Weekly Roundup 079 – 27th August to 2nd September

FEATURE REPORT/ ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

‘Will Pedestrians Be Able to Tell What a Driverless Car Is About to Do?‘

Authored by Adrienne Lafrance

Technological advancements have immensely modified the way people commute in cities. Yet again, the advent of driverless cars will forever change the way we  travel. But, for the driverless cars to be successful, the technology needs to win peoples’ trust. We learn from birth about how to communicate with people, but communicating with machines is a fairly recent activity.

As a society we have continuously advanced on the technological front but we still face troubles when it comes to understanding the psychology of its users.  The articles talks about the challenges and difficulties in designing a machine that will be able to comprehend and predict the behaviour patterns of billions of people. Will these driverless cars find a way to predict every pedestrians’ movement or will it alternatively find a way to prompt safer pedestrian movement or perhaps both? Only time will tell.

Read the whole piece here.

Published by theatlantic.


ONLINE PUBLICATION OF THE WEEK

‘Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives‘
Published by Island Press

Public transit is a powerful tool in addressing many of the modern urban  problems including traffic congestion, urban pollution, etc. Jarret Walker attempts to simplify the underlying geometry of transit through explaining the technology that all transit systems share. He throws light on the fundamental framework of transit that shapes the successful systems, while showcasing examples that explain how to choose processes for specific communities and how bottom-up local choices lead to a transit-friendly development in cities.

Overall, the book is a great read to help citizens understand, analyze and form opinions about what kind of transit will suit their city.

Read the publication here.

VIDEO / PODCAST OF THE WEEK

‘Enrique Peñalosa: Why buses represent democracy in action‘
Created by Ted Talks

Mobility is increasingly turning from a challenge to a problem in many of the urban centers. Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia, talks about how the democracy is reflected in the way commuters travel in a city. He argues that “an advanced city is not one where the poor travel in cars, but where the rich travel in public transport.” Now a days, cities are shifting from the then ‘equality’ model to the an ‘equity’ model. For example, if every person in a city has equal rights, a bus carrying 80 people possibly has 80 times more rights that a car carrying 1 person.  Watch the video to see how this principle was used to transform mobility in Bogota and enlighten yourselves with new ways to build smarter cities.