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Editor's note
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The world’s growing urban centres all face a common challenge of efficiently moving large numbers of individuals not only across the city, but vertically too as cities expand upwards and downwards.
Our series, Moving the Masses, looks at managing these flows of crowds of individuals, be they drivers or pedestrians, shoppers or commuters, birds or ants.
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John Watson
Section Editor: Cities + Policy
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Stacking and moving people
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Cities are growing vertically as well as horizontally, so infrastructure needs to ensure people can move up and down as well as across the city.
Alpha/Flickr
Andrea Connor, Western Sydney University; Donald McNeill, Western Sydney University
Cities are expanding upwards and downwards, as well as outwards. With urban density also increasing, moving people efficiently around the city, often using ageing infrastructure, is quite a challenge.
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Natural systems
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Ant colonies direct traffic flows of millions of individuals along the best routes – army ants even manage inbound and outbound lanes – but how?
Geoff Gallice/Wikimedia
Tanya Latty, University of Sydney
Insects aren't known for having big brains, and slime moulds and fungi don't have any. So how do they solve challenges that test the ingenuity of human transport engineers?
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Moving the masses
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Gary Mortimer, Queensland University of Technology; Louise Grimmer, University of Tasmania
Businesses are weighing up the costs of queuing and using innovative ways to minimise these costs by doing away with queues.
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Yohan Kim, University of Technology Sydney; Jay Falletta, University of Technology Sydney; Scott Kelly, University of Technology Sydney
By identifying and applying the key rules governing the behaviour of each individual, agent-based modelling offers insights into complex phenomena like traffic jams and flocking.
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David Levinson, University of Sydney
Everyone doesn't simply wait their turn at traffic lights. Signals are set up to enable a 'green wave' for cars and adjust to heavy traffic, making walkers wait longer no matter how many there are.
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Paul Salmon, University of the Sunshine Coast; Gemma Read, University of the Sunshine Coast
Collisions at intersections between motor vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians cause many deaths and injuries. Design that considers how each group approaches intersections improves everyone's safety.
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Lessons from the supermarket
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As much as stores would love to be able to get shoppers to go along every aisle, only 2% do.
Sam Mooy/AAP
Svetlana Bogomolova, University of South Australia; Bill Page, University of South Australia
Marketers once liked to think they could virtually steer people through shops and malls. But it appears shoppers' movements, possibly driven by primal instincts, aren't so easily directed.
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You might also like to read
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Dorina Pojani, The University of Queensland; Iderlina Mateo-Babiano, University of Melbourne; Jonathan Corcoran, The University of Queensland; Neil Sipe, The University of Queensland
Cities around the world are starting to rethink the vast areas of land set aside for parking. The convergence of several trends likely will mean this space becomes available for other uses.
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S. Travis Waller, UNSW
Roads versus public transport: for decades, these have been the battle lines in debates over transport in our cities. But a revolution in mobility is under way that will transform our thinking.
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John Stone, University of Melbourne; Carey Curtis, Curtin University; Crystal Legacy, RMIT University; Jan Scheurer, Curtin University
There's every chance that, if mismanaged, driverless vehicle technologies will entrench the ills of car dependency.
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Jonathan Corcoran, The University of Queensland; Dorina Pojani, The University of Queensland; Francisco Rowe, University of Liverpool; Jiangping Zhou, University of Hong Kong; Jiwon Kim, The University of Queensland; Ming Wei, The University of Queensland; Sui Tao, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Thomas Sigler, The University of Queensland; Yan Liu, The University of Queensland
The relationship between weather and our travel choices is complicated. We can't change the weather, but, with many other factors in play, good policy and design can reduce its impacts.
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Featured jobs
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University of Melbourne — Parkville, Victoria
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RMIT University — Melbourne, Victoria
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La Trobe University — Bendigo, Victoria
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University of Western Australia — Perth, Western Australia
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Featured events
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192 Wellington Parade, Melbourne, Victoria, 3002, Australia — Association for Sustainability in Business
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14-20 Blackwood St , North Melbourne, Victoria, 3051, Australia — Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation
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221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria, 3125, Australia — Deakin University
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Abercrombie Building, H70, Abercrombie St & Codrington St, Darlington NSW 2006, Sydney, New South Wales, 2035, Australia — University of Sydney
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