A thorough review of big data sources and sets used in transportation research

Abstract

The development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the Internet provide Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) with a huge amount of real-time data. These data are the so-called “Big Data” which can be collected, interpreted, managed and analyzed in a proper way in order to improve the knowledge around the transport system. The use of these technologies has greatly enhanced the efficiency and user friendliness of ITS, providing significant economic and social impacts, contributing positively to the management of sustainable mobility. In this paper, different sources of big data that have been used in ITS are presented, while their advantages and limitations are further discussed. Analytically, big data sources that have been used within the last 10 years are identified. Then, a review of current applications is done, in order to disclose the most used and proper data source per case. Aim of the present study is to improve the knowledge around the usage of big data in transport planning and to contribute to the better support of ITS, by providing a roadmap to decision makers for big data collection methods.