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Title:

Improving the Quality and Cost Effectiveness of Multimodal Travel Behavior Data Collection: A Case Study

Accession Number:

01764063

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

Multimodal transportation such as transit, bike, walk, ride-hailing (e.g., Uber, Lyft), carshare, and bikeshare are vital to supporting livable communities. However, current multimodal travel behavior data collection techniques, including travel behavior survey apps, have limitations (e.g., negative impact on battery life, user acquisition). This paper describes a case study of software developed to collect multimodal travel behavior data on an ongoing basis from users of an existing open-source mobile app for multimodal information, OneBusAway. To overcome battery life challenges, the research team used the Android Activity Transition API, which leverages hardware advancements in modern mobile phones. An update to the app was released to 676 users. Over 10 weeks, 74 users opted into the study without any incentive and contributed 65,582 trips. Key concerns for data collection when conserving battery life are the timeliness and accuracy of data. Location data was collected for 86% of all origins and destinations. Most delays in location acquisition when starting or ending activities were under a few minutes (e.g., 90th percentile of delay at origins was 3.2 minutes, 68th percentile was 14 seconds). The locations for origins and destinations were building-level accuracy or better (95th percentile of estimated accuracy was 48 meters). The primary cause of low activity classification confidence values seems to be uncertainty for walking vs. standing still. The software deployed in this project is a promising new tool with a tradeoff of reduced data density for the ability to collect data from many users for longitudinal studies with little incentives required.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AED20 Standing Committee on Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems.

Report/Paper Numbers:

TRBAM-21-00126

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

Authors:

Barbeau, Sean J
Cetin, Cagri

Pagination:

32p

Publication Date:

2021

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board; Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; Photos; References; Tables

Identifier Terms:

OneBusAway (Software)

Subject Areas:

Data and Information Technology; Finance; Highways; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2021 Paper #TRBAM-21-00126

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Dec 23 2020 11:18AM