“One of the biggest challenges facing the global transportation industry today is the massive amounts of rich data being gathered but underutilized by urban transportation enterprises," says Urban Insights Director, Analytics Wade Rosado. “By applying big data tools and transportation-specific data science processes, our consultants will transform the way agencies do business. Our predictive analytics tools and techniques will present information in compelling data visualizations and help decision-makers comprehend the factors that drive efficiencies as well as influence traveler choice. When we identify stress points in the transportation network, we can help agencies define actions to remedy those situations.”
“The transportation industry is already a leader in the volume and variety of data that is generated by onboard sensors and data collection points introduced by passenger counting systems, vehicle location systems, ticketing and fare collection systems, and scheduling and asset management systems,” Rosado says. “Existing data warehouses contain unprecedented potential for deriving insights into planning and managing transportation networks. Still, use of conventional data management tools and practices means these insights remain mostly hidden.”
The technology supporting Urban Insights' consulting and services practice is a distributed data management and processing platform that isbuilt upon Apache® Hadoop. It is “highly scalable and capable of handling the large volume of data generated by systems supporting the transportation industry,” says Rosado. “The solution also consists of a leading‐edge business intelligence and discovery suite.”
“What sets Urban Insights apart is its transportation sector expertise, which informs how we apply these state-of-the-art tools and data science techniques to convert terabytes of disassociated data into strategic and operational assets that will transform entire transportation networks,” says Director, Business Development Phil Silver. “The Urban Insights approach helps transportation agencies improve the way they provision services and ensures that resources are optimally allocated to meet the needs of travelers. For example, the San Diego Metropolitan Transportation System (MTS) is using the new service to gain visibility into commuters' complete journeys as they connect between bus routes or trolley services on the way to their final destination. The MTS and others are challenged to comprehend these journeys because systems record unlinked travel segments. To convert these unlinked trips into journeys, Urban Insights fuses together data from five independent sources, applies its analytic models, and uses this information to identify opportunities to improve and align services. The process pinpoints incongruencies between the current scheduling and resource allocation with the way riders actually use the services, enabling MTS to take action and better serve travelers.”
“In the future, these same tools will help influence behavioral change among travelers and directly influence travel choices,” adds Rosado. “Urban Insights relies on process improvement and the application of advanced analytic techniques to help evolve existing transportation networks and the way they operate, in order to move more people faster, more conveniently, and at a lower cost.”