Happy Birthday Marie Curie!

Marie Skłodowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934)
“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas”

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Welcome to my blog!

Conventionally, travel behaviour theory considers travel as a derived demand. This means that travel occurs just because we want to reach a destination and participate in an activity there. In other words, it is the final goal and the benefits to be got from it, that motivates us to make the trip. But is this always true ? I am pretty sure that the first who would disagree with this theory, which has significantly defined the development path of contemporary cities, would be Constantine P. Cavafy with his most known poem “ Ithaka ”: "As you set out for Ithaka hope the voyage is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery ... Arriving there is what you are destined for. But do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you are old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you have gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make you rich ".   In my case, I would probably agree more with Cavafy, than the rigorous theory of the scientific
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My 'alternative urban and transportation' songs collection

Music often accompanies our thoughts and writings. Sometimes it enhances concentration, while other times just helps in relaxing the mind. I have gathered below some of the songs related to my research, which I often listen in my office. I call it my "alternative urban and transportation songs collection". I have included some the songs for their interesting lyrics, while others for the excellent music or their nice video-clips. Have fun...  (click for YouTube view) Duke Ellington | Take the A Train | 1939 (music) – 1944 (lyrics) James Brown | The night train | 1952 John Coltrane | Blue train | 1957 The Who | Magicbus | 1968 The Doors | Love street | 1968 Yves Montand | La Bicyclette | 1968 Joni Mitchell | Big Yellow Taxi | 1970 Queen | Bicycle race | 1978 Rush | Subdivisions | 1982 Kraftwerk | Tour de France | 1983 U2 | Where the streets have no name | 1987 Cat Stevens | Where Do the Chi
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Stay local or go regional? Urban form effects on vehicle use at different spatial scales: A theoretical concept and its application to the San Francisco Bay Area

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Abstract: This paper explores the respective roles of local and regional characteristics of urban form on vehicle travel. We hypothesize that the effects of urban form on vehicle use at the local and regional levels are complementary, and we introduce the concept of local and regional action spaces, which are defined based on the accessibility of alternative means of transport within an acceptable travel time, to test this hypothesis. Multilevel and ordered logit models are developed for the San Francisco Bay Area to estimate the effects of urban form and socioeconomic characteristics on vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) and vehicle trip frequency (for work, shopping, and social/recreational purposes). We find that the two urban scale characteristics exert complementary effects on VKT. However, because people in the San Francisco Bay Area display significantly lower VKT in the local than in the regional action space, we conclude that regional-scale inter-ventions woul
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