Computers are making roadside data collection quicker, easier, and more accurate

Researchers recently developed ways of combining the vast information available from Google Street View with custom AI programs to generate highly accurate inventories of street signs. The effort focused specifically on stop and yield signs, but these kinds of algorithms could be used to identify other types of infrastructure and even replace or augment time-consuming street audits.

New SSTI Resource: Understanding Trip-Making with Big Data

SSTI has released a new resource for decision-makers interested in using big data to understand travel patterns, but who are not sure how to get started. This new brief provides an overview of trip-making data from cellphones, mobile apps, and in-vehicle GPS devices. It shows example applications and offers lessons learned from our recent Connecting Sacramento study and from past studies in Colorado and Virginia.

SSTI releases Connecting Sacramento: A trip-making and accessibility study

For several years, SSTI has worked to advance best practices in the use of two emerging technologies: accessibility metrics and trip-making data from mobile devices. Our recently completed study, Connecting Sacramento, was an essential part of that effort. This study brings together these technologies and tests their application in identifying and prioritizing first- and last-mile-connections to transit, among other uses.

GPS data informs transportation projects in Northern Virginia: SSTI study

Transportation agencies, dependent for decades on traffic counts and travel demand models, are turning to new sources of data to understand the movement of vehicles and people. These include aerial photography, Bluetooth sensors, and cellular location data. Adding to that list, SSTI recently completed a study of vehicle trip-making patterns in Northern Virginia (NOVA), using commercially available GPS data. That study, presented to the Commonwealth Transportation Board in March, is now available for download.

Trip-making data, TDM, and connectivity in Northern Virginia (SSTI and Michael Baker International, 2016)

Commercially available GPS data offers valuable new insight about trip origins, destinations, and routes, including short trips that travel demand models often cannot capture. Using this data, SSTI worked with Michael Baker International, the Virginia DOT, and local stakeholders to identify opportunities for managing travel demand and improving connectivity throughout Northern Virginia. This final report describes the full data set and 17 selected case studies, along with recommended projects and policies, estimated costs, and benefits for each.