Is this too far-fetched? Maybe.
Are there risks? Yes.

But the potential reward is huge: to legitimize imagination, spark discovery, and let science dream again.

Should science give itself more room to dream?

🔗 doi.org/10.1038/d415...

Yes, we already have “future research” sections & perspectives.

But do they really give us space to be bold? Too often they end up cautious, hedged, or vague.

Why?
✅ Captures ideas that otherwise stay private
✅ Stimulates new lines of research
✅ Restores the human voice to science, letting readers see not only what we found, but what we dare to think

My proposal: a Speculation Box.

📦 A short, clearly labeled, visually distinct section
📦 A home for bold but non-evidence-based ideas
📦 With a disclaimer so readers know it’s speculation

Evidence must remain the backbone of science.

But if we never articulate the daring interpretations, causal hunches, or ambitious possibilities that come from our work… we risk slowing down discovery.

Science today is rigorous, careful, precise, and that’s great.

But when it comes to imagination, we often hold back. We hedge, we stay cautious, because reviewers (and readers) always ask: “Where’s your evidence?”

AI won’t decide the future of cities on its own, we will.

Will planners lead the way, or be left behind?

Read my new article in Cities: tinyurl.com/3jtx2xrd

#UrbanPlanning #Innovation

Urban planners should not be afraid of AI! 🏙️🤖

AI won’t replace planners, but it will transform how we plan & govern cities. The challenge isn’t coding, it’s shifting from fear to curiosity.

#UrbanPlanning #AI #FutureOfCities

🔍 We also identified distinct “emitter profiles” based on car access, job type & gender.

🧭 Urban climate policy needs to move beyond the 15-minute city ideal. We need to plan for the full travel chain.

#UrbanMobility #ClimatePolicy #GPSData #TransportEmissions #15MinuteCity #SustainableCities

🤚 In other words, improving the walkability of only residential areas is not enough (e.g., concepts like x-min cities). We’re missing a major opportunity to reduce emissions if we ignore the other places people visit: commercial centres, leisure hubs, and secondary destinations.

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If you want to get involved, give feedback, or add your study, reach out!
📬 Message me
📋 Feedback form in the prototype
Let’s build a global, open, and reproducible future for GPS mobility research.

#OpenGPS #HumanMobility #OpenScience #FAIRData #Geoprivacy

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OpenGPS is co-authored with:
Jed Long, Urška Demšar, Katarzyna Sila-Nowicka, Vanessa Brum-Bastos, Jinhyung Lee & Hui Jeong (Hailyee) Ha. 🙌

📄 Read the paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.di...

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We also propose a governing body to make this sustainable.

And we’re exploring federated architecture, so data can stay with the institution, but still connect to the platform.

4/
🌍 This initiative is especially vital for researchers in the Global South, where data access, storage, and compute power are often limited.

And yes, sharing saves time and funding.
No more duplicated data collection.

3/
The platform will grow in 3 phases:

Phase I: Share metadata, even knowing who has what is powerful!
Phase II: Store & share GPS data, securely
Phase III: Analyze data in the cloud, especially helpful when data can't be moved

2/
📍 OpenGPS is our proposed platform for sharing, storing & analyzing GPS tracking data in human mobility studies, while respecting geoprivacy.

It’s not just a vision:
✅ We’ve published the concept
✅ Built a working prototype
✅ Populated it with 241 studies!