“Information technology and big data-based decision making are key tools for urban mobility procedures”
TECNALIA develops big data-driven solutions to optimise decision-making on urban mobility
New sustainability parameters, population growth and new modes of mobility and transport require new urban mobility policies. Information technologies and decision making based on data (big data, simulation and analytical techniques) have become key tools in this environment for formulating policies and procedures that facilitate a decision-making ecosystem around this issue.
Big data for sustainable mobility
TECNALIA, in conjunction with the Euskadi Mobility and Logistics Cluster and Bilbao City Council, has provided a methodology based on big data to develop increasingly sustainable mobility.
The main aim of this approach is to improve and streamline the data-driven decision-making process to better adapt to the real needs of the city and implement solutions that are actually used. Consequently, having a single point of access to data related, in this case, to urban mobility allows local governments to make decisions based on integrated, up-to-date, accurate information. To this end, it is important to ensure that the data collected is as up-to-date as possible and to simplify data analysis by improving data quality through automated data cleaning techniques.
Improving urban mobility policies
More specifically, TECNALIA has modelled and predicted transport demand data, by merging data sources from the Bilbao services. In this case, in accordance with the Bilbao Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, big data has contributed to assessing the impact of mobility on traffic, mobility patterns and indicators.
The analyses that TECNALIA has carried out for Bilbao City Council include the characterisation and prediction of vehicle traffic in different scenarios, such as day of the week, public holidays, different time slots, atmospheric conditions and local events, and indicators for different modes of transport available, i.e. vehicles, public bicycle service and public transport in different districts and neighbourhoods. By interpreting this data, the aim is to improve urban mobility policies.
Users at the centre
The accessibility of data has been key to decision-making, using open source to ensure its accuracy and quality and providing training on how to use disruptive technologies, as well as transparency when it comes to recognising the limitations of the technology being used and being able to include end users, who are the decision-makers, throughout the design process.
Public acceptance is a key factor in the decision-making process and when it comes to adopting both individual and group measures to move towards more sustainable mobility models, as in many cases, it determines the results achieved by implementing a policy. This implies that communication between all relevant actors - city councils, public transport companies, suppliers, associations and citizens themselves - must be dynamic and agile, and define spaces for debate and contrast around the conceptualisation of urban solutions.
This big data-based methodology has been carried out and evaluated in other European cities in addition to Bilbao, as part of a European initiative called URBANITE, with the participation of cities such as Helsinki, Amsterdam and Messina.
