NYUAD’s Center for InTeractIng urban nEtworkS (CITIES) is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to advancing urban science and promoting cutting-edge research that is translated into practical, real-world solutions for the benefit of society, with the ultimate goal to foster sustainable, resilient, and equitable cities.
Monica Menendez, the center’s director, has done extensive research on monitoring, modeling, and control of multimodal transportation systems, paying special attention to new technologies and information sources. She is studying mobility patterns and how cities can better cope with them in order to mitigate traffic congestion.
Her studies using large traffic datasets — with close to five billion vehicle observations from cities around the world — are allowing us to better understand human mobility, its reproducibility, and the role of the urban environment in shaping it. Moreover, her work on new modes of transportation and how they would interact with the existing traffic is expected to open new doors for more sustainable mobility practices.
Urban transportation is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the research we are pursuing at NYUAD to alleviate traffic congestion and promote more environmentally sustainable transportation modes is crucial for achieving a better future.
