Travel impacts of social networks and networking tools

The objective of this work is to investigate social networks in a spatial real-world context. This project extension will adapt a currently running “snowball sampling” survey concentrating on “contacts of contacts” such that one will get connections between the components and thus can make truly global statements about the social network graph. Such global network indica- tors are necessary to treat problems such as the spreading of rumors or pathogens. The re- sulting networks will be analyzed with special emphasis on spatial aspects. High-resolution land use and transport network data will be used to clarify preliminary results about scaling laws in destination choice behavior. A clarification of destination choice behavior is an indispensable ingredient of long-term transport planning where leisure traffic is becoming increas- ingly important. The data obtained in the project will be made available to the scientific community.

• Survey on social contacts: http://www.soziale-kontakte.ch/

• Johannes Illenberger, TU Berlin
• Matthias Kowald, ETH Zürich

• The Institute for Transport Planning and Systems, IVT Zurich

• VolkswagenStiftung, Förderinitiative "Funding Focus: New Conceptual Approaches to Modeling and Simulation of Complex Systems" (to description)