CityX is a research lab led by Dr. Meead Saberi at University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, under the Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI). Our research focuses on improving scientific understanding of smart cities through development and application of data-model driven methods to better plan, manage and operate urban transport systems.
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Recently Published
Macroscopic dynamics and the collapse of urban trafficProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (50), 12654-12661.
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/50/12654 Abstract. Stories of mega-jams that last tens of hours or even days appear not only in fiction but also in reality. In this context, it is important to characterize the collapse of the network, defined as the transition from a characteristic travel time to orders of magnitude longer for the same distance traveled. In this multicity study, we unravel this complex phenomenon under various conditions of demand and translate it to the travel time of the individual drivers. First, we start with the current conditions, showing that there is a characteristic time τ that takes a representative group of commuters to arrive at their destinations once their maximum density has been reached. While this time differs from city to city, it can be explained by Γ, defined as the ratio of the vehicle miles traveled to the total vehicle distance the road network can support per hour. Modifying Γ can improve τ and directly inform planning and infrastructure interventions. In this study we focus on measuring the vulnerability of the system by increasing the volume of cars in the network, keeping the road capacity and the empirical spatial dynamics from origins to destinations unchanged. We identify three states of urban traffic, separated by two distinctive transitions. The first one describes the appearance of the first bottlenecks and the second one the collapse of the system. This collapse is marked by a given number of commuters in each city and it is formally characterized by a nonequilibrium phase transition. |
Urban data visualization, analytics,
modeling, and simulation
SELECTED PROJECTS
We develop advanced dynamic models of large-scale networks, specifically simulation-based dynamic traffic assignment with advanced features such as road pricing and perimeter control.
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Changing Melbourne 2.0 uses visual analytics to demonstrate how socio-demographic characteristics of Melbourne are changing over time using data from ABS Census 2006 and 2011.
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800,000 people moving around Melbourne everyday. This project provides insights into the spatial-temporal distribution of pedestrian activities and crashes in Melbourne.
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This project builds modeling tools to evaluate the impact of different congestion pricing schemes on Melbourne network traffic to inform transport pricing policies.
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Here, we describe the science behind urban network traffic jams, known as network traffic flow theory using our Melbourne DTA model.
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Places by Metro is an interactive application reinventing public transport users experience, connecting businesses to travelers across Melbourne.
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This project aims to develop a new model to measure housing and transport affordability in Australia, with greater Melbourne selected as the pilot study area.
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Large scale demand for travel between origins and destinations in a city can be visualized and analyzed as a complex network.
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The map visualizes the spatial distribution of Average Daily Truck Traffic (ADTT) in Melbourne in 2012.
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To learn more about our ongoing and completed projects, please visit the Research page.
PhD Positions
We are continuously looking for talented and young students to join our research group to do a PhD in Transportation. UNSW offers postgraduate research scholarships to competitive applicants covering tuition fees and an annual stipend of $27,082 plus a possible top up and conference travel grant. If you are interested, please email us your resume.
Our research is recognized and supported by
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