abstreet/docs/project/motivation.md

Project motivation

http://www.govtech.com/data/SimCities-Can-City-Planning-Mistakes-Be-Avoided-Through-Data-Driven-Simulations.html

"Only with simple, accessible simulation programs can citizens become active generators of their own urban visions, not just passive recipients of options laid out by government officials."

Open questions

Why is crowdsourcing useful? People have specific expertise, more investment in hyper-local changes.

Why don't people participate today? Apathy, lack of access, lack of expertise, gov wont do anything with feedback?

Why do people participate in Seattle despite having something like A/B Street?

Why now?

Emphasis on long-term or very disruptive changes (AVs, eventual light rail). AVs could be a forcing function to re-evaluate how space in a city is allocated.

Project outcomes

Best and worst cases (just a game, inspire, actually cause changes)