Wrong namespace?

This page seems to be in the wrong namespace. Please consider moving it to somewhere more appropriate.

---

Contents 1 Floating Around Venice: Developing Mobility Management Tools and Methodologies in Venice 2 Project Overview 2.1 Mission Statement 2.2 Project Objectives 3 Executive Summary 4 Project Deliverables 5 The Project Team

Floating Around Venice: Developing Mobility Management Tools and Methodologies in Venice

This Interactive Qualifying Project developed and refined tools to assist in managing Venice’s boat and pedestrian traffic. We monitored boat traffic at 19 intersections in Venice to improve the accuracy of a boat traffic model being developed by the Redfish Group. The completed model can be used to simulate the impact of changes in boat traffic regulations. Concurrently, we developed a pedestrian monitoring methodology to characterize behaviors of pedestrians in Venice. We used these behaviors to develop a model that can be used to manage plateatici (public spaces rented to private entities), which frequently encroach on pedestrian thoroughfares.

Project Overview

Mission Statement

This project sought to enhance the understanding of boat and pedestrian traffic in Historic Venice.

Project Objectives

The objectives of this project were:

• To aid boat traffic decision-makers in Historic Venice
  • Support the creation of an autonomous agent boat traffic model
• To develop a pedestrian monitoring methodology sufficient for pedestrian traffic modeling in Historic Venice
• To create a pedestrian traffic autonomous agent model based on pedestrian traffic in Historic Venice

Executive Summary

The City of Venice has only two forms of traffic: boat and pedestrian. These traffic forms never intersect, as boats operate in canals, while pedestrians travel on bridges and walkways. Although one would expect the City of Venice to face very few problems from her transportation system because of this separation, each form of traffic confronts the city with major challenges. Venice is a popular tourist destination, and is visited by an average of 38,000 tourists per day, which is more than half of the native population of 65,000. Shop and café owners throughout the city rent public space from the government to place tables and kiosks in public squares and walkways, where they will attract tourists. These leased spaces, known as plateatici, often restrict pedestrian flow, resulting in pedestrian traffic congestion in many areas throughout the city. Additionally, Venice is the only city that can be dismantled, stone-by-stone, by its vehicular traffic. As each motor boat passes through a canal, it generates wake, which washes against canal walls and foundations, speeding erosion and leading to building collapse . This phenomenon is known as Moto Ondoso.

In response to the pedestrian traffic difficulties discussed above, we developed a pedestrian traffic autonomous agent model, which can be seen in Figure 1, intended to aid in managing the leasing of plateatici. This model can be programmed to simulate traffic in Campo San Filippo e Giacomo at different times of day, and flow around the plateatici in the square can be observed. Variables such as total number of people passing through the square, speed of pedestrians and ratio of tourists to Venetians can be changed to equal those of traffic at different times of day. Additionally, 3-D renderings, such as that shown in Figure 2, can be developed to aid in visualization.

Before the model could be constructed, we needed to collect sufficient data on pedestrian traffic in Venice, a difficult task due to the random paths of tourists. We developed a pedestrian monitoring methodology intended to obtain data for modeling, as none had previously been adapted to Venice. This monitoring methodology is effective virtually everywhere in Venice, and as such is a major deliverable of our project. We monitored Campo San Filippo e Giacomo, because it contains many plateatici and is small enough to be monitored by four people. A visual summary of our methodology as used in Campo San Filippo e Giacomo is displayed in Figure 3. Fifteen-minute video clips were obtained at all three cameras shown on the map at the beginning of every hour, from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. We used these videos to determine how different types of pedestrians behave, including speed, interactions with each other, with obstacles, and with attractions in the square. Additionally, we determined the traffic volume through the square, as well as which paths pedestrians take. These can be used in pedestrian traffic models to create realistic simulations.

Moto Ondoso is a problem that the City of Venice has been fighting for years. Prior to this project, the city hired the Redfish Group to construct an autonomous agent model of boat traffic in Venice, intended to simulate the effects of changes in traffic regulations. From these simulations the City of Venice could determine what traffic regulations would result in the smoothest flow, and therefore the least damage due to Moto Ondoso. However, the data used to construct this model were collected from only 29 monitoring locations located on major canal intersections, and were purely quantitative. This resulted in an inaccurate model in which boats frequently took incorrect paths through the city and did not interact correctly with other boats. We monitored 19 intermediate intersections during rush hour traffic to correct these flaws. We recorded data such as volume through the intersection, boat types (displayed in Figure 4), and turning maneuvers, which will correct paths in the model. Additionally, we obtained 15-minute videos from each of the monitoring locations, and delivered them to the Redfish Group, who used them to determine boat behaviors, such as which boats have right-of-way. When these data are incorporated into the model it will be significantly more accurate and useful for regulating boat traffic and reducing Moto Ondoso.

This project aided in developing tools for Venetian decision-makers. Once the Redfish Group finishes incorporating our data in the boat traffic autonomous agent model, we envision government officials collaborating over the model shown in Figure 5 to develop boat traffic regulations resulting in smooth and efficient flow. This model will be used to dramatically decrease damage caused by Moto Ondoso. Additionally, we envision the City of Venice using the pedestrian monitoring methodology we developed to complete pedestrian traffic studies in crowded areas throughout the city. The data from these studies will be used to create pedestrian autonomous agent models based on our platform, which can be used to manage the leasing of plateatici. If government officials simulate traffic around a plateatico and find that it greatly restricts pedestrian flow, they can choose to remove it as a leasable location, but if pedestrian flow moves freely around the plateatico, they can approve it as a leasable space. Additionally, we believe these models will be used to develop a new pricing scheme, in which the price of a plateatico directly corresponds to how much it restricts traffic flow. An online system will be developed, in which a shop owner can select plateatici, and be informed how much they will cost based on how much traffic flow is restricted. This will help obtain a balance between smooth pedestrian flow and the number of plateatici present in Venice. Ultimately, both autonomous agent models that we helped advance will aid in creating a smoother and more efficient transportation system in Venice.

Project Deliverables

Click here to access our Final Report. Chapter 1 contains an introduction to our project, Chapter 2 covers the boat traffic portion of the project, with a Background, Results, and Analysis section, Chapter 3 covers the same sections for the pedestrian traffic portion of the project, and Chapter 4 contains the Conclusions and Recommendations of this project. Finally, all references (both useful sources, and those that were related but not useful for our project) are cited and appendices are included with data collection forms, boat type classification, autonomous agent model code, etc.

The team also produced a Powerpoint presentation and a poster reviewing our project.

We used the NetLogo program to develop our pedestrian traffic autonomous agent model. To learn about this program or for a free download, click here.

To obtain the pedestrian traffic NetLogo model that we created, download this file. A detailed description of what the model can perform can be found in section 3.4.4.1 of our Final Report and a description of each part of the code can be found in Appendix F.

If you do not have the NetLogo program, this video is a short clip of the model running under typical conditions found in Campo San Filippo e Giacomo. This video is a three dimensional demo of the model created by Steve Guerin in Blender.

The Excel file containing our pedestrian data and pedestrian traffic analysis can be found here.

Finally, a video of the current autonomous agent boat traffic model is available here, while the data we collected to help refine this model can be found here here.

The Project Team

The Moving Around Venice B08 Project Team was composed of four third-year students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) who completed our Interactive Qualifying Project abroad in Venice, Italy from October 19, 2008 through December 13, 2008. Our group consisted of Chris Catanese, an Electrical and Computer Engineering major; Danice Chou, a Biomedical Engineering major; Bethany Lagrant, a Management Engineering major; and Rudy Pinkham, a Civil Engineering major.