Urban Currents

Understanding the effectiveness of active travel policy portfolios with agent-based modelling

This study simulated active travel policies in the Tyne and Wear region of England using the MATSim agent-based transport framework. The simulation tested economic incentives, car penalties, and infrastructure changes, finding that a £0.15/km active travel subsidy reduced car use by 7 percentage points and increased active modes by 10 percentage points, while a £2.50 daily car charge reduced car use by 14 percentage points. Combining these economic policies with cycle path improvements yielded the greatest shifts, reducing car use by up to 18 percentage points and increasing active travel by up to 22 percentage points.

Why it matters — It quantifies the compounding benefits of combining behavioral incentives with physical infrastructure improvements, providing concrete policy-mix scenarios for local authorities aiming to meet transport decarbonization targets.

Caveat: The findings are based on simulated agent behaviors within a computational model of a single English region rather than observed empirical outcomes.

Transport Policy · doi

Digital Twins for Accessory Dwelling Unit Feasibility under Environmental and Infrastructure Constraints: The Case of Austin, Texas

The study develops a GIS-based digital twin framework that integrates zoning rules with environmental constraints, such as flood risk, tree protection, drainage, and impervious cover limits, to assess parcel-level feasibility for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). Applying this framework to Austin, Texas, reveals that environmental constraints disqualify 39% of single-family parcels in East Austin and 22% in the Brentwood/Crestview neighborhood, significantly narrowing the feasibility estimates compared to zoning-only analyses. The model also highlights that while East Austin has the highest rate of environmental ineligibility, it still leads the city with 666 completed ADUs, illustrating how property values and investment capacity interact with physical constraints.

Why it matters — It provides a replicable, open-data method to distinguish between parcels where physical and environmental constraints are the binding limit to housing construction and those where they are not, a capability that zoning-only maps lack.

Caveat: The empirical findings and specific constraint weights are demonstrated using a single case study of Austin, Texas, which has unique spatial variations in environmental conditions and recent policy reforms.

Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy · pdf · doi

Public governance and creative economy dynamics: Towards an integrated conceptual understanding

This study conducts a systematic literature review to analyze how academic research connects public governance with the creative economy, specifically focusing on urban and cultural contexts where tourism is a primary application. The review uses a variable-oriented approach combining structured screening with textual and conceptual analyses to synthesize how policy-led frameworks, sustainability strategies, and participatory governance models intersect with creative industries.

Why it matters — It bridges previously fragmented and sector-specific research domains, establishing public governance as a central analytical mechanism rather than just a background context for creative economy and tourism studies.

City Culture and Society · doi

Psychometric properties of the stage of change scales for walking and cycling to school among Spanish children and adolescents

This study evaluated the reliability and predictive validity of two single-item scales measuring behavioral readiness for active school travel (SC-W for walking and SC-C for cycling) using a sample of 372 Spanish students aged 13.1 ± 2.4 years. Over a 14-day test-retest interval, both scales demonstrated moderate to substantial reliability with weighted kappa values of 0.558 for walking and 0.552 for cycling. Logistic regression models confirmed predictive validity for walking among adolescents (OR = 2.71, p < 0.001), but the association was weaker and not statistically significant for younger children.

Why it matters — The study validates a low-burden, single-item diagnostic tool that researchers and planners can use to assess and segment youth readiness for active travel interventions, showing that these stage-of-change measures are highly predictive for adolescents but may require refinement for younger children.

Caveat: The predictive validity of the cycling scale could not be evaluated due to the extremely low prevalence of cycling to school among the study participants.

Journal of Transport & Health · doi

Intensifying drought threatens the heat-regulating capacity of urban vegetation

Using satellite observations from 2003 to 2024 across 2,911 global cities, this study measured how drought limits the cooling effect of urban vegetation. Greening reduced daytime land surface temperatures by a global summer average of 0.405°C, but this cooling capacity dropped sharply once drought passed specific Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) thresholds, such as -0.827 in summer. Beyond these thresholds, the relationship inverted, with the summer cooling slope shifting from 0.201 to -0.205°C per unit PDSI as moisture constraints limited evapotranspiration.

Why it matters — It establishes that urban vegetation has a non-linear, threshold-limited capacity to mitigate heat, proving that green infrastructure becomes rapidly less effective at cooling cities during the very drought periods when temperature regulation is most needed.

Caveat: The study relies on satellite-derived land surface temperature and estimated evapotranspiration as proxies for ambient air temperature and actual water loss.

Landscape and Urban Planning · doi

Commercial Vehicle Load Zone programs in US cities

This study analyzes Commercial Vehicle Load Zone (CVLZ) programs across 13 US cities, evaluating their policy, regulatory, and infrastructure planning frameworks. The comparative analysis reveals that most of these cities allocate less than one percent of their total curb space to freight, with denser networks clustered in Seattle and San Francisco. The research establishes a formal typology of how cities classify load zones, define eligible users, allocate access, and monetize these spaces.

Why it matters — It provides the first formal definition and systematic typology of urban freight curb management programs, establishing a baseline measure of how little physical curb space is actually dedicated to commercial deliveries in major US cities.

Caveat: The study relies on a relatively small sample of 13 US cities, which may not capture the full diversity of curb management practices in smaller municipalities or international contexts.

Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice · doi

Bicycles’ double learning: combining organization and transport research to explain the (un)sustainable urban transport paradox in Helsinki

This study investigates why Helsinki did not implement pop-up bicycle lanes during the COVID-19 pandemic despite its reputation for transport innovation. Using stakeholder interviews alongside transport history and management theories, the research identifies technical double standards between cycling and driving, as well as political conflicts between municipal departments.

Why it matters — It explains how organizational learning can paradoxically reinforce the status quo, showing that planners learn to manage sustainability contradictions without resolving them, leading to a state of 'involution within unsustainability'.

Caveat: The findings are based on a qualitative case study of a single city, which may limit their direct applicability to cities with different municipal governance structures.

Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives · doi

A new model for accurately estimating energy consumption of road vehicles

The study presents a parameterized road vehicle energy consumption model that integrates road topology, engine performance, vehicle dimensions, resistance factors, and driving behavior. The model's estimates were validated against real-world onboard computer measurements across various engine types and routes, achieving high accuracy with low computational overhead.

Why it matters — It provides a computationally efficient routing model that accounts for critical physical and behavioral parameters typically omitted by mainstream navigation services like Google Maps, enabling more precise eco-routing.

Caveat: The abstract does not disclose the specific number of vehicles, routes, or geographic locations used to validate the model's accuracy.

Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives · doi

Methodology for Identifying Trail Deserts: Exploring Modal Access to Trails through Demographic and Land Use Factors

This study establishes a seven-step GIS-based methodology to define and map 'trail deserts' where residents lack pedestrian, bicycle, or vehicular access to trail networks. Using a buffer approach for non-vehicular modes and roadway network analysis for vehicular access, the method classifies accessibility into high, medium, and low tiers, and evaluates these patterns against demographic and land use factors across a statewide case study of Pennsylvania.

Why it matters — It introduces a standardized, multi-modal definition of trail deserts, allowing transportation planning agencies to identify specific geographic gaps in non-motorized infrastructure and prioritize trail investments based on equity and modal access.

Caveat: While the methodology is designed for broad application by planning organizations, its performance and classification thresholds are demonstrated only within the single state context of Pennsylvania.

Journal of Urban Planning and Development · doi

Transportation and Quality-of-Life Effects of Los Angeles’s Mobility Wallet Program

This study analyzed the Los Angeles Mobility Wallet Pilot Program, which provided low-income participants with flexible funds for various shared transportation services. Researchers conducted interviews with 31 participants before, during, and after the one-year pilot to evaluate changes in their travel behavior and quality of life.

Why it matters — The findings demonstrate that flexible, demand-side transportation subsidies can reduce material hardship and stress while improving travel frequency, social connections, and personal autonomy for low-income residents, offering an alternative to traditional transit-only assistance.

Caveat: The study's findings are based on a small, qualitative sample of 31 interviewees in a single metropolitan area, which may limit generalizability to other urban contexts.

Journal of the American Planning Association · pdf · doi

Exploring dynamic accessibility gaps between urban village and commercial housing from the perspective of vertical inequity: a modified gravity model approach

This study develops a modified gravity model that incorporates multiple travel impedances, such as transit transfers, to measure dynamic employment accessibility across morning peak, off-peak, and evening peak hours. The model was applied to compare accessibility levels between urban villages and commercial housing, revealing that commercial housing consistently maintains higher accessibility and that urban village residents face more severe vertical inequity in reaching jobs.

Why it matters — By accounting for the complex, multi-transfer transit journeys that low-income urban village residents actually rely on, the study quantifies a previously obscured gap in employment access and demonstrates that spatial inequities are compounded by housing type.

Caveat: The findings are presented without specifying the case study city, sample size, or geographic boundaries used to validate the modified gravity model.

Transportation Planning and Technology · doi

The critical arts-science-advocacy framework: a model for K-12 teacher education and geography education in the Anthropocene

This paper introduces the Critical Arts-Science-Advocacy Framework (CASAF), a three-part multidisciplinary learning sequence designed for K-12 teacher education and geography education. Developed from university-level teaching practice during the 2023–2025 school years, the framework guides students through mapping emotional geographies, conducting community science on campus biodiversity, and creating zines for public environmental storytelling.

Why it matters — It provides teacher educators with an actionable, non-traditional curriculum model that integrates arts-based research and environmental science, moving beyond standard science-only approaches to foster active Earth justice advocacy in future teachers.

Caveat: The framework is presented as a conceptual curriculum model based on the author's own teaching practice, without empirical evaluation of its long-term impact on K-12 classrooms.

Journal of Geography in Higher Education · doi

Negotiating creative futures – professional identity formation of “behind and around the scenes” students

The study analyzes how performing arts students preparing for behind-and-around-the-scenes (BAS) careers negotiate their professional identities and future career paths. Drawing on biographical interviews with 20 BAS students in Sweden and Denmark, the research identifies how students navigate traditional bohemian and entrepreneurial identity types, proposing three alternative identity ideals: the flexible creative, the socially conscious performing artist, and the sustainable artist worker.

Why it matters — It reveals how future cultural workers are actively contesting and redefining traditional artistic identity structures to demand more sustainable and socially conscious labor practices within public institutional theaters.

Caveat: The findings are based on a small, qualitative sample of 20 students from two Scandinavian countries, which may reflect specific regional cultural funding and labor structures.

Cultural Trends · pdf · doi

GCMCNN: a geographically conditioned multiscale convolutional neural network for downscaling land surface temperature

The study introduces GCMCNN, a geographically conditioned multiscale convolutional neural network that downscales MODIS land surface temperature (LST) data to a 100 m resolution by combining two- and three-dimensional surface features. Evaluated against four benchmark models, the new model reduced RMSE by 15.4% to 26.16%, decreased MAE by 15.05% to 23.59%, and increased R2 by 39.81% to 148.09%. It integrates a location- and attribute-conditioned geo-aware mechanism with a multiscale CNN to capture both spatial heterogeneity and neighborhood correlations.

Why it matters — It overcomes the limitations of existing spatial regression models that rely too heavily on simple proximity weighting, establishing a more accurate method for high-resolution thermal mapping in urban and environmental modeling.

International Journal of Geographical Information Systems · doi

Perceived quality and access to urban green spaces and loneliness in India

This study analyzed survey data from 221 respondents in India to examine how subjective perceptions of urban green spaces relate to loneliness, measured via the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Regression and correlation analyses revealed that negative perceptions of green space accessibility, safety, and design are significantly associated with higher loneliness, particularly for women and younger demographics. Specific design features like shaded seating and recreational facilities showed stronger associations with reduced loneliness than simple physical proximity.

Why it matters — The findings shift the focus of urban greening from mere physical availability to qualitative and user-sensitive design, demonstrating that how people experience and feel safe in a space is more critical for mitigating social isolation than how close they live to it.

Caveat: The study relies on a relatively small, cross-sectional survey of 221 respondents, which limits the ability to establish causal relationships between green space quality and loneliness.

Cities & Health · doi

Toward a Hybrid Digital Twin of Society: Quantifying Cognitive-Spatial Linkages Through Online-Offline Feedback Networks

The study introduces the Feedback Network, a computational framework that models the co-evolution of online search patterns and offline physical mobility. Using Google Search and Location History data donated by individuals in Budapest, Hungary, between 2018 and 2022, the researchers adapted the radius of gyration and applied Concentration Entropy to compare semantic exploration with geographic movement. The analysis revealed that online cognitive exploration is more concentrated and repetitive than physical movement, and that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted physical routines much more severely than digital search behaviors.

Why it matters — It establishes a method to quantify and model the continuous feedback loop between digital information seeking and physical urban navigation. This provides a empirical foundation for building hybrid digital twins that simulate how virtual exposure shapes physical encounters in cities.

Caveat: The findings are based on a self-selected sample of individuals who donated their personal Google data in a single European capital, which may limit generalizability to other demographic groups or urban contexts.

arXiv · pdf