Intercity Person Trip Tables for Nationwide Transportation Planning in Israel Obtained from Massive Cell Phone Data

Abstract

A national transportation planning model is needed for several reasons, including heavy investments in transportation infrastructures and the need to perform formal cost–benefit analyses of all medium- and large-scale transport projects. The paper describes the formulation and development of the planning model. The model is unique for the data collected and is used for analyzing nationwide travel. After careful legal review regarding privacy laws, cellular phone (CP) data were obtained for sixteen 1-week samples of 10,000 phones. In total, data for 1.04 million person-days were obtained. Data records included the unique CP identification, the antenna serving the CP, and a time stamp (date, hour, minute, second). At the minimum, a record was written each time a moving CP changed its connecting antenna. To ensure privacy, neither information nor identification of the cellular phone owner was recorded. The paper describes the structure of the planning model. The CP survey data were used only in the models for constructing person trip tables. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that data obtained by wireless location technology (WLT) in large quantities have been used in transportation planning. The paper discusses the advantages and limitations of using WLT and presents directions for further research.

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