Research Findings

Looking back at the goals that were set at the beginning of the year, I can see that not everything was accomplished completely. However, I was still able to get a product out of the program that I could be proud of, because what I was learning during it was very interesting to me. Though the final report doesn’t show the full extent of what I originally wanted to convey, the history behind what I studied, the urban design of Seoul and the Transit Oriented Development (T.O.D.) present throughout the city, was a fascinating aspect of urban design that I was always curious about. Whether cars are truly necessary in our urban and transportation design, and whether public transportation can lead the innovations made in urban planning. Reading about these studies and the thoughts of urban design experts was really refreshing.

When it came to research on my part, coming up with the necessary data on TOD and its effects on traffic congestion wasn’t as simple as learning about everything. Though we had two months to complete the report, we only debriefed about what I had to complete and what I would be expected to finish around the beginning of the program. After that point, I was basically left to myself to figure out how much I should have in my findings. With that in mind, I was really able to come up with most of my methods and data within the first few weeks, such as using a linear regression model to find out whether the level of TOD within a city would correlate with the amount of traffic congestion it has.

But after figuring that out, however, I lost the momentum I had in gathering the data I needed to get to a model that would actually show some correlation or prove anything at all. I realized that it would be unrealistic to look at that many cities and find a way to measure the level of TOD or traffic congestion in each individual city, that would also be a similar enough metric to the other cities to actually have comparable points of data at all.

Exploring

Looking back at the program, I was
happy with everything we were able to do, and what I was personally able to do and see during my time in Seoul, Busan, and Jeju. I met a lot of really motivated people and even more super interesting people. I recommend visiting Seoul, even for a couple days, because there’s adventures to be had in the many
alleyways and floors within Itaewon, Hongdae, and really just throughout the entire city.