Designing Urban Activities and Travel Behavior

Advancing Urban and Transportation Data Science

Technologies for sensing travel behavior and urban observations are rapidly expanding, and the ability to handle such data is increasingly in demand. To move beyond short-term forecasting and toward long-term predictions of urban activities and policy responses, it is essential to incorporate not only GPS-based mobility trajectories and urban/transportation network analysis but also decision-making models that capture human psychology. By doing so, we can develop data science methodologies that contribute to the design of urban behavior.

Mechanism Design for Mobility Services

New mobility services are being continuously implemented in urban areas, including on-demand mobility, autonomous vehicles, the integration of traditional public transportation with emerging modes, and the unified operation of passenger and freight flows. These innovations require not only advancements in service levels and technologies but also institutional designs that take user behavior into account. From the perspective of behavioral mechanism design, we aim to develop implementation strategies for introducing new mobility services into cities.

Co-evolutionary Models of Cities and Transportation

Over the past few decades, lifestyles within cities have undergone significant changes, while certain aspects of human life have remained constant. We aim to capture the long-term mutual interaction between urban development and changes in travel behavior through co-evolutionary modeling. Based on such theoretical and empirical approaches, we seek to explore the future form of cities, anticipate emerging challenges, and realize effective urban transition management.

Message

We are conducting research to better understand people's activities and travel behavior in cities, with the goal of addressing social challenges related to urban and regional development. By abstracting familiar aspects of daily life—such as cities, transportation systems, and human movement—we use theoretical and empirical modeling to find practical solutions to real-world issues. We welcome international students who are motivated to work on these important topics and who want to grow through collaborative and interdisciplinary research. Let’s work together to design the future of urban life.