Hidden role of people in how cities work
What if the seemingly chaotic movement of people is in fact predictable and follows hidden regularities? Asst Prof. (Adj) Dr Markus Schalepfer explains a travel law to predict the movement of people in cities.
Cities are the engine of economic growth, innovation and wealth creation. It is widely recognised that interactions between people is key for the social and economic functioning of cities. However, our understanding of the flows of individuals to locations has remained incomplete.
Why do we live in cities and why do cities worldwide continue to grow? How can we understand the movement of people for reasons as diverse as work, shopping or recreation at different frequencies?
What if the seemingly chaotic movement of people is not at all random and chaotic, but are surprisingly structured and predictable and that they follow hidden regularities that provide powerful guidelines for urban planning?
In a 9-minute TedX talk, Asst Prof. (Adj.) Markus Schlaepfer explained a simple and powerful mathematical travel law that could help us to gain a better understanding of how to build and maintain cities that truly enable many diverse interactions.
The talk is based on the study The universal visitation law of human mobility published in Nature in June 2021 by Prof. Schlaepfer, together with FCL alumnus Hadrien Salat, Prof. Geoffrey West and Prof. Carlo Ratti and team. Their findings are a result of an analysis of mobile phone data from millions of anonymised cell phone users in highly diverse urban regions across the world, including Greater Boston in the United States, Lisbon in Europe, Singapore in Asia, and Dakar in Africa.