urban time tool

UrbanTime Tool is a Software development that measures/analyzes and inform about Urban Access. It is based in the cumulative opportunity measures studyed by the isochrone method.

The isochrone method relies on comparing a threshold time with the travel time from the population's location to the Points of Interest (POI), following the principle of the 15-minute city. Examples of POI are schools, health centers, Universities, ...

It can be measured by mode (walking, cycling, public transport, or a combination of the above), by type of person (not everyone walks or cycles with the same intensity), and time of day (there is not the same accessibility in rush hour as in off-peak hours).

It is a tool oriented to small and medium-sized cities that want to know how their urban access is and how can do in order to improve it.

It is an easy and intuitive tool to use.

There are 2 Modules.

The INFORMA Module will assist visitors and inhabitants to move more sustainably. As an example, this module provides information on destinations that are less than 10 minutes away on foot from the hotel or apartment where the visitor is staying or the inhabitant is living/working.

The PLAN Module measures the accessibility of the municipality and answers questions such as "What percentage of the population is less than 10 minutes on foot from a health center?" It provides data on areas where this is not the case, thereby facilitating decision-making when planning improvements in sidewalks, bicycle networks, or public transport, and changes in urban land use.

challenges

In our quest to design a tool that analyzes and informs about Urban Accessibility, we encounter several critical challenges, which UrbanTime effectively addresses:

• Select and define the points of interest (POI) we want to show (INFORM module) or study (PLAN module).

• Model sustainable transport networks: public transport, pedestrian network, and bicycle network, enabling the creation of diverse scenarios to explore a range of intervention possibilities.

• Model the pedestrian and bicycle networks considering both quality and slope, because walking/biking on a sidewalk/bike lane with a steep slope and narrow width is not the same as on a flat and wide one.

• Calculate the shortest route between origins and destinations for each transport network.

• Create a city model where the population is distributed with enough precision to evaluate the transport networks and land use, and to quantify how many citizens are near or far from the desired destinations.
  

informa module

It will help city visitors/inhabitants move more sustainably. This module will inform about Points of Interest located within an area defined by a temporal isochrone.

It is specific to the mode of transportation (walking, biking, or using Public Transport), type of person (an elderly person does not walk as quickly as a younger one), and type of Point of Interest. This module will display the Points of Interest that the City Council decides on, as well as their classification.

As an example, this module provides information on destinations that are less than 10 minutes away on foot from the hotel or apartment where the visitor is staying.

PLAN module

It will measure the overall accessibility of the city. It is specific to the mode of transportation, travel time, type of user, and point of interest. This module will quantify and locate the population that meets the minimum accessibility defined by the City Council and, consequently, will also locate those who do not meet it.

As an example, this module answers questions such as "What percentage of the population is less than 10 minutes on foot from a health center?" Providing data on areas where the above is not met, thereby facilitating decision-making when planning improvements in sidewalks, bicycle networks, or Public Transport, and changes in urban land use.