A study of time use in Moscow
MoscowBuildings and their functions are firmly bound for years, disregarding the potential of many urban constructions to accommodate more establishments once their activities are coordinated in time. Isn't this a waste of urban space?
Habidatum presents a platform visualizing such unused space-time resources. The first “Chronotope City” study explores 8 streets in the center of Moscow, Russia.
Please use the up‑to‑date version of Chrome, Safari or Edge for the best experience.
Modern urban society is suffering from a number of limitations that exist only because of habit. The "standard" operation schedule of many establishments is among them.
In post-industrial society the volume of services produced and consumed by urbanities has multiplied many times, but the window through which this powerful flow gets delivered does not seem to have widened accordingly. Habidatum's “Chronotope City” study shows that around 40% of the time the space adjacent to major Moscow streets is not in use.
Does this statistic mean that the existing infrastructure is excessive or is it just used inefficiently?
Do such questions need to be transformed into statements, doctrines, policies and actions? Of course not. It is entirely up to society to make the best use of means available. The goal of Habidatum is to demonstrate that time is one of the most important but underestimated socio-economic resources.
In this study Habidatum analyzed the distribution of functions and their operation schedules (“Schedule”) along 8 streets in the center of Moscow where the streets have been divided up into their basic elements: shops, offices, schools, hospitals and all other establishments that are called "functions." Each of the functions is represented as one stripe. Currently all the time that the function is not operating is highlighted in white.
The data used for analytical visualizations reflects the category of a function (“Group of Functions” shown by color), its location, and its operation schedule.
As it is seen on the diagram, on average about 40% of the city's space-time resources are currently not in use. For example, on %street% the situation is %unknown%.
Tip: It is possible to switch between the streets using the menu in the left bottom corner or the left/right arrows on the keyboard.
Now the stripes have been inverted to show the time spans when the functions are active. The color of the stripes shows each function's affiliation with a particular group.
On average %percent%% of the functions operate for 24 hours. On %street% for example round-the-clock establishments make up merely %percent%% in total.
"Standard" operation time (10 a.m. - 6 p.m.) still defines access to the majority of functions: %percent%% on average and %percent%% on %street%
At the same time there are relatively long periods when the amount of operating functions is very low:
Weekends: high demand for services, but their supply is even lower than on the working days.
Please explore the dataset using the different filters under the diagram and the time range selector to the left of it.
Any interesting findings? If so, please send a message with the link to your current diagram state directly to Habidatum via the email form below.
You can also use these buttons to share your findings on social media:
Thanks for your feedback!
This is the beginning of an international series of “Chronotope City” studies. Stay tuned. There is more to come.
Academic laboratories and independent researchers are invited to collaborate on this project.