Applications of Trajectory Data from the Perspective of a Road Transportation Agency: Literature Review and Maryland Case Study
This work helps government agencies evaluate trajectory data for cost-effective decision-making, but it is incremental as it synthesizes existing knowledge and adds a case study.
The paper addresses the challenge for road transportation agencies in assessing the value of trajectory data by providing a literature review across six analysis areas and a case study with 20 million GPS traces in Maryland to illustrate potential applications.
Transportation agencies have an opportunity to leverage increasingly-available trajectory datasets to improve their analyses and decision-making processes. However, this data is typically purchased from vendors, which means agencies must understand its potential benefits beforehand in order to properly assess its value relative to the cost of acquisition. While the literature concerned with trajectory data is rich, it is naturally fragmented and focused on technical contributions in niche areas, which makes it difficult for government agencies to assess its value across different transportation domains. To overcome this issue, the current paper explores trajectory data from the perspective of a road transportation agency interested in acquiring trajectories to enhance its analyses. The paper provides a literature review illustrating applications of trajectory data in six areas of road transportation systems analysis: demand estimation, modeling human behavior, designing public transit, traffic performance measurement and prediction, environment and safety. In addition, it visually explores 20 million GPS traces in Maryland, illustrating existing and suggesting new applications of trajectory data.