NSL – Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft ETH Zürich
  • Projects
      • Projects of the Chairs
        • Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey | Infrastructure Management
        • Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete | History and Theory of Urban Design
        • Prof. Dr. Kay W. Axhausen | Traffic and Transport Planning
        • Prof. Dr. Francesco Corman | Transport Systems
        • Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey | Planning of Landscape and Urban Systems (PLUS)
        • Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann | Spatial Development and Urban Policy
        • Prof. Hubert Klumpner | Architecture and Urban Design
        • Dr. Anastasios Kouvelas | Traffic Engineering and Control
        • Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid | Sociology
        • Prof. Milica Topalovic | Architecture and Territorial Planning
        • EiR PD Dr. Joris Van Wezemael | Spatial Transformation Laboratories (STL)
        • Prof. em Dr. h. c. Günther Vogt | Landscape Architecture
        • ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE
        • NSL Archive
      • NSL Colloquia – The NSL Colloquia are a bi-annual presentation of exceptional work under a rotating theme determined by the inviting professor.
      • NSL Projects
        • Future Cities Lab Global
        • Urban Potential and Strategies in Metropolitan Territories
 – The Zurich Metropolitan Region as an Example (NFP65)
        • Landscape Visualization and Modeling Lab (LVML)
      • NSL Forum: Pandemie? Mitten im Klimawandel. Was bedeutet das für die räumliche Entwicklung der Schweiz? Ein Dialog.
      • Former Chairs
    Close
  • Teaching
    • Teaching
      • Bachelor and Master Degree Programmes, Department ARCH
      • Bachelor and Master Degree Programmes, Department BAUG
      • MSc in Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems
      • MAS/CAS Spatial Development
      • MAS Urban and Territorial Design
      • MAS in Housing
      • Doctoral Programme in Landscape and Urban Studies
      • The teaching component of the NSL seeks to impart the knowledge and skills needed to develop the standard strengths of spatial planning and their interaction as well as the ability to develop strategies for the solution of spatial problems. These are central prerequisites for a responsible and successful exercise of planning functions in the service of the public commonwealth and of private companies. Especially important in fufilling these prerequisites is the quality of university-level education: graduate and post-graduate work as well as professional development in spatial, urban and landscape planning. The ETH Zurich has offered programmes such as continuing education courses and post-graduate programmes (NDS, now MAS) since 1965. The NSL (Network City and Landscape) is responsible for these courses and programmes.
    Close
  • Publications
    • NSL Newsletter – The NSL brings the experts at ETH Zurich together and also maintains a dialogue with other groups that deal with or are interested in issues relating to cities and landscapes.
    • Cover der Publikation: Erkenntnisse zum aktuellen WohnungsnotstandPublications of NSL Chairs – A complete list of publications can be reached via the following link, which also includes advanced search capabilities:
      • ETH Zürich Research Collection
    • DISP_58/3_CoverdisP – The Planning Review – The interdisciplinary scientific journal covers the topics of spatial development, urban planning, landscape and environmental planning, landscape architecture, traffic planning, and regional and environmental economics, as well as special issues on specific themes.
      • Publishing in disP – The Planning Review
      • Publisher
      • Book Review Guidelines
      • Editorial Staff
      • Latest Issue
      • facebook
    Close
  • Current
  • Contact
      • en
        • de
        • fr
        • it
      • Search

    • Close

Familiar Strangers

Everyone who has taken public transport on a regular basis has experienced the sense of being familiar with somebody even without knowing his or her name or having spoken to them. Lijun Sun and the team from Mobility and Transport Planning research module at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore investigate this phenomena of the Familiar Stranger.

Using the smart card (EZ-Link/CEPAS) data used by the Singaporean bus service, the team analysed the passive interactions on more than 20 million bus trips taken by three million residents on Singapore’s bus networks.

The result is a compelling understanding and insight into this hidden network and the effects it has on the population. «This is the first time that anyone has attempted to study and analyse such a large network of encounters,» says Mr Sun.

The team made several revelations, including the fact that out of all the trips they analysed, there were 18 million pairs «in-vehicle encounters», in which two people were on the same bus at the same time, which was repeated at the same time everyday.

They also found out that 85% of these repeated encounters occurred in the morning, rather than in the afternoon. The team explains that people generally leave the houses at the same time everyday but don’t necessarily return home at the same time everyday.

The team hopes that this study can impact research on the accurate mapping and simulations of how individuals move and behave in space and time. That will in turn impact the studies on the spread of infectious diseases through cities and communities. More interestingly, this may also suggest how people form social networks.

«If you see the same face everyday, chances are you are more likely to start a conversation with them and they become part of your social network,» says Mr Sun. «This is a fascinating insight into how communities form and can be strengthened.»

Lijun Sun, Mobility and Transport Planning, Singapore

Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore

Share this...
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Email
This article has been published in the following newsletter edition:

19 | September 2013: Bahn und Raumentwicklung

  • CODE24: Neue Wege zur Planung der Bahninfrastruktur
  • Marc Angélil ist neuer NSL-Leiter
  • Familiar Strangers
  • Urban Parangolé. The Syncretic City
  • Erstfeld Infrastructures – Rail and Flood, Landscape Design Investigations of the MAS LA 2012/13
  • Urban Rail Freight
Kurzmeldungen
  • Mobility Biographies: A Life-Course Approach to Travel Behaviour and Residential Choice
  • ETH Sustainability Summer School
  • NSL Kolloquienreihe
  • Linear Park
Publikationen
  • Understanding metropolitan patterns of daily encounters
  • Raumplanerisches Entwerfen. Entwerfen als Schlüsselelement von Klärungsprozessen der aktionsorientierten Planung – am Beispiel des regionalen Massstabs
  • Techno-Pastoral Fantasies at Hong Kong International Airport

Chairs

Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey
Prof. Dr. Kay W. Axhausen
Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete
Prof. Maria Conen
Prof. Dr. Francesco Corman
Dr. Jennifer Duyne Barenstein
Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard
Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Prof. Dr. Guillaume Habert
Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann
Prof. Hubert Klumpner
Dr. Anastasios Kouvelas
Prof. Freek Persyn
Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid
Prof. Milica Topalovic
EiR PD Dr. Joris Van Wezemael
Prof. em Dr. h. c. Günther Vogt
ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE

Contact

Address
ETH Zürich
NSL – Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft
Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5
HIL H 44.2
8093 Zürich

NSL Director
Director: Prof. Hubert Klumpner
Deputy Director: Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann

NSL Coordination
Claudia Gebert
Telephone: +41 (0)44 633 36 33

Register for the NSL Newsletter

disP Publication Office

Editor-in-Chief
Dr. sc. techn. Martina Koll-Schretzenmayr, Spatial planner ETH/NDS,
Telephone +41 (0)44 633 29 47

Editorial Assistant
Telephone +41 (0)44 633 29 69

Mailing address
ETH Zürich
Redaktion disP
NSL – Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft
Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5
HIL H 33.2
8093 Zürich
Fax +41 (0)44 633 12 15
E-Mail

 

NSL Archive (gta)

Research and Bequest Archive for
Swiss Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning

Consultation Requests

Mailing address
ETH Zürich
NSL Archive (gta)
Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5
HIL C 65.2
CH-8093 Zurich