based Accident Prevention and Detection System (APDS) that monitors driver telemetry in real time to prevent collisions and accelerate emergency responses. The multi-tiered architecture triggers local alarms, executes automated vehicle interventions, and uses GPS coordinates to automatically dispatch location alerts to nearby medical facilities.

Why it matters — The system establishes a continuous, automated link between real-time driver risk detection and immediate emergency dispatch, reducing the critical delay between a collision and the arrival of medical services.

Caveat: The system's performance, reliability, and response times are described conceptually without empirical testing metrics, hardware specifications, or deployment results in a physical test environment.

arXiv · pdf

Still cited

Gill Valentine (2008), Living with difference: reflections on geographies of encounter 2 of today's items cite it · 12 of 4454 in the archive stand on it

Also published today

These appeared today in journals we track. Their abstracts are not openly available, so we cannot summarise them.