The Propensity to Cycle Tool: An on-line interactive web tool for transport planning

http://groups.energyshare.com/ewb-sheffield-wind/

• Geography
• Bicycle mechanic
• Environmental science
• Some engineering!
• Energy studies
• Geography (with computers!)
• Transport studies

Proprietary software cannot be:

• modified
• shared
• updated

Source: Who will save us from transport models (Hollander 2015)

• Go Open Source!

• The global transition away from fossil fuels is big business
• Many cities are scrambling to make their cities healthier and cleaner
• Check out some of the jobs that are available, decide which one YOU want

Good transport companies - ready for a transition away from fossil fuels:

• Arup
• Steer Davies Gleave

• QGIS
• GRASS
• R
• Python

http://www.maths.lancs.ac.uk/~rowlings/Teaching/UseR2012/introduction2Talk.html

http://www.aequilibrae.com/

See the free, open source, online tutorial github.com/robinlovelace/Creating-maps-in-R.

Can be installed and loaded in 6 lines of code:

pkgs <- c("devtools", "shiny", "rgdal", "rgeos", "ggmap") # official packages
install.packages(pkgs) 
library(devtools) # enables installation of leaflet
gh_pkgs <- c("rstudio/leaflet", "robinlovelace/stplanr") 
install_github(gh_pkgs) # install packages on github
lapply(c(pkgs, "leaflet", "stplanr"), library, character.only = T) # load all

RStudio Desktop is highly recommended for Shiny development.

shiny is a framework for creating online interactive data visualisation 'apps'.

• A framework for making R output interactive
• An 'app' development framework
• A (small) growing community of developers centred around RStudio
• A way to structure online tools: separation of GUI and server via server.R and ui.R files.

• animate package
• Google Charts (googleVis::) and
• plotly
• D3
• Tableau

For maps

• Leaflet (supported by Shiny)
• Google Maps API

Build's on R's existing strengths

• Data visualisation (ggplot2)
• Increasingline widely understood language for querying data
• Amazing range of add-on packages

Flexibility

Not so good for

• Scalability
• Database interaction
• Low-level control

# type this to find out!
runExample()

See geo8.webarch.net/robin/rentSplit/

GEOSTAT 2015 Visualisation Competition winner: geo8.webarch.net/robin/vizcomp/

An R interface to the Leaflet JavaScript library, compatible with Shiny.

cent <- geocode("Girona")
leaflet() %>% 
  addTiles() %>%
  addCircleMarkers(data = cent)

• House of Commons Criticising the DfT for using closed models
• 'Impact' and 'engagement' increasingly important for research funding
• Complex data cannot be adequately summarised in a single static graphic
• Phase I: proof of concept (February - August 2015)
• Phase II: nationwide deployment (November 2015 - 2018)

See: cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/research/modelling/npct-tool

• AURIN
• Leeds-Bradford cycle path interactive map
• DECC's 'Energy 2050' planning tool
• Walkability index site
• Interactive download of bicycle paths

• Interactive basemap
• Points, lines and polygons
• Cascading effects of different scenarios > - Tidy!

• Check out our paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.04425

See here: geo8.webarch.net/master

Estimating cycling rate allocated to the road network with https://t.co/DuzyCQCA50. Looks like streams + rivers! pic.twitter.com/geaV0mVKdG

— Robin Lovelace (@robinlovelace) August 17, 2015

Beta

• Network analysis (various options)
• Hilliness allocated to cycle network

Version 1 - nationwide (June 2016)

• HEAT outputs
• Incorporation of user feedback
• Travel to school layer (data pending)

Version 2 - nationwide (June 2017)

• Micro-level analysis
• Socio-demographic variables (new scenarios?)

• Custom scenarios (e.g. 20% cycling by 2020 in Bristol)
• Custom scenarios (e.g. 10% cycling by 2020 in Manchester!)
• Scenarios estimating impacts from specific interventions
• International comparisons of propensity to cycle
• A global propensity to cycle map?

• The work is open source so can used as a foundation for further work by others

• E.g. councils with the technical know-how
• E.g. cycle campaigner 'hackers'

• Check out the project's repository: github.com/npct/pct-shiny

• R vs QGIS for transport planning: http://robinlovelace.net/r/2015/04/20/r-vs-qgis-for-transport.html

• Aequillibrea: transport planning toolbox - http://www.aequilibrae.com/

• Lovelace, R., Goodman, A., Aldred, R., Berkoff, N., Abbas, A., & Woodcock, J. (2015). The Propensity to Cycle Tool: An open source online system for sustainable transport planning. arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.04425.

• Use Google and your imagination

• Code is good but start with a pen and paper!