Defining an Alternative Pathfinding Method by Approaching Social Distancing through Micro and Macro Level in the City
Abstract
The outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2020 im-pacted social behaviors and urban daily ac-tivities greatly. Activities involving city path-finding and navigation have been impacted particularly because the new virus is air trans-missible, meaning that crowding should be avoided. There have been numerous social dis-tancing measures defined for daily activities in cities. However, there have not been sufficient virus safety measures for pathfinding. There is thus a need for a pathfinding method that can produce paths that could be perceived as safe from the virus by navigators.
Related studies include the mobile app “Safe Paths”, a 2020 research by MIT Media Lab which uses Bluetooth to track the number of people in locations and find paths that can be the safest from the virus. This is a time-based approach as it deals with the live tracking of pedestrians. A second study by Space Syntax Limited, em-ployed a probability-based approach, based on street network analysis, aiming to propose cy-cling and walking plans.
Rather than only using a macroscale method for pathfinding, this research aims to use both a macroscale and microscale method, as both spatial configuration and human experience matter for navigation in paths. Additionally, based on the related work, as a time-based ap-proach is not cost-efficient, a probability-based approach is chosen as the methodology.
Presentation
Conference Paper
Keywords
PENDING
Reference
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47330/DCIO.2021.HSPW7821
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