Origin–destination matrices from smartphone apps for bus networks
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2024
Subject Area
place - europe, mode - bus, ridership - behaviour, ridership - demand, technology - passenger information, planning - surveys
Keywords
Smartphone-app call detail records, APPs, Origin–destination matrix, Public transport
Abstract
The knowledge of passenger flows between each origin–destination (OD) pair is a main requirement in public transport for service planning, design, operation, and monitoring, and is represented by OD matrices. Although they can be determined by traditional approaches (e.g., surveys, ride-check counts, and/or smartcard-based methods), the availability of new technologies and the proliferation of portable devices triggers an emerging interest in building OD matrices from the apps of bus operators. This research proposes the first framework for the estimation of OD matrices on transit networks by processing smartphone app call detail records (SACDRs). The framework is experimentally tested on a sample of 30 workdays of an Italian bus operator. The results are represented by easy-to-read control dashboards based on maps, which help quantify and visualise the OD matrices in the metropolitan area of Cagliari (Italy). The experimentation shows that the framework can properly estimate the number of trips for both origin and destination w.r.t. OD matrices built from household surveys: the mean absolute error is on average lower than five movements for 90% of the origins and 85% of the destinations.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by SpringerLink, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Barabino, B., Coni, M., Di Francesco, M., Obino, A., & Ventura, R. (2024). Origin–destination matrices from smartphone apps for bus networks. Public Transport, 16(2), 505-549.