Passive Participation

Using mobile devices to understand travel patterns

Paul Supawanich

@tweetsupa

Passive Participation: reliance on

observed preferences to help shape

planning decisions.

Example:

tomato sauce

preference

data!

preference

data?

How do we currently

obtain preferences from

our communities?

public meetings

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Tuesday Evening: 6:15 PM You’ve got dinner plans elsewhere. Attracting people to a public meeting is challenging

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Your feedback is here.

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Or here.

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This is your study area.

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Challenge: Audience bias Audience bias

Dislike! Dislike! Dislike! Dislike!

Dislike! Dislike! Dislike!

Dislike!

Dislike!

Awesome!

What’s your

opinion?

Who are we missing

and how can we better

engage them in the

planning process?

Passive Participation: The Tools

■ Aggregated mobile phone data

■ GPS

– On-board vehicle

– Self-reported (Fitbit, mobile apps)

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privacy disclaimer*

Passive Participation: Tradeoffs

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Benefits

Does not require people’s time or

direct participation

Large, quantifiable, sample

Actual travel behavior by…

Time of day

Trip type

Travel volume

Route preferences

Drawbacks

No direct interaction with

constituents

Tradeoff between great sample size

(mobile phone) and accuracy (GPS)

Does not eliminate biases

Full capabilities still being tested

examples

Passive Participation: Express Buses (Atlanta, GA)

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Traditional transit demand analysis techniques to identify “high potential” new markets

Identified 10-15 zones to further analyze mobile phone data by origin/destination

Outputs: O-D pairs with demand based on time of day and trip type

Information used to plan and refine transit service options

Passive Participation: GRTA

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Lines = Travel Demand

Passive Participation: CycleTracks

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For more information:

San Francisco County Transportation Authority

http://www.sfcta.org/modeling-and-travel-forecasting/cycletracks-iphone-

and-android

Passive Participation: Activity Trackers

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Passive Participation: Activity Trackers

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Lines = bicycle and

pedestrian activity

is this the future?

Copyright: The Matrix (2004)

perhaps, part of it.

Public engagement and participation is not a one

size-fits-all activity.

Mobile based, “passive” participation tools can be

used to capture feedback from a broader audience.

Mobile based, “passive” participation tools can be

used to capture feedback from a broader audience

Leading to a process that is more informed and more

inclusive to all.

NELSON\NYGAARD CONSULTING ASSOCIATES © 2014

Paul Supawanich psupawanich@nelsonnygaard.com

@tweetsupa