UZH Urban Analytics @ STRC 2026

Josephine Roper and Xiang Han presented joint work with Esra Suel on “Multi-activity, building-scale accessibility measures for Switzerland”. The study recalculates existing travel zone-based accessibility measures at the level of individual buildings across Switzerland, showing building-level variation that is often hidden in zone-level averages. It also adapts to the Swiss context a multi-activity accessibility measure developed by Josephine during her PhD, accounting for distance decay and diminishing returns from additional trip destinations. A case study in the canton of Zurich shows that similar levels of public transport service can have considerably different levels of access to everyday destinations.

Our first Master's student, Stefano Benzoni, presented “A leisure attractivity framework for destination choice in travel demand models,” developed through a joint project with Antonin Danalet and Davi Guggisberg from SBB and Esra Suel from UNA. The project develops a richer and more interpretable zone-level attractivity index to better capture where people choose to go for leisure activities. Using Swiss Mobility and Transport Microcensus data alongside spatial indicators (including gastronomy, culture, outdoor recreation, landscape features, and support amenities), the work estimates segment-specific destination choice models by age group and travel context. The results show how leisure destinations can be represented more explicitly than through simple size terms, with a proof-of-concept integration into SIMBA MOBi demonstrating the framework's operational potential for more differentiated leisure demand modelling.

Great work by everyone involved, and looking forward to sharing more of our research at future conferences!