The Transportation Behavior Blog by StreetLight Data

Featured Posts

Travel Planning for Memorial Day – The Data-Driven Way

May 24, 2018

Memorial Day has a rich history of honoring soldiers who sacrificed their lives in service to their country. However, it’s also a travel-filled holiday weekend that signals the beginning of summer for many Americans. These days, it seems like most Memorial Day conversations revolve around traffic, congestion, and busy airports. Just try searching for "Memorial Day" on Google. You’ll see that about half of the search results are about holiday-related transportation challenges. This Memorial Day, I was determined to commemorate the holiday and spend a memorable time with my family and friends – not stress about my travel plans. I didn’t want the experience of getting from point A to point B to distract me from the holiday's real meaning.

Like the avid planner I am, there were several questions swirling around my head while thinking about this trip. How bad will the traffic be when I head to the airport? When should I leave my house so I don’t miss my flight? Luckily, I work at StreetLight Data, and I can use our StreetLight InSight® platform to answer transportation questions quickly and easily. In this blog post, I’ll show you how I did it. (StreetLight InSight is our easy-to-use web application for turning Big Data from mobile devices into actionable transportation analytics.)

Big Data | Corridor Studies | Smart Cities | Traffic | Transportation

Traffic Diagnostics: A Congestion Busting and Travel Demand Management Tool

By: Laura Schewel

May 21, 2018

StreetLight Data's new Traffic Diagnostics tool is officially available for public agencies and engineering firms across the continental US. It's a game-changing new feature in StreetLight InSight®, our on-demand platform for turning Big Data from mobile devices into actionable transportation analytics. Watch our latest video blog from StreetLight Data's Laura Schewel to learn how Traffic Diagnostics can help you bust congestion with data-driven travel demand management solutions.

Subscribe to the StreetLight Data Blog.

Get the latest news about Big Data for transportation.

StreetLight Data Powers UberFlux for Aerial Urban Transportation

By: Laura Schewel

May 11, 2018

At this week’s Uber Elevate Summit in LA, I saw the power of using StreetLight Data’s transportation analytics for a brand-new mobility challenge: Optimizing the rollout of new infrastructure for aerial urban transport. Uber hosted the conference to “explore the exciting future of urban aviation” (read: flying shuttles). While lots of the press focused on the new models of Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing Vehicles (eVTOLs), I know readers of this blog will be even more excited by the use of data-driven planning to design their infrastructure!

What is UberFlux and How Did it Use StreetLight InSight?

At the opening address, and again at a deep dive panel, Uber showed off updates to the UberFlux tool. This tool pulls in data from several sources, including StreetLight InSight, our on-demand platform for turning Big Data into transportation analytics. UberFlux is used, among other things, to find optimal solutions to a complex problem: Where are the best places to site “nodes” for Uber’s upcoming UberAIR program? It is a stellar example of putting Big Data to work to drive transportation forward (should I say “fly” transportation forward?).

Jon Petersen, Head of Data Science at Uber Elevate, said: “StreetLight InSight and the StreetLight team play an important part to our modeling efforts and remain wonderful partners for the Elevate team.”

Big Data | Smart Cities | Traffic | Transportation

Visualizing Big Data for Transportation: Our Latest Updates

By: Laura Schewel

This week, we updated StreetLight InSight®, our on-demand platform for turning Big Data from mobile devices into actionable transportation analytics – just like we do every month. The improvement we’re most excited about for May is our interactive visualization builder. In a nutshell, the interactive visualization tool is a more powerful tool for StreetLight InSight users to analyze transportation behavior within our platform. It’s also a major step forward towards our goal of helping transportation professionals put Big Data to work for planning, modeling, and engineering.

Let’s face it: it’s always easier and faster to understand trends with a heat map or a chart than with a giant spreadsheet. It’s even better when you can dynamically manipulate the data behind those charts and heat maps to see how behavior changes in different conditions. (But don’t worry, long-time users, the spreadsheets are not going away!)

Subscribe to the StreetLight Data Blog.

Get the latest news about Big Data for transportation.

Big Data | Smart Cities | Traffic | Transportation

Commutes Across America – Where are the Longest Trips to Work? Part 2

By: Tori Clifford

April 1, 2018

After a long day at work, you probably want to get home as soon as possible. But, on most days, that’s easier said than done.

Today, commutes across America are longer than ever – and they’re increasing. The average American commutes 52 minutes to work each day, for a total of 4 hours and 20 minutes per week. Think of all the productive ways you could be spending that time, rather than sitting in your car or crammed in a crowded subway.

In our last blog about commutes, we explored where some of the longest commutes to work are in America. Now, let’s learn more about why areas have long commutes and how Big Data can be used by transportation planners to help mitigate this problem

Big Data | Smart Cities | Traffic | Transportation

Commutes Across America – Where are the Longest Trips to Work? Part 1

By: Tori Clifford

March 13, 2018

Are you tired of the long drive to and from work? This is probably the most tiresome, frustrating part of your day. And, you’re not alone. Everyone on the roadway probably feels the same!

To better understand commutes across America, StreetLight Data has compiled information on where commutes are the longest. Explore this article to find out why it’s important to understand commute travel patterns and to discover the top five states and cities with the longest commutes.
read more

Subscribe to the StreetLight Data Blog.

Get the latest news about Big Data for transportation.

Big Data | Software Updates | Transportation

Bringing Big Data for Transportation to Canada

By: Michael Bailey

February 27, 2018

Just a few weeks ago, I joined StreetLight Data as the company’s first dedicated Canadian sales consultant for the transportation industry. In many ways, this is the natural next step in my forty-year career as a transportation engineering and mapping professional. My experience spans the public and the private sector, and I’ve been honored to contribute to several of Canada’s most important transportation initiatives. From helping to plan the Confederation Bridge in Prince Edward to creating the first turn-by-turn navigation maps of all for Canada, I’ve always dedicated myself to projects that make our country more connected and improve quality of life in our communities.

While the field of Big Data analytics is relatively new to me, I’m thrilled that my next contribution to Canada’s transportation practice will be focused on data. The lack of quality transportation data has been the missing link in so much of my work for the past forty years. I believe StreetLight Data has the right solution to this long-standing problem.
read more

Big Data | Corridor Studies | Software Updates | Traffic

Traffic Diagnostics for StreetLight InSight®

By: Laura Schewel

February 21, 2018

“Big Data” is becoming buzzier and buzzier, but the adage “data is just a cost until you use it” is an increasingly common refrain. As the CEO of a transportation analytics company, I’m a true believer in the power of data. It frankly makes me sad to see so many groups investing in the idea of Big Data only to feel disappointed when they can’t get any useful information out of it. At StreetLight Data, our top priority is to help the transportation industry “put Big Data to work”.

That’s why I’m thrilled to announce the latest feature for StreetLight InSight (that’s our on-demand platform for turning mobile device data into actionable transportation analytics.) It’s called Traffic Diagnostics, and it’s designed to help you put Big Data to work to solve traffic jams. Lots of tools (including your eyes!) can tell you where traffic jams are occurring. Traffic Diagnostics can tell you why the jam occurs, and suggests data-driven ideas for the best long-term solutions.

Traffic Diagnostics are very different from every other feature that we’ve introduced to StreetLight InSight because – and this may surprise you – all of the analytics it provides were already available in our platform. The change is how we weave the Metrics together to tell a story, making StreetLight InSight Metrics much easier to use for congestion busting in the real world of transportation planning, modeling, and engineering.
read more

Subscribe to the StreetLight Data Blog.

Get the latest news about Big Data for transportation.

Big Data | Smart Cities | Transportation

Can Big Data Use In Transportation Planning Reduce Infant Mortality Rates?

By: Genna Gores

February 1, 2018

When most people think about transportation, they think about planes, trains, and automobiles – maybe even ferries. But infrastructure, technology, and our transportation networks do more than help us travel. They also have socioeconomic impacts. Getting from point A to point B efficiently is not only a matter of convenience. It can be a matter of life or death – and not just from a traffic safety perspective. The issue of infant mortality clearly illustrates the interplay of health, socioeconomic conditions, and transportation. In this article, I’ll explore this relationship and highlight a few ways that Big Data can be helpful for planners working to address infant mortality.

Big Data | Events | Transportation

“Is Transportation Technology the New Pavement?”

By: Laura Schewel and Catherine Manzo

January 24, 2018

This year, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting (TRB) took place at the same time, and both conferences addressed transportation. The smart city-oriented futurists, technologists, and automotive manufacturers at CES 2018 emphasized the latest autonomous vehicle advancements and whether or not "technology is the new pavement" for the transportation industry.

In contrast, TRB attendees were focused on the day-to-day work of planning, modeling, and engineering. While the ways new technology will change that daily work were addressed, greater emphasis was placed on long-standing transportation issues - think data collection challenges, operations and maintenance, and accessibility.

As transportation technology continues to advance, how will the relationship between these two communities evolve? What are their roles as we build our transportation future? Watch this video to hear Catherine Manzo and Laura Schewel of StreetLight Data address this question and more as they compare and contrast their experiences at the two conferences.

read more

Subscribe to the StreetLight Data Blog.

Get the latest news about Big Data for transportation.

You have reached the end of our posts. Please consider subscribing if you haven't already!