Integrative Approach to Manhattan Congestion Pricing Data

Motivation:

Milestones:

• 2/11: Compile list of visualization software, initial review & formatting of data

• 2/13: Comparison list of software after initial investigation, final sources for data, tests for any MVP features

• 2/20: Import of data into the software, run first test visualizations

• 2/25: Further building of visualization, adding additional models as needed, pilot versions for comparison

• 2/27: Finalizing visualization, documentation of process into wiki with tutorials, building evaluative tools for in-class activity

• 3/04: In-class activity! Collect data using evaluative tool, compare AR and Web visualizations of the dataset

  • Goal: Collect data on usability, efficacy of web vs. AR visualizations for similar dataset

  • Method: Users will approach similar groups of data across AR and Web visualizations to answer pre-specified questions with correct answers. Users share their answers and the methods they used for deriving those answers to gather a qualitative understanding of how they used the tool. Participants will also complete a usability assessment (likely SUS) in a form. Should take roughly 35 minutes: 7 minutes using the tool + 10 minutes for evaluation x 2 visualizations.

  • What evaluative info that activity will collect: Qualitative data about reasoning in AR vs. Web, quantitative data on whether that reasoning is accurate, comparative usability data from SUS metrics 

• 3/06: Build first-pass analysis of data, documenting methods, overarching conclusions, next steps. Finalization of any wiki pages for project. 

Wiki Deliverables:

This list gives options, goal is to do 3-5 of these.

• Adding page on applications of traffic visualization in AR/VR

• Comparison page of current visualization software supporting passthrough on Quest 3

• Running comparison page of dataset features that do and don’t work well for visualization software

• Documentation of challenges and methods to approaching data visualization spread over space/time dimensions

• Adding page(s) on hardware of Quest 3, documentation of passthrough

• Build tutorial on Mapbox/Google Earth usage/integration with datasets

• Begin compiling resources guide for places to collect assets to import

• Expand page for tools/methods/batteries/surveys to evaluate VR/AR systems

Resources:

Software:

• Unity

  • Lots of flexibility, easy to integrate custom models, has well-documented support for AR

  • Would likely require doing the data visualization "by hand" or by relying on lots of unfamiliar plugins

• A-frame/three.js/other WebXR framework

  • Well documented, similar flexibility to Unity, also well-documented, doesn't require as much deployment

  • Requires "by hand data visualization, code-heavy solution

• Bezi

  • Really fast prototyping and deployment, easy for several users at once, builds on WebXR

  • Would require all data visualization be baked into the model, very few control or investigation features

• Flow Immersive

  • Native! Built for data visualizations, free app, interesting approaches

  • Closed source, may require contact to use, likely need to pay...

• Deck.gl

  • Data visualization made to sit on a map, some examples are really similar to what I'm imagining this may look like, lower code solution

  • Not built for AR?, would likely require attaching to WebXR framework, mixed viability

• More to add...

Data:

• https://www.congestion-pricing-tracker.com/ (this will almost certainly be what's used)

  • /routes.xlsx (ongoing data)

  • /routes_janurary.xlsx (cumulative data?)

  • /routes_2024.xlsx (previous data before implementation)

• https://metrics.mta.info/?cbdtp/vehicleentries 

• https://data.ny.gov/Transportation/MTA-Congestion-Relief-Zone-Vehicle-Entries-Beginni/t6yz-b64h/data_preview 

Wiki:

• This page on a project with Manhattan Traffic Data is really solid and gives some visualizations that might be close to what I would want to achieve