Why Mobility Analytics can play an important part in lowering emissions
If we are going to act upon the goals made in the Paris climate deal, we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Now.
High levels of Co2, atmospheric particular matter and nitrogen oxide- you will find in the larger cities. We believe there are a link between the number of travelers and air quality. There are of course other elements like temperature, humidity and other factors, but the volume of private cars plays a big part. Up until now, measuring the quality of air has involved great efforts for cities. They employ and pay people to sit at street crossings and take note of the traffic. The data then needs to be compared with data from air quality sniffers. This is not only expensive, it is also inaccurate.
All cities are looking for new possibilities or incentives to move person transportation from cars to public transportation solutions. Cities also try different control methods, which often leads to expensive tolls and taxes and unhappy citizens.
Before initiating concrete measures, however, we have to collect precise data. Only this way can cities determine where the pollution is particularly high.
Mobile data helps protect the environment
How quickly do people travel? What distance do they cover with which means of transport? Mobile data can be used to determine flows of traffic and to derive the extent of pollution. This data is created automatically, when mobile devices communicate with the mobile communication cells while making calls, browsing or sending texts. As a result, the sample of data is larger than during manual measurements as well as less expensive. Customer data remains fully protected during this process. Maptrends anonymizes the exploited data using a three-stage procedure and removes any reference to individuals. Conclusions can thus only be made regarding larger groups of people.
We at Maptrends believe smarter tools and digitization can help collect information in near real-time to provide genuine, dynamic information. Linking person density with air quality sensors can give exiting and precise insight. Dynamic Mobility Analytics can also give an overview over changes during the day, week and month. In other words, cities can put their investments where it works.
We believe magic can happen when you start to give incentives linked with the data in real-time. What if: Air pollution goes up - > Bus fares goes down or even free..
Let’s start caring, but based on facts – not believes.
Sources: