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December 5, 2025 - GTU Office of Press and Public Relations Prof. Arif Çağdaş Aydınoğlu, Director of the GTU Institute of Transportation Technologies and faculty member of the Department of Geomatics Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, achieves a significant accomplishment on behalf of Gebze Technical University (GTU) with his internationally-accepted project titled “Redesigning Digital Mobility Platforms: Transportation Solutions that Address Diverse User Needs and Consider Family Responsibilities.”
Supported under the British Council – International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) in the field of social sciences, the project is led on the Türkiye side by Prof. Aydınoğlu, while the project leadership on the United Kingdom side is carried out by faculty members from the University of the West of England (Bristol).
The project brings together researchers from GTU specializing in geographic information systems and related engineering disciplines, along with experts from the University of the West of England in transport geography, computational sciences, and digital-interactive technologies. With local governments and private-sector representatives also participating as stakeholders, this collaboration aims to develop innovative technological solutions to address the challenges faced by different user groups in urban mobility in Istanbul.
Current digital mobility applications often focus solely on providing the fastest route, without sufficiently accounting for everyday needs such as safe routes, less crowded public transport options, accessible stations, or suitable spaces for those traveling with a child or an elderly companion. This gap leads to the invisibility of mobility barriers encountered particularly by women and underrepresented age groups. By analyzing the mobility experiences of diverse user profiles in Istanbul, the project seeks to develop a digital navigation tool sensitive to these needs. Mobility data will be collected at the neighborhood scale through participatory methods, solution proposals will be co-produced with local authorities, and an AI-supported route-planning prototype will be designed. In the short term, user-centered mobility indicators will be generated; in the medium term, a pilot application will be developed for evaluation by local authorities; and in the long term, the project will contribute to safer, more accessible, and more inclusive urban mobility services. |
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