CAN HOT SPOTS POLICING REDUCE CRIME IN URBAN AREAS? AN AGENT-BASED SIMULATION*

Criminology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID WEISBURD ◽  
ANTHONY A. BRAGA ◽  
ELIZABETH R. GROFF ◽  
ALESE WOODITCH
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Lennart Adenaw ◽  
Markus Lienkamp

In order to electrify the transport sector, scores of charging stations are needed to incentivize people to buy electric vehicles. In urban areas with a high charging demand and little space, decision-makers are in need of planning tools that enable them to efficiently allocate financial and organizational resources to the promotion of electromobility. As with many other city planning tasks, simulations foster successful decision-making. This article presents a novel agent-based simulation framework for urban electromobility aimed at the analysis of charging station utilization and user behavior. The approach presented here employs a novel co-evolutionary learning model for adaptive charging behavior. The simulation framework is tested and verified by means of a case study conducted in the city of Munich. The case study shows that the presented approach realistically reproduces charging behavior and spatio-temporal charger utilization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. A. van Heeswijk ◽  
M. R. K. Mes ◽  
J. M. J. Schutten ◽  
W. H. M. Zijm

The domain of urban freight transport is becoming increasingly complex. Many urban supply chains are composed of small and independent actors that cannot efficiently organize their highly fragmented supply chains, thereby negatively affecting the quality of life in urban areas. Both companies and local administrators try to improve transport efficiency and reduce external costs, but the effects of such interventions are difficult to predict, especially when applied in combination with each other (an urban logistics scheme). This paper presents an agent-based simulation model to quantify the effects of urban logistics schemes on multiple actors. We provide a detailed mathematical representation in the form of a Markov decision process. Based on an extensive literature study, we aggregate data to represent various actors in typical Western European cities. We perform numerical experiments to obtain insights into urban logistics schemes. The results show that most schemes yield significant environmental improvements but that achieving long-term financial viability is challenging for urban consolidation centers in particular. We also demonstrate that interventions, such as subsidies and access restrictions, do not always yield the intended effect. In a backcasting experiment, we identify conditions and schemes to achieve a financially viable urban consolidation center.


Author(s):  
Anthony A. Braga

Thousands of Americans are killed by gunfire each year, and hundreds of thousands more are injured or threatened with guns in robberies and assaults. The burden of gun violence in urban areas is high and concentrated among a small number of criminally active people and occurs in a small number of places within cities. This chapter reviews varied criminal justice interventions to deny criminal access to firearms and reduce criminal possession, carrying, and use of firearms. The research suggests that criminals acquire guns from a variety of sources including illegal diversions from legitimate firearms commerce. While more evaluation evidence is needed, supply-side interventions are promising in reducing criminal access to firearms. The evaluation evidence on the effects of sentencing enhancements on gun crime is mixed. A growing body of research evidence shows that hot spots policing programs and focused deterrence strategies to control repeat gun offenders can reduce gun violence.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Pablo Álvarez

This thesis investigates the use of modelling and simulation techniques in urban areas of smart cities, also exploring how big data can be used to feed these models. These modelling techniques have been applied to two different fields that have been gaining prominence during the last years but where research is still limited: urban logistics and urban resilience. Through this thesis, the author has expanded the research knowledge in these fields by exploring different methods such as meta-heuristics, transport modelling, and agent-based simulation in order to define new methodologies to be applied to urban areas. Regarding logistics, the author has shown through the use of meta-heuristics that when traffic congestion is considered as a dynamic attribute to optimize delivery routes in urban areas, time can be reduced by 11%, which is crucial for logistics companies in a market that is fiercer every day. This is true not only for urban areas, but this research has also demonstrated that optimizing routes with dynamic congestion attributes is also beneficial at a strategic level for routes between cities. To consider congestion costs in real time, a new approach has been developed in which data from Google is downloaded to feed these meta-heuristic models, although other sources of big data could be also used. In this thesis, a methodology is also presented that has been used to model logistics routes in urban areas considering real-time data and with the flexibility to add different network attributes (gradient, traffic bans, CO2, etc.) to simulate different scenarios. This can be useful for logistics companies to optimize their deliveries (choosing between van or tricycles, selecting the time of the day to deliver, etc.) but also for public authorities to get guidance on different transport and urban policies (pedestrianization of some streets, traffic bans, etc.).As for city resilience, the thesis focuses on evacuation planning. A new methodology has been created in which agent-based simulation is used through interconnected sub-models to model a large-scenario evacuation scenario (flooding event as a consequence of a dam collapse). This research defines the data needed to create these models that can be of great help to improve city resilience, and also analyzes how traffic congestion can affect the evacuation procedures. Through the different research articles that compose this thesis, the author brings light to these fields by developing new methodologies and using real case-studies that can help urban planners, companies, and policy makers to create more efficient, sustainable, and resilient smart cities.


Author(s):  
Xun-You Ni ◽  
Daniel (Jian) Sun

Parking spaces are often in short supply in urban areas. To balance the supply and demand and alleviate the overconsumption of public spaces, parking variable message signs (parking VMSs) are commonly used to release information on space availability to drivers en route. The aim of this study was to find the optimal positions for parking VMSs. To achieve the objective, we first define the major decision point (MDP) as the intersection where the newly generated path deviates from the previous one. When informed that the target parking lot is fully occupied, the driver would divert to an alternative one. The route to the alternative parking lot is indicated as the newly generated path, while the one leading to the original parking lot is denoted as the previous one. Quantitatively, MDPs with the highest frequency of occurrence are selected as the candidate positions. Then, an agent-based simulation is proposed to identify the MDPs induced by changes of space availability and the selection of routes. The results indicate that the proposed location algorithm slightly outperforms the scheme with the completed parking information in terms of average travel time and average travel distance. The algorithm can be further integrated into a simulation package, which may assist in the design and operation of an urban parking guidance and information system.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey D. Harper ◽  
Chris T. Hendrickson ◽  
Constantine Samaras

Fully driverless automated vehicles (AVs) could considerably alter the proximity value of parking, due to an AV’s ability to drop passengers off at their destination, search for cheaper parking, and return to pick up their occupants when needed. This study estimates the potential impact of privately-owned driverless vehicles on vehicle miles traveled (VMT), energy use, emissions, parking revenue, and daily parking cost savings in the city of Seattle, Washington from changes in parking decisions using an agent-based simulation model. Each AV is assumed to consider the cost to drive to each parking spot, the associated daily parking cost, and the parking availability at each location, and the AV ranks each choice in terms of economic cost. The simulation results indicate at the low penetration rates (5 to 25 percent AV penetration) AVs in downtown Seattle would travel an additional 3.5- 4.0 miles per day on average, and high penetration rates (50 to 100 percent AV penetration) would travel an additional 5.6-8.4 miles per day on average. The results also suggest that as AV penetration rates increase, parking lot revenues decrease significantly and could likely decline to the point where operating a lot is unsustainable economically, if no parking demand management policies are implemented. This could lead to changes in land use as the amount of parking needed in urban areas is reduced and cars move away from the downtown area for cheaper parking. This analysis provides an illustration of the first-order effects of AVs on the built environment and could help inform near and long- term policy and infrastructure decisions during the transition to automation.


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