Conference – Page 4 – Platial Analysis Lab

McGill’s contribution to the AAG

November 19, 2020

A quick interactive visualization of McGill researchers presenting their work at the American Association of Geographers annual meeting (2013-2020).

Special Sessions at CAG 2020 Annual Meeting

February 12, 2020

Professor McKenzie and colleagues are organizing two special sessions at this year’s Canadian Association of Geographers annual meeting…

Spatial Data Science Symposium

December 12, 2019

The 2019 Spatial Data Science Symposium, “Setting the Spatial Data Science Agenda,” came to a close today in Santa Barbara, California…

Platial Lab at SIGSpatial 2019

November 7, 2019

…while the main conference always has a range of interesting talks one of the more disturbing trends I noticed this year was a move from “identifying fake content” to “generating fake content”…

Keynote at the ACM SIGSPATIAL LENS workshop

August 30, 2019

Professor McKenzie will give a keynote at the 3rd ACM SIGSPATIAL Workshop on Analytics for Local Events and News in Chicago on Nov 5th…

Platial at the Annual AAG Meeting in D.C.

April 10, 2019

Another American Association of Geographers (AAG) meeting has come to a close, this time in Washington, D.C. By all accounts the meeting was a success and it is always great to catch up with spatial scientists in their natural habitat.

Spatial Knowledge and Information Canada Conference 2019

February 25, 2019

The 7th Conference on Spatial Knowledge and Information Canada (SKI-Canada) just wrapped up in beautiful Banff, Alberta.

Internet of Things Conference 2018

October 18, 2018

I was fortunate to spent this past week as a participant and organizer of the Internet of Things (IoT) conference.

Qiang, Dan; McKenzie, Grant

How events move us: Estimating the causal effects of special events on shared micromobility Journal Article

In: Journal of Geovisualization and Spatial Analysis, vol. 10, iss. 1, 2025.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@article{nokey,

title = {How events move us: Estimating the causal effects of special events on shared micromobility},

author = {Dan Qiang and Grant McKenzie},

doi = {10.1007/s41651-025-00244-1},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-12-05},

urldate = {2025-11-25},

journal = {Journal of Geovisualization and Spatial Analysis},

volume = {10},

issue = {1},

publisher = {Springer},

abstract = {Special events, such as festivals, parades, and protests, can cause sudden surges or disruptions in travel demand, thereby placing stress on transportation systems. As shared micromobility becomes an increasingly important part of urban transportation, understanding how these events affect its ridership is crucial for ensuring safety, efficiency, and sustainability. In this study, we investigate the causal impacts of various event types by applying Double Machine Learning (DML) to high-resolution shared micromobility trip data (e-bikes and e-scooters) and multi-source event records in Washington, D.C. These events include government-authorized large events, independently organized small events, and government-registered protests. Our results show that many events have far stronger actual influences on shared micromobility than correlational analysis suggests, as confounding factors can mask their actual impact. For instance, festivals show four to seven times greater impact under causal estimation. We also find that the increase in gas prices suppresses discretionary travel, resulting in reduced shared micromobility usage during events. Another key insight is the different demand mechanisms: large events interact with temporal and built environment features to boost ridership, whereas small events are primarily influenced by temporal features, such as event duration and weather, with little influence from infrastructure factors. These findings highlight the need for tailored policies, including infrastructure investment for large events and operational incentives for smaller ones. This research provides a causal foundation for urban mobility planning, supporting the development of more resilient and efficient transportation systems in event-dense urban areas.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

Qiang, Dan; McKenzie, Grant

Mobility Vitality: Measuring urban vitality through active and micro-mobility modes. Proceedings Article

In: Proceedings of the 28th Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe Conference (AGILE 2025), AGILE GIScience Series, 2025.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Romm, Daniel; Chavez, Jose Arturo Jasso; Kinman, Lexi; Salsabilian, Pegah; McKenzie, Grant; Manaugh, Kevin

The Cars are Going to be Alright: Examining Micromobility Infrastructure Space Allocation and Potential Improvement Scenarios in Montréal Journal Article

In: Journal of Cycling and Micromobility Research, no. 100071, 2025.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@article{Romm2025,

title = {The Cars are Going to be Alright: Examining Micromobility Infrastructure Space Allocation and Potential Improvement Scenarios in Montréal},

author = {Daniel Romm and Jose Arturo Jasso Chavez and Lexi Kinman and Pegah Salsabilian and Grant McKenzie and Kevin Manaugh},

doi = {10.1016/j.jcmr.2025.100071},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-06-07},

urldate = {2025-06-03},

journal = {Journal of Cycling and Micromobility Research},

number = {100071},

abstract = {Many cities today are redesigning their streetscapes to redress the historical privilege afforded to the automobile in planning and policy. Much streetscape redesign is around transport infrastructure space, which largely prioritizes car travel and marginalizes other travel modes. Attempts by planners and policy makers to this end often are met with public opposition by advocates of the car, protesting about losing space on the street. This is empirically investigated with the case of Montréal by determining the allocation of street space to transport infrastructures, deriving measures of infrastructure space per traveller, and devising an Equal Infrastructure Allocation score to measure the imbalance between infrastructure provision per travel mode. Per borough, the distribution of transport infrastructure is examined, alongside correlations with demographic, socio-economic, land use, and crash rate variables. Potential scenarios of significant micromobility infrastructure improvement are modelled to test how infrastructure space apportionment per mode changes. This investigation discovers that even large improvements to micromobility infrastructure have a minor effect on space allocated to automobiles. Equal Infrastructure Allocation score and associated indicators are presented as useful tools for planners and policy makers implementing micromobility infrastructure projects, to better communicate with the public and address potential opposition.  },

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

McKenzie, Grant; Romm, Daniel; Féré, Clara; Balarezo, Maria Laura Guerrero

Gender differences in urban recreational running: A data-driven approach Journal Article

In: Journal of Transport Geography, vol. 124, no. 104171, 2025.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX