TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Mobile data analytics
Mapping our movements
The UK is pioneering the use of mobile data to provide population movement insights
An article on the BBC website recently highlighted ten inventions or innovations which would not have been so popular today had it not been for the First World War. It highlighted how, in times of adversity, new products can be developed. But it doesn’t just have to be war. The riots in London three years ago were the catalyst for some fascinating new technology from INRIX called population analytics. Paul Hutton spoke to the company’s Vice President, Business Development Danny Woolard and Tim McHugh, Product Director, to find out more
T
he traffic census. People in hi-viz jackets beckoning cars to the side of the road to ask drivers ques-
tions about their journeys. You’ve heard of them, you may have even been involved in one. Motorists annoyed at being held up, wanting to know why you were asking all those questions, possibly lying whilst answering the questions. And it was prob- ably raining on you too, dribbling into your hood and down your neck. Well if you recognise that scenario,
you’ll be pleased to know that the chances of needing to do this again are dwindling fast, thanks to a cleaver piece of use of mobile phone data by big data and traffic information company INRIX. The solution I’m having described to
smartHIGHWAYS Vol 2 No 1
me can be traced back to the early 2000s when ITIS, the Altrincham-based com- pany which was bought by American firm INRIX three years ago, recognised that cel- lular Floating Vehicle Data (cFVD) could be a very powerful tool in the collation of traffic information. The company set about using the
anonymised movement of mobile phones as the basis of tracking the movement of traffic. The technology monitored how phones moved from cell to cell, and by analysing that movement against the road network could infer which route a user was on, and from that, how fast they were travelling. However it’s safe to say the technology was never used to its true potential for real-
smarthighways.net
time traffic here, because the GPS-based technology already available through fleet management tools and the growing num- ber of in-car and smart phone connected devices meant that there was more than enough accurate data for traffic services, and so the cellular content provided only an incremental improvement (although it’s safe to say that the technology can and is used overseas where GPS data is less prevalent). However the technology still existed
and the day after riots had hit London in August 2011, product director Tim McHugh decided to have a look at the way mobile phones had moved around before, during and after the disturbances. “You could see a build-up of people” he says, “it
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