Drones for road safety assessments
We recently started a research collaboration with a Belgian university where we will be using drones to conduct a more comprehensive survey around schools. The drones will be able to capture wider areas where conflicts can be identified; ultimately allowing us to determine solutions for various situations in schools zones.
We had scheduled many activities last week but the weather did not cooperate. And so we had to improvise. That meant some indoor training on using the drone.
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A new shop at Bohol-Panglao Airport
There’s a nice store at the Bohol-Panglao Airport. It was not yet there last year when last I was in Bohol so it was new to me. At the time, the additional coffee shops were still being fitted out.
A Nomad store greeted us as we cleared the final security check at the airport
They had all kinds of products including food and souvenir items like shirts, magnets and key chains.
OTOP stands for One Town, One Product, which is a program promoted across the country. This encourages various towns to identify, make and promote unique products including food items. Aside from those from Bohol, there are products from other provinces like otap and dried mangoes from Cebu, Napoleones and pinasugbo from Negros, pastel buns from Camiguin, and biscocho and piaya from Iloilo. I usually get frozen longanisa or chorizo at the store.
There were also stuffed toys, travel items and handicrafts
We first saw Nomad stores in Cebu’s Mactan Airport and at Laguindingan Airport (Cagayan De Oro). It is a welcome addition at Panglao though there are many small stores there already and there’s a local souvenir shop at the check-in lobby. The common denominator for these airport stores is that those airports are operated by Aboitiz, which has taken on airport operations and management as a business.
The other stores are still there including the Island Souvenirs shop and this small store selling wonderful muffins and cookies. The latter one I recommend to those who are making some last minute purchases to eat at home or at the airport while waiting for the boarding call.
Other stores at the ground floor of the airport
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Article share – Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Here is the third article that argues for walkability in order to generate human connections. To quote from the article:
“The goal isn’t to design cities for dating specifically, it’s to create places where human connection can flourish. The places we often think of as the most romantic weren’t planned with dating as their primary objective. Instead, their priority was creating vibrant public life, walkability and shared spaces. “
Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Source: Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Article share – Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
I shared the first part of a series relating the built environment with love (or dating). The second part is also very interesting as it focuses on the impacts of car-centricity. To quote from the article:
“Everyone across both groups said they’d ideally like to meet their partner in person, organically, putting spontaneous public interactions and friends at the top of the list while dating apps and social media fell to the bottom.
In practice, however, drivers were getting far fewer spontaneous public encounters than they wanted, turning to social media for dating far more than they’d like.
For non-drivers, their actual dating life and dating ideals were much more in sync: public encounters and social media use both happened at nearly the rate they preferred. One exception was meeting through friends and family, which happened less often than they would’ve liked.”
Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
Source: Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
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Quick escapes
We decided to take an unplanned trip to one of our happy places. Our daughter loves Panglao and this was our nth trip with her. The weather though appears to be uncooperative.
We are hopeful that tomorrow will be better. At least the forecast is fair weather for both Saturday and Sunday. I’m not sure if we will have an unplanned boat ride. This is a short, quick escape so perhaps we’ll just stay at the resort. Quick trips like this is really for recharging one’s batteries given all the stress especially at work.
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Article share – Planning for Love, Part 1: The link between urban form and dating
There’s this interesting series on the relationship between urban form and dating. To quote from Part 1:
“Even though dating is considered a lesser concern than other social issues, it’s one of the many ways humans seek love and connection. Love, in whatever form it takes, remains one of the most fundamental parts of being human.
So, if the design of cities shapes just about every form of social life, it seems worth finding out whether cities shape this one too.”
Here is the article:
A brief exploration of dating through history highlights how the spaces in which we live and move shape our social lives and relationships.
Source: Planning for Love, Part 1: The link between urban form and dating
Congestion Costing Reality Check, Part 1: Congestion evaluation best practices
Here’s a quick share of an article from Todd Litman on congestion evaluation:
Widely cited studies claim that traffic congestion is a huge and growing problem. They exaggerate. Let’s examine how to correctly calculate congestion costs and roadway expansion benefits.
Source: Congestion Costing Reality Check, Part 1: Congestion evaluation best practices
On desire paths
I found this article on desire paths. These are paths made by people based on their preferred ways to get from one place to another. Often, the paths or ways that are constructed and paved are not the shortest or most desirable ones and appear to force people into following them. Perhaps the built pathways are planned or designed to follow a certain aesthetic in as far as infrastructure is concerned. Desire paths often are the most direct routes from one place to another. These shortcuts are defined over time by the wear along the path. In some cases, they eventually become formalized when they are paved or maintained one way or another including trimming of foliage along the paths.
https://www.boredpanda.com/desire-paths-pictures/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=top&utm_campaign=user
Here’s an example at the National Science Complex grounds of the University of the Philippines Diliman:
Desire path created by students and staff as a shortcut from the complex core to one of the outlier buildings.
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Trip purpose, Antipolo City
In the same workshop with Antipolo LGU staff, the following graph was presented showing the purposes of trips made by residents of the city. The data was gathered with the assistance of barangays, which deployed personnel to do a version of the household information surveys (HIS) usually conducted to collect data on transportation and trip making among residents.
It is important to note that most if not all trips eventually end up at home (i.e., coming home from the workplace, school, market, etc.). Thus we can interpret the graph in a way where we can derive the trip purpose other than “to home”. For example, perhaps the real % of work trips is not 21% but 41.0% of trips made other than “going home.” School trips come in second with 29.9% of trips. Third would be shopping trips at 18.8%. These three combine for 89.7% of all trips made by Antipolo City residents. Work and school trips are most likely the most regular or frequent trips. These are the purposes associated with daily commutes whether by public or private transportation. In the next post, I will share data on mode share and try to relate the latter to the trip purpose.
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Travel time maps for Antipolo City
Yesterday, we facilitated a workshop for Antipolo City where technical staff of the city presented on the outcomes of various activities related to the formulation of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) for the city. One interesting output from one of the groups is this map showing the travel times within selected driving times with the destination being the Antipolo Shrine (“Antipolo Simbahan” if you will refer to the PUV signboards of those plying routes to Antipolo). The maps are the equivalent of travel time contour maps that can be generated with travel speed or travel time data.
While shown are driving times and assuming car use, similar maps can be produced for public transportation, motorcycles, bicycles and even walking. It is just a matter of collecting the data and plotting them. Alternatively, the data can probably be obtained or derived from sources like Google Traffic or Waze. Some effort, of course, is required in order to have more accurate maps especially considering the road network and traffic circulation. Note that the travel times indicated are also centered on the Antipolo Shrine, which for presentation purposes was used to represent the center of the city. Other maps can be produced in aid of planning travel and transportation for the purposes of the city (e.g., how long it takes between Antipolo and Cubao for a regular commute, etc.).
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Caught (up) in traffic 