Submission ID 115209
| Session Title | DA - Transportation Data and Analytics |
|---|---|
| Title | Open-source tools for mobility data collection and analysis |
| Abstract | The Mobility Chair at Polytechnique Montréal has developed and shared two software tools that address the challenges of mobility data collection and its analysis in the context of transportation planning. Developed in collaboration with various partners and shared under an open-source license, those tools have strong scientific grounds. Firstly, we built the Evolution platform, which is a web-based platform for personal mobility data collection. This tool lets users easily deploy travel surveys tailored to specific needs. It's differentiated from generic survey tools by supporting spatial and demographic information out of the box. It can do live data validations and real-time transit calculations. This helps reduce the burden on respondents and improve response rate. The platform provides methods to evaluate the experience of the respondents, which can inform improvement for the next iteration of a survey. We have used the platform in many large and small-scale surveys, including Québec Origin Destination surveys. Collectively, we have had over 200,000 respondents participating in various studies across Canada in 2024. Once you have collected this mobility data, you will need tools to analyze it. This is where the Transition platform, a transportation network simulation tool, comes into play. Users can import existing networks via GTFS files, edit them, or create entirely new ones. You can use the mobility data collected by Evolution or other sources and run multimodal simulations (transit, driving, walking, cycling, etc.), and compare metrics across various scenarios. Additionally, AI-driven techniques enable the optimization of networks and schedules. For both platforms, we will highlight the many benefits of open source. It lowers the acquisition cost making the tools accessible to individuals and organizations of all sizes and facilitates inclusion in training programs. As open platforms, they also allow users to inspect their underlying algorithms and gain full transparency into how calculations are performed. This openness not only builds trust, but also fosters better collaboration between organizations as well as developers and users. We will explore the current features of both platforms and highlight upcoming developments. |
| Presentation Description (for App) | The presentation will propose an update on the development, by the Chaire Mobilité of Polytechnique Montreal, of two open-source platform: Evolution, a web-based survey tool and Transition, a transit network simlation plaform. |
| Author and/or Presenter Information | Catherine Morency, École Polytechnique de Montréal |
