Uploaded on 2014-10-29 by jacobhamman

[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/1414539464766028.jpg This photo was take mid-day of the metro station in Harvard Square, Cambridge. This image depicts pedestrians sitting and walking in a public space, a metro stop, some plant life, a convenience kiosk, and office/retail buildings in the background. Some of the invisible information includes where these people have come from, where they are going, their demographic characteristics, and whether they are using the public transportation. We also do not know what the patterns of congregation are - do people tend to consistently choose to sit in the same areas? Is this driven by amount of sun/shade/proximity to trees? How does the spacing and quality of lights on light poles affect pedestrian utilization of the space? Also invisible are the rental rates of commercial real estate in relation to views, side of the street, noise, air pollution. By better understanding who the people in the photo are and whether there are usage/arrangement patterns, the configuration of seating tables and benches as well as their relationships to street lamps and trees could become optimized. If certain configurations work best for certain times of the day, or influxes of pedestrians can be linked to train schedules, then maybe the public space can be re-arranged in real-time to ease circulation and accommodate more people. Understanding the rental market in relation to the qualities of the public space would also better enable city planners to recreate successful areas and make efforts to maintain retail diversity.