COVID19 – Platial Analysis Lab

Regional variation in place visit behavior during a global pandemic

December 24, 2021

In a recent paper, Prof. McKenzie and colleague investigate how visits to places across the United States have changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic…

Countries vary in place-based activity response to COVID-19 policies

May 18, 2020

We recently published a paper comparing countries based on the relationship between place-based activity patterns and government enacted policy…

Country Comparison for COVID-19 Community Mobility Response

April 11, 2020

We developed another data visualization portal for comparing country community mobility responses to COVID-19…

Interactive Graph of Canada’s COVID-19 Community Mobility

April 7, 2020

We parsed Google’s COVID-19 Community Mobility PDF for Canada in order to better compare and visualize the data…

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

Zhang, Hongyu; McKenzie, Grant

Geoprivacy knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours in contemporary China Journal Article

In: Geographical Review, 2024.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Qiang, Dan; McKenzie, Grant

Navigating the Post-Pandemic Urban Landscape: Disparities in Transportation Recovery & Regional Insights from New York City Journal Article

In: Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, vol. 110, pp. 102111, 2024.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Verma, Priyanka; McKenzie, Grant

Regional Comparison of Socio-Demographic Variation in Urban E-scooter Usage Journal Article

In: Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 2024.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@article{Verma2024,

title = {Regional Comparison of Socio-Demographic Variation in Urban E-scooter Usage},

author = {Priyanka Verma and Grant McKenzie},

url = {https://grantmckenzie.com/academics/Verma_2024.pdf},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-03-26},

urldate = {2024-03-09},

journal = {Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science},

abstract = {In recent years we have witnessed explosive growth in the shared, free-floating, electric scooter industry. While still controversial in many North American cities, a number of large e-scooter operators have managed to carve out a piece of the urban transportation landscape. As these vehicles shift from novelty services to increasingly reliable modes of short personal travel, the discussion has turned to investigating who exactly benefits from these micromobility services and who are being left behind. Though population surveys have been administered to identify the socio-demographic characteristics of e-scooter riders in the past, little work has linked these characteristics through trips, or investigated the regional variation in these demographic factors. In this work we explore the variability and similarities in e-scooter rider characteristics across three major U.S. cities. To accomplish this, we apply a Moran’s Eigenvector Spatial Filtering linear regression model and compare our results to more commonly used spatial regression approaches. Our results indicate that the spatial filtering approach outperforms other methods in identifying socio-demographic characteristics of e-scooter users, across multiple regions. We find that many socio-demographics associated with e-scooter usage are regionally variant, despite younger users making up the core user base in all cities. There are variations in usage based on gender, income, and race across cities with Black and Hispanic populations remaining underserved. The implications of these findings are discussed.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}