Seminario

Why the city has so many cars?

25 settembre 2024
Orario di inizio 
17:00
Palazzo di Sociologia - Via Verdi 26, Trento
Poggi room - 1st floor
Destinatari: 
Tutti/e
Partecipazione: 
Ingresso libero

Abstract

In 2019, the world's population increased by 78 million people, but the world produced 83 million cars. Beyond its production and energy needs, cars impose many direct and indirect costs on cities, including huge demand for space and budget, road insecurity, pollution, and more. Still, the number of cars is increasing in many cities worldwide. I will discuss models and data regarding the use of vehicles in a city as the emergence of collective behaviour, where users prefer faster commuting methods. The result is a social inefficiency that might even lead to a paradox, where everyone tries to commute faster, but they all end up with the worst possible scenario, resulting from road congestion in the city.

Short bio 

Rafael Prieto-Curiel, Complexity Science Hub, Vienna

I am a Faculty Member at the Complexity Science Hub, working on violence, mobility, migration, and urban dynamics. I work for the OECD and the World Bank on spatial and demographic analysis of African cities. Before, I was at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford. I earned an MSc in Statistics and a PhD in Maths and Security and Crime at University College London UCL. I worked in the Emergency Attention Centre from Mexico City (C5) as Director of Strategic Analysis. 

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