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Urbanism and Simulation Modeling: How to Build Comfortable Cities

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Urbanism and simulation modeling


Currently, the population of urban areas is increasing at a very high rate. Urbanization is rising all over the globe. People usually move from the countryside to more developed cities because of job and education opportunities. In developed economies, 79.2% of people live in cities. In the developing world, the amount is lower but is still more than half (UNCTAD).

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Urban population growth has been fueled by new technologies that have enabled cities to build upward. The development of skyscrapers has allowed for greater population densities. In the future, we will see the continual expansion of today’s cities.

Urbanization has led to a new type of city called the megacity – this is a city with 10 million or more inhabitants. According to the United Nations forecast, there will be 43 megacities by the year 2030.

Jobs in manufacturing and IT and increased opportunities for education and entertainment attract people from rural areas and towns. Urban areas will continue to expand with the population. This further growth will create a number of challenges, including overcrowding, housing problems, traffic congestion, and reduced environmental quality.

Thus, it’s necessary to pay attention to building cities of the future. This means more comfortable and well-maintained areas designed for pedestrians and vehicles. Urban planning is an essential step in creating a well-developed city. It results in happier people living in this built-up environment. Planning includes safe and affordable housing, better public transportation, and public green spaces.

Pedestrian flows and parking problems

Pedestrian path design is important to make spaces near apartment buildings comfortable for people living there. In addition, city designers must consider pedestrian traffic and car movement. This can help to avoid traffic congestion when entering the apartment building property from the road.

Pedestrian pathways

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Pedestrian pathways

Simulation modeling allows you to test various scenarios without risk. It is possible by using pedestrian flows and analyzing them before implementing the project. Simulation enables experimentation on a real digital representation of a system.

In a pedestrian simulation model, you can define the area where pedestrians can move around. They will search for a faster way to their destination. It can be used for the design of pedestrian pathways around an apartment building.

The simulation model of pedestrians’ routes

The simulation model of pedestrians’ routes

A lack of parking spaces near apartment buildings can be also solved by using simulation. In a model, you can test a few combinations of parking area dimensions with driveways and roads.

Furthermore, simulation software helps to avoid traffic congestion around an apartment building by modeling car movements. A simulation model gives the opportunity to predict the situation on the road. It considers the current traffic flow and the road network. Through car movement optimization, traffic jams at crossroads can be reduced.

Crowd management

Pedestrian flows need to be efficiently managed not only around the city but also in popular crowded places. For example, visitors’ behavior at the Eiffel Tower in Paris was analyzed by using AnyLogic simulation software. The model simulated tourist arrivals and their behavior in open spaces.

The simulation model of pedestrian flow at the Eiffel Tower

The simulation model of pedestrian flow at the Eiffel Tower

The simulation software estimated queues in front of elevators. At the same time, it considered elevator operation rules and capacity. The top floor had the biggest issues of waiting lines and crowd management. Experiments with a model were useful in optimizing the existing visitor itineraries.

Public transport: bus routing

Every day, millions of people move around between their workplaces and their homes. As a result, thousands of vehicles run on the streets. This leads to traffic jams and congestion.

Most of these vehicles run on fossil fuels. These fuels cause a huge amount of air pollution, degrading air quality. The number of people who own cars is growing every year because the public transport systems are still unreliable. That’s why it needs updating.

Cities are trying to make their streets friendlier for bikes and pedestrians. Vienna, Munich, and Copenhagen have closed entire streets to car traffic. Barcelona and Paris have dedicated more of their streets to bike traffic. Drivers in London and Stockholm must pay a fee for driving into the city. These measures make people more likely to walk, ride a bicycle, or use public transportation.

Bus bunching

Another problem in big cities is bus bunching. In the real world, traffic congestion, schedule gaps, mechanical failures, overcrowding, and uneven loads cause inconvenience and impact the rest of the route. Simulation modeling enabled the public transit agency to calculate several indicators such as irregularity measures, excess wait time, and passengers’ comfort levels.

Bus bunching problem simulation

Bus bunching problem simulation

The simulation model allowed experimentation based on input data and the assessment of multiple ideas and combinations to solve this bus bunching. It helped public transport efficiently serve customers.

Transit vehicles scheduling

In public transport, bus bunching is when a group of two or more transit vehicles run in the same location at the same time. Thus, bus drivers need transit vehicle scheduling to be evenly spaced along the same route. To prevent public transit bus bunching, designers developed the simulation model with the following components: bus stops, buses, riders, and trips.

The solution called “equilibrium” showed the best results. This is a method used to devise a way to maintain distances between buses. Using the equilibrium policy, buses will no longer follow the route freely. They will continuously make adjustments, slowing down or stopping until sufficient space is available.

Bus transportation system simulation

Bus transportation system simulation

When the “equilibrium” policy is used, the number of riders on each bus is more uniform. Moreover. the wait time is more predictable. This eliminates excessively long wait times and reduces overcrowding of buses. The implementation of a simple uber-like app for bus drivers could advise them when to wait based on network metrics, enforcing the “equilibrium” policy.

Municipal electric vehicles

By 2025, 45% of public buses in the EU should be low- or zero-emission. Simulation modeling was used to plan municipal electric vehicle (EV) fleet operations in Germany. It enabled the forecasting of large-scale EV fleet tasks and assessing their daily operation.

A user could choose vehicle types (diesel, BEV, FCEV), select the number of each type in a fleet, and set the number of charging stations in the depot and their maximum power.

The electric bus operations model

The electric bus operations model

Also, on the map view of the model, the user had the opportunity to see different types of buses moving on the streets, their states of charge, energy types, stops, and the charging station (the depot). The user could also select an option to consider the temperature effect on vehicle energy consumption.

With the help of the AnyLogic model, the simulation service provider gained insight into potential power needs for the charging infrastructure. They also calculated the number of required vehicles of each type.

Bicycle sharing

A developed bicycle transportation system is an important part of urban planning. It can help to reduce traffic congestion and environmental pollution. Bike-sharing systems are becoming more popular across the world.

In Mexico, modeling helped to estimate how many people would use the applied system in each macro-area. Also, it showed how they would behave while using a bike-sharing system.

The experiments with the model enabled engineers to analyze the number of different demand scenarios. They identified the busiest stations in the system and defined the number of bikes at each station.

The bicycle transportation system model

The bicycle transportation system model

Railway passenger traffic

The efficiency of train terminal management influences the process of passengers’ control and experience. To optimize the utilization of the terminal in Paris, a simulation model was developed. This optimization could reduce the waiting time at the points of control for passengers.

The model considered a few elements. They were passenger flows classified by typology, the number of available posts of control as well as their flows, areas of waiting and control, and finally, a possible pre-orientation of the passengers. Using the simulation software helped deal with increased passenger traffic. The use of the terminal was optimized while enhancing the passengers’ experience.

Airport passenger flow

An airport provides mobility for its inhabitants. Frankfurt airport processes needed optimization to improve capacity planning and reduce waiting periods. It could increase customer satisfaction. Developers created an airport simulation model to develop an airport passenger flow management system.

The trajectory model and the social force model provided the required accuracy to forecast airport passenger flow. The terminal management of the airport has successfully been using the airport simulation model. As a result, it enabled managers to optimize passenger flow and avoid problems.

The role of simulation in building comfortable cities

Strong city planning will be essential in managing high energy consumption, poor air quality, and other difficulties as the world’s urban areas grow.

As we see, optimization technologies such as simulation modeling play a significant role in building modern and convenient cities. The simulation helps through the planning and improvement of pedestrian flows, parking, bus routing including EVs, bike sharing systems, as well as railway and airport passenger traffic.

The AnyLogic Pedestrian and Road Traffic Libraries enable users to plan, design, and simulate pedestrian and transportation flow dynamics in urban landscapes.

Since we have the data and know how to change today’s cities through urban planning, we must act now. This will allow us to overcome this set of issues and make urban environments sustainable.

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Featured Image Credit: Photo by Ryutaro Tsukata; Pexels; Thank you!

Ryan Berger

Ryan Berger

Ryan is a Marketing Specialist at The AnyLogic Company. He is fond of creating interesting content for readers, including such topics as technology, innovations, smart cities, and platforms.

Politics

Fintech Kennek raises $12.5M seed round to digitize lending

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Google eyed for $2 billion Anthropic deal after major Amazon play


London-based fintech startup Kennek has raised $12.5 million in seed funding to expand its lending operating system.

According to an Oct. 10 tech.eu report, the round was led by HV Capital and included participation from Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, FFVC, Plug & Play Ventures, and Syndicate One. Kennek offers software-as-a-service tools to help non-bank lenders streamline their operations using open banking, open finance, and payments.

The platform aims to automate time-consuming manual tasks and consolidate fragmented data to simplify lending. Xavier De Pauw, founder of Kennek said:

“Until kennek, lenders had to devote countless hours to menial operational tasks and deal with jumbled and hard-coded data – which makes every other part of lending a headache. As former lenders ourselves, we lived and breathed these frustrations, and built kennek to make them a thing of the past.”

The company said the latest funding round was oversubscribed and closed quickly despite the challenging fundraising environment. The new capital will be used to expand Kennek’s engineering team and strengthen its market position in the UK while exploring expansion into other European markets. Barbod Namini, Partner at lead investor HV Capital, commented on the investment:

“Kennek has developed an ambitious and genuinely unique proposition which we think can be the foundation of the entire alternative lending space. […] It is a complicated market and a solution that brings together all information and stakeholders onto a single platform is highly compelling for both lenders & the ecosystem as a whole.”

The fintech lending space has grown rapidly in recent years, but many lenders still rely on legacy systems and manual processes that limit efficiency and scalability. Kennek aims to leverage open banking and data integration to provide lenders with a more streamlined, automated lending experience.

The seed funding will allow the London-based startup to continue developing its platform and expanding its team to meet demand from non-bank lenders looking to digitize operations. Kennek’s focus on the UK and Europe also comes amid rising adoption of open banking and open finance in the regions.

Featured Image Credit: Photo from Kennek.io; Thank you!

Radek Zielinski

Radek Zielinski is an experienced technology and financial journalist with a passion for cybersecurity and futurology.

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Politics

Fortune 500’s race for generative AI breakthroughs

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Deanna Ritchie


As excitement around generative AI grows, Fortune 500 companies, including Goldman Sachs, are carefully examining the possible applications of this technology. A recent survey of U.S. executives indicated that 60% believe generative AI will substantially impact their businesses in the long term. However, they anticipate a one to two-year timeframe before implementing their initial solutions. This optimism stems from the potential of generative AI to revolutionize various aspects of businesses, from enhancing customer experiences to optimizing internal processes. In the short term, companies will likely focus on pilot projects and experimentation, gradually integrating generative AI into their operations as they witness its positive influence on efficiency and profitability.

Goldman Sachs’ Cautious Approach to Implementing Generative AI

In a recent interview, Goldman Sachs CIO Marco Argenti revealed that the firm has not yet implemented any generative AI use cases. Instead, the company focuses on experimentation and setting high standards before adopting the technology. Argenti recognized the desire for outcomes in areas like developer and operational efficiency but emphasized ensuring precision before putting experimental AI use cases into production.

According to Argenti, striking the right balance between driving innovation and maintaining accuracy is crucial for successfully integrating generative AI within the firm. Goldman Sachs intends to continue exploring this emerging technology’s potential benefits and applications while diligently assessing risks to ensure it meets the company’s stringent quality standards.

One possible application for Goldman Sachs is in software development, where the company has observed a 20-40% productivity increase during its trials. The goal is for 1,000 developers to utilize generative AI tools by year’s end. However, Argenti emphasized that a well-defined expectation of return on investment is necessary before fully integrating generative AI into production.

To achieve this, the company plans to implement a systematic and strategic approach to adopting generative AI, ensuring that it complements and enhances the skills of its developers. Additionally, Goldman Sachs intends to evaluate the long-term impact of generative AI on their software development processes and the overall quality of the applications being developed.

Goldman Sachs’ approach to AI implementation goes beyond merely executing models. The firm has created a platform encompassing technical, legal, and compliance assessments to filter out improper content and keep track of all interactions. This comprehensive system ensures seamless integration of artificial intelligence in operations while adhering to regulatory standards and maintaining client confidentiality. Moreover, the platform continuously improves and adapts its algorithms, allowing Goldman Sachs to stay at the forefront of technology and offer its clients the most efficient and secure services.

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Deanna Ritchie

Managing Editor at ReadWrite

Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.

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Politics

UK seizes web3 opportunity simplifying crypto regulations

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Deanna Ritchie


As Web3 companies increasingly consider leaving the United States due to regulatory ambiguity, the United Kingdom must simplify its cryptocurrency regulations to attract these businesses. The conservative think tank Policy Exchange recently released a report detailing ten suggestions for improving Web3 regulation in the country. Among the recommendations are reducing liability for token holders in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and encouraging the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to adopt alternative Know Your Customer (KYC) methodologies, such as digital identities and blockchain analytics tools. These suggestions aim to position the UK as a hub for Web3 innovation and attract blockchain-based businesses looking for a more conducive regulatory environment.

Streamlining Cryptocurrency Regulations for Innovation

To make it easier for emerging Web3 companies to navigate existing legal frameworks and contribute to the UK’s digital economy growth, the government must streamline cryptocurrency regulations and adopt forward-looking approaches. By making the regulatory landscape clear and straightforward, the UK can create an environment that fosters innovation, growth, and competitiveness in the global fintech industry.

The Policy Exchange report also recommends not weakening self-hosted wallets or treating proof-of-stake (PoS) services as financial services. This approach aims to protect the fundamental principles of decentralization and user autonomy while strongly emphasizing security and regulatory compliance. By doing so, the UK can nurture an environment that encourages innovation and the continued growth of blockchain technology.

Despite recent strict measures by UK authorities, such as His Majesty’s Treasury and the FCA, toward the digital assets sector, the proposed changes in the Policy Exchange report strive to make the UK a more attractive location for Web3 enterprises. By adopting these suggestions, the UK can demonstrate its commitment to fostering innovation in the rapidly evolving blockchain and cryptocurrency industries while ensuring a robust and transparent regulatory environment.

The ongoing uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrency regulations in various countries has prompted Web3 companies to explore alternative jurisdictions with more precise legal frameworks. As the United States grapples with regulatory ambiguity, the United Kingdom can position itself as a hub for Web3 innovation by simplifying and streamlining its cryptocurrency regulations.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Jonathan Borba; Pexels; Thank you!

Deanna Ritchie

Managing Editor at ReadWrite

Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.

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