Mobility Choices—An Instrument for Precise Automatized Travel Behavior Detection & Analysis

Abstract

Within the Mobility Choices (MC) project we have developed an app that allows users to record their travel behavior and encourages them to try out new means of transportation that may better fit their preferences. Tracks explicitly released by the users are anonymized and can be analyzed by authorized institutions. For recorded tracks, the freely available app automatically determines the segments with their transportation mode; analyzes the track according to the criteria environment, health, costs, and time; and indicates alternative connections that better fit the criteria, which can individually be configured by the user. In the second step, the users can edit their tracks and release them for further analysis by authorized institutions. The system is complemented by a Web-based analysis program that helps authorized institutions carry out specific evaluations of traffic flows based on the released tracks of the app users. The automatic transportation mode detection of the system reaches an accuracy of 97%. This requires only minimal corrections by the user, which can easily be done directly in the app before releasing a track. All this enables significantly more accurate surveys of transport behavior than the usual time-consuming manual (non-automated) approaches, based on questionnaires.

Changes in Passengers’ Travel Behavior Due to COVID-19

“…It was argued that the sustainable nature of public transportation should be maintained by ensuring the safety of public transportation against infectious diseases. Feilhauer et al [13] developed an application that encourages users to record their own travel behaviors and choose appropriate transportation modes that better suit their preferences. Traffic records released by the users can be anonymized for privacy and analyzed by public institutions.…”