Extracting Origin Destination information from mobile phone data

1
Extracting Origin Destination information from
mobile phone data

• Joanna White, TRL
• Ivan Wells, Highways Agency
• Presented by
• David Eves, TRL

2
Origin Destination (OD) information

• What is it?
• Describes number of vehicles travelling between
  locations on road network
• Why is it important?
• Vital for Highways Agency - strategic planning
  and management
• Key information for CONTRAM8, SISTM other
  traffic models

3
How is OD information obtained?

• Household/roadside surveys
• Automatic Number Plate Recognition Data
• Electronic Vehicle Identification
• Mathematical methods to estimate OD from traffic
  flow data

4
Can we extract OD information from mobile phone
data?

• 25 million mobile phone owners in UK
• One phone per private vehicle
• Probe vehicles
• Anonymous

5
Mobile phone technology

• Country divided into cells
• Diameter 100m - 5km
• Transmitter at centre of cell
• Phone polls when first switched on
• Then every 5-10 minutes until switched off

6
Mobile Phone Data
LONDON
Cell 1 at 0800
Cell 2 at 0830
Cell 5 at 0900
Cell 6 at 0930
Cell 8 at 1000
Destination reached 1030
DOVER
7
Mobile Phone Data

• Two types of data
• Billing records - location of phone when call
  made or received
• Continuous data - location of phone as it moves
  through cells

8
Pilot study Kent corridor

• BTCellnet provided billing location data -
  discrete record of movements
• Anonymous data
• Analysed to extract OD information for road
  vehicles
• Compare to existing OD matrix for Kent - used in
  MOLA

9
Kent OD information from mobile phone data
10
The Kent OD matrix
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The importance of mobile phone location data

• Continuous source of data
• OD information
• Congestion
• Journey times
• Routeing information
• Potentially low cost source of OD data

12
The Future?

• Further co-operation from network operators
• Use continuous data from all mobile phones
• Extract other traffic information

13
Thank You for Listening!

• For further information contact
• jwhite_at_trl.co.uk
• deves_at_trl.co.uk
• ivan.wells_at_highways.gsi.gov.uk