Analysis of spatial–temporal characteristics based on mobile phone data

Abstract

The most traditional method to collect traffic data is household survey, which is a waste of manpower and material resources. OD matrices estimation using link volumes has been widely studied. But the significant shortcoming is the high cost of detectors. Besides, once installed in the network, the traffic detectors are not easy to be moved. Mobile phones’ location data, however, can be acquired over a wider coverage without additional costs. The use of such data provides new spatiotemporal tools for improving urban transportation planning. This paper analyzes the nature and the pre-treatment of data from mobile phone operators in China and highlights the applicability of the data in domain of transportation. It also presents a typology of applications to analyze spatial–temporal characteristics based on mobile phone data.