Katja Schechtner’s research while affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other places

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Publications (26)


Figure 1. Price comparison of passenger drone services with other modes of transport during first years of operation (USD/mile)
Figure 2. Airport ownership and operation options
Figure 4. Competition of transport modes as a function of travel distance
Ready for Take-Off? Integrating Drones into the Transport System
  • Book
  • Full-text available

February 2021

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667 Reads

Stefan Zaß

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Elisabeth Windisch

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[...]

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The report presents policy options for the successful integration of drones into the transport system. How can countries reap the benefits of drone transport while limiting risks? The report examines concerns about the acceptability, efficiency and sustainability of drone transport. The analysis covers passenger and freight drones with different payloads and ranges, and also addresses other drone uses that support the transport sector. Authors of the report: Apter, Nathanel; Biermann, Franziska; Coates, Ryan; Cross, Richard; Geister, Dagi; Haas, Larissa; Habán, Tomáš; Han, Jaehyun; Irvine, Peter; Kägi, Marcel; Kim, Yeon Myung; Kleczatsky, Adam; Malaud, Frederic; Metz, Isabel Carole; Ørving, Tale; Pak, Henry; Ponto, Laura; Richter, Andreas; Schechtner, Katja; Scheibenreif, Michael; Seer, Stefan; Straubinger, Anna; Walulik, Jan; Windisch, Elisabeth; Zaß, Stefan.

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Creating Smart Buildings and Cities

April 2017

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733 Reads

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19 Citations

IEEE Pervasive Computing

We're in the middle of a data revolution that's providing new insights into cities, allowing us to better understand citizen expectations regarding "smart" buildings and cities. The articles in this special issue help explore what infrastructure is necessary to support smart environments, how citizens should interact with such environments, and how cities can measure their return on investment as they aim to improve their citizens' quality of life.



Shared Mobility in Asian Megacities: The Rise of the Apps

January 2017

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375 Reads

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12 Citations

In August 2015, the Philippines became the first country in Asia to legalize app-based shared mobility services by defining a framework for “Transport Network Companies” (TNCs). With the country’s long history of shared transport, the underlying concept was already culturally ingrained. However, given that only around 31% of Filipinos have bank accounts, with an estimated 4% access to credit card, and smart phone penetration around 21%, the current market for TNC services is limited to a small segment of the population, compared to the overall shared transport market. While it remains unclear whether TNC services will add to congestion by helping to spur some suppressed demand trips, or ultimately reduce car ownership by providing an alternative shared model, the quick uptake and growth of the TNC services also show that they are improving the overall mobility of certain population segments. However, the services remain out of reach for the majority of the population and add to mobility inequality. Both issues traffic congestion and inequality of access reflect the discussion in the developed countries, but are magnified by the extreme growth rates of cities like Manila, Jakarta, and Bangkok, where the future of those services will likely be shaped and decided by daily practice far ahead of the West.


Improstructure - an improvisational perspective on smart infrastructure governance

January 2017

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869 Reads

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26 Citations

Cities

Infrastructure modernization is a central concern in many cities of the developing world. Local governments struggle to provide adequate public services under budgetary constraints and vast spatial and economic inequalities. After the demise of the centralized modernist planning paradigm, current approaches to urban development focus on public-private partnerships, resulting in networks of dependency that involve multiple stakeholders and complex relationships of accountability. This stakeholder complexity complicates decision making, but can also lead to new social practices and participatory models of infrastructure governance. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of social practices surrounding the provision and modernization of streetlight and electricity in Paco, Manila, enacted by formal and informal actors. Drawing from the case study, literature on organizational improvisation and improvisational governance (Martijn Hartog, 2015), we propose a model of infrastructure governance that is based on the concept of improvisation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with city officials, planners, residents and local activists, we develop the notion of improstructure as a conceptual model for understanding infrastructure governance as an improvisational process of “call and response” among a diverse set of actors. We apply this perspective to ongoing modernization efforts by the city of Manila and its utility companies, involving smart city technologies including sensor networks, drone mapping, and data analytics. We argue that despite the placeless and generic rhetoric surrounding these technologies, they constitute improvisational responses to local conditions. We conclude by formulating design principles for improvisational infrastructure governance, which are not limited to the Global South, but also apply in developed countries.


Fig. 1. Public displays with the tourney rankings in the participating companies (left), email reminder for participants (right).  
Fig. 2. Screenshots of standings in the category " Bikers " (percentage of bikers in the total employee population) and " Enthusiasm " (change in percentage of active bikers over time).  
Fig. 3: Changes in biking behavior after the Tourney for different categories of bikers.  
Fig. 4: Motivating factors for participating.  
Gamification and Social Dynamics Behind Corporate Cycling Campaigns

December 2016

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734 Reads

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31 Citations

Transportation Research Procedia

The promotion of cycling is of great importance for fostering sustainable and healthy modes of transport in urban areas. For this reason, many cities around the world organize biking competitions in order to motivate citizens to commute by bike. The success of such campaigns appears to demonstrate the positive effects of using playful settings for encouraging a specific type of behavior; however, the actual determinants of behavior changes have yet to be thoroughly investigated.


Fig. 1. Screenshots showing the rankings for bikers, total distance and enthusiasm  
Table 1 . Reported change in frequency of bike commuting
Fig. 2. Public displays with the tourney rankings in the participating companies  
Gamification and Social Dynamics: Insights from a Corporate Cycling Campaign

July 2016

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227 Reads

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15 Citations

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Cycling is an essential transport mode in a well-balanced urban transportation system. While most approaches for achieving an increase from today’s usually low levels of biking are focusing mainly on infrastructure measures and policies, this study presents the effects of the Biking Tourney, a bike commuting challenge between 14 companies aiming at motivating employees to commute by bike. This six-week study involved 239 participants using a socially influencing system for reporting commutes and watching the rankings. The frequency of bike commuting increased for 15 % of overall participants due to their participation. Within the subgroup of occasional bike commuters an even higher share of 30 % commuted by bike more frequently. Further analysis discusses multiple factors contributing to the engagement of employees in the tourney. As the results show the persuasiveness of the intervention, implications for a large-scale implementation are discussed.




TABLE 1 Overview of group sizes for regularity of biking and change in frequency of bike 277 commuting during the campaign 278 
Challenged to Bike: Assessing the Potential Impact of Gamified Cycling Initiatives

January 2016

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1,074 Reads

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11 Citations

Cycling is promoted by a variety of initiatives and events all around the world. Given the popularity of such campaigns, there is surprisingly limited literature assessing their effectiveness and investigating the involved social processes. This paper presents findings from two case studies of gamified biking initiatives which have been evaluated using both quantitative-statistical and qualitative-interpretative methods: (1) a small-scale research experiment (“Frequent Biking Challenge”) and (2) an annual national biking campaign (“Bike to Work”). The two case studies provide insights into their general effects, on changes for different groups of bikers, the effectiveness of different elements of the interventions, and the methodological requirements for evaluating short and long-term impacts of campaigns aiming at increasing biking in cities. Both initiatives successfully encouraged people to bike more in the short run, 25% in the experimental group and 36% participating in the campaign increased their amount of biking during the intervention period. However, effects vary for different groups of bikers and only the “Bike to Work” campaign shows a lasting effect with 26% of those participating in previous years continuing to bike more. The results show that in order to induce long-term behavior changes, gamified biking initiatives have to be embedded into everyday life, enable social interactions and provide mutual encouragement.


Citations (19)


... For example, studies analyzed the effects of defaults to promote green online product purchases (Taube & Vetter, 2019) or energy savings (Loock et al., 2013). In the mobility context, defaults have been used to raise travelers' awareness of the environmental impact of their transportation choices (Froehlich et al., 2010;Sanguinetti et al., 2017), rethink their transportation habits (Anagnostopoulou et al., 2020), and reduce private car use (Lieberoth et al., 2018;Wunsch et al., 2015). Moreover, Székely et al. (2016) used default settings to encourage carbon offset payments for flight bookings successfully. ...

Reference:

Combined Digital Nudging to Leverage Public Transportation Use
What Makes You Bike? Exploring Persuasive Strategies to Encourage Low-Energy Mobility
  • Citing Book
  • January 2015

... Data accessibility Data exchange Aina, 2017;Caprari et al., 2022;Dassault Systèmes, 2018;Du et al., 2020;Kim, 2015;Kitchin, 2015;Konbr & Abdelaal, 2022;Marek et al., 2017;Popescu, 2015;Ruhlandt et al., 2020;Sezer & Avcı, 2021 Aina, 2017;Camboim et al., 2019;Cano et al., 2014;Caprari et al., 2022;Caragliu et al., 2011;Cardullo et al., 2019;Du et al., 2020;Fernandez-Anez et al., 2018;Heaton & Parlikad, 2019;Jiang et al., 2020;Kitchin, 2015;Klimovsky et al., 2016;Marcucci et al., 2020;Michalik et al., 2022;Neirotti et al., 2014;Offenhuber & Schechtner, 2018;Popescu, 2015;Ruhlandt et al., 2020 Aina, 2017;Angelidou, 2017;Bundgaard & Borrás, 2021;Castelnovo et al., 2016;Jiang, 2021;Jiang et al., 2020;Kitchin, 2015;Lv et al., 2022;Meijer & Bolívar, 2016;Pereira et al., 2018;Popescu, 2015;Ruhlandt et Alva et al., 2022;Castelnovo et al., 2016;Deng et al., 2021;Kitchin, 2015;Lv et al., 2022;Offenhuber & Schechtner, 2018;Papyshev & Yarime, 2021 Simulation of urban scenarios Urban monitoring process Wealth and wellbeing Driver of economic development Caprari et al., 2022;Castelnovo et al., 2016;Lv et al., 2022;Neirotti et al., 2014;Wang et al., 2022;Zhao et al., 2021 Creation of new jobs Improvement of quality of life There are some apparent inconsistencies between certain essential features suggested for an efficient governance of UDTs (Round 2) and the low scores given to them as Worst attributes (Round 3), namely, D.2.2: Supporting policy-making, E.1.1: Smart energy management, U.1.1: ...

Improstructure - an improvisational perspective on smart infrastructure governance
  • Citing Article
  • January 2017

Cities

... Urban infrastructure and service provision is structured by the political economies and respective power relations that make up the city. Decisions over infrastructure and services are political and policymaking can involve various levels of democratic and participatory praxis, with variable outcomes [11]. ...

Inscribing a Square: Urban Data as Public Space
  • Citing Book
  • August 2012

... However, Kitchin (2014) points out concerns about big data and smart urbanism, including privacy risks and technocratic governance. Schechtner (2017) emphasises the challenges in implementing smart city technologies and the need to bridge the gap between municipalities and tech developers. ...

Bridging the Adoption Gap for Smart City Technologies: An Interview with Rob Kitchin
  • Citing Article
  • April 2017

IEEE Pervasive Computing

... For example, incentive programs can be implemented to reward employees who walk or cycle to work. Inter-departmental or inter-firm competitions about the number of steps taken or distance cycled in a month with prizes involved can be set up to encourage more active commuting (e.g., Millonig et al. 2016). ...

Gamification and Social Dynamics Behind Corporate Cycling Campaigns

Transportation Research Procedia

... claimed that this definition identifies TNCs as providers of public transportation, utilizing privately owned vehicles operated by drivers connected through these digital platforms like Grab. The legalization of app-based shared mobility services in the Philippines in August 2015 marked a significant milestone, making it the first country in Asia to formalize its longstanding tradition of shared transportation (Schechtner & Hanson, 2017). ...

Shared Mobility in Asian Megacities: The Rise of the Apps
  • Citing Chapter
  • January 2017

... In 2015 and 2016, the topics of gamification to reduce inequalities, e.g. in assessing the abilities of impaired job applicants (Korn et al., 2016), and to support workplace well-being (Jent and Janneck, 2016), gained traction, but it was not until 2017 that research publications on gamification as a tool to promote environmental sustainability in organizations, e.g. to promote energy conservation among employees, increased. Furthermore, individual studies have explored how gamification (Wunsch et al., 2016) and emergency management (Heldal, 2016). In the same vein, research studies on gamification to promote physical activity and, thus, employee physical health also emerged. ...

Gamification and Social Dynamics: Insights from a Corporate Cycling Campaign

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

... 50 mostly European participants consisted largely of researchers from multiple disciplines using tracking technologies in academic research, complemented by academics from the domain of urban design and planning. The topic was introduced through presentations by Stefan van der Spek (van der Spek 2008), Alexandra Millonig (Millonig and Schechtner 2008), Henrik Harder Hovgesen and Thomas Sick Nielsen (Hovgesen et al. 2008), Geert Wets (Janssens et al. 2008) and Carlo Ratti and Andres Sevtsuk (Sevtsuk and Ratti 2008). Subsequently, the participants were asked to provide -through round-table discussion on specific themes led by the introductory speakers and members of the TU Delft Urbanism Department -a view on a future research agenda for tracking technologies in urban design and planning. ...

Mobile pedestrian navigation systems wayfinding based on localisation technologies
  • Citing Article
  • January 2008