Route choice and routing

Suggested by: Christian Werner, Martin Loidl

Short description: Routing applications are a prominent example for heavily used geoinformatics methods in daily life. While fundamental problems such as finding a shortest path have been solved decades ago, some more complex problems from the applied domain are highly relevant to current mobility research. Regarding active mobility, aspects such as individual route choice and perceived distance are important to consider. Using a suitability index for cycling and walking per segment of the infrastructure alongside segment length for routing helps solving questions regarding route choice. Segment length and suitability for cycling and walking may be combined into one indicator to reduce the computational problem to a search for the shortest path. However, some level of detail may be lost as opposed to optimizing the route towards both distinct aims: shortest path AND best suitability.

Research for this master thesis should address one or more of the following topics (but is not limited to):

• Assessment of different routing appraoches that take into account infrastructure suitability
• Multi-objective optimization for finding optimum cycling and/or walking routes
  
• Distance perception of cyclists and/or pedestrians depending on infrastructure suitability
• Effects of different distance perception on bikeability- and/or walkability-based routes

References, suggested reading:

• Nunes, P., Moura, A., & Santos, J. (2020). Evolutionary Approach for the Multi-objective Bike Routing Problem. In E. Lalla-Ruiz, M. Mes, & S. Voß (Eds.), Computational Logistics (pp. 311–325). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59747-4_20
• Loidl, M., & Zagel, B. (2014). Assessing Bicycle Safety in Multiple Networks with Different Data Models. GI-Forum, Salzburg, 144–154.
• Buehler, R., & Dill, J. (2016). Bikeway Networks: A Review of Effects on Cycling. Transport Reviews, 36(1), 9–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2015.1069908

Related to projects: several ongoing research projects.

Start/finish: anytime

Prerequisites/qualifications: Interest in mobility research, scripting, algorithms and optimisation. Depending on individual topic: database, spatial analytics (network analysis) and geovisualization skills.
Depending on interest and availability, this master thesis project could be linked to a study assistent position.