The Centre for Transport Studies is pleased to welcome
Dr. Kristian Hegner Reinau
(Aalborg University, Denmark)
to lead a seminar entitled
A Vocabulary of Travel Experiences: The use of GPS and SMS data in illuminating the experience of mobility
to be held
Monday 23 April 2012 - 15:00
Please join us for presentation and discussion at
Room 601, Skempton Building, Imperial College London
(Maps and travel directions: http://www.cts.cv.imperial.ac.uk/html/Miscellaneous/travelDirections.asp)
Abstract
This seminar explores the advantages and disadvantages of combining data from GPS units and SMS's from mobile phones, when exploring the mobility of households. Building on experiences from a research project aimed at investigating the mobility of approximately 50 households in Copenhagen, this research adds to our knowledge about how quantitative information about trips gathered from GPS units and qualitative information from SMS's sent by the respondents describing their experiences of their trips, can be combined. It is argued, that SMS's holds the advantage, that they are able to capture the feelings of the respondents "here and now" while they are on a trip. Therefore data on mobility collected this way holds certain advantages compared to for example data on mobility gathered through questionnaires. On the other hand, the use of SMS data also poses certain challenges, and these are for example how complex questions the respondents can answer through SMS's and how respondents can be motivated to send SMS's during their daily routines. This methodological discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the combination of GPS data and SMS data in this paper is of value to all researchers within the mobility field, who contemplates using GPS technology in their research.
About the Speakers
Kristian Hegner Reinau, Ph.D. M.Sc., is assistant professor at Department of Development and Planning at Aalborg University. He has a Ph.D. in economic geography. His Ph.D. thesis was about acquisitions by multinational corporations in industrial clusters, and in this he developed a new approach to cluster analysis building on ideas by Michel Foucault. Today his primary research interest is GPS tracking, and he is currently focusing on two themes. Firstly, the value of combining GPS data with other types of qualitative data, for example SMS data. Secondly, the business models behind tracking research in a European context and the future for tracking research seen from a business perspective. He is also the editor of the Centre for Mobility & Urban Studies (C-MUS) Paper Series at Aalborg University, and editor of the C-MUS Blog.
Imperial's next CTS Seminar
CTS seminars will continue again in the Summer term starting with a seminar by Dr Anders Johansson (Bristol University) on Wednesday 2 May 2012 @ 16:00.
About the CTS Seminar Series
The CTS seminar series aims to facilitate discussion on current research topics in the transport field. Seminars are held jointly with our colleagues in the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London. They are usually held on Wednesday afternoons at Imperial College London or University College London.
Seminars are free of charge and open to all interested parties. Booking is not required.
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CTS home: www.imperial.ac.uk/cts<http://www.imperial.ac.uk/cts>
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