Your cell phone is smart. Really smart. No, I’m not talking
just about Siri’s ability to find you Chinese food at any time of the day or
her amusing and witty banter that keeps you entertained – I’m talking about the
aggregated data your cell phone is collecting 24-7. That data has real value to
it and it’s helping to transform the way cities handle every day issues.
For example, the Metropolitan
Planning Organization (MPO) in North Carolina is utilizing cell phone GPS
technology to identify traffic patterns and make recommendations on
commuting routes. Here’s how it works. When you’re in your car for your daily
commute, presumably, your cell phone is right there with you and sending that
information to a satellite hovering overhead.
So the satellite is collecting this information not only from your
phone, but from thousands of other phones and picking up an enormous amount of
information on congestion, traffic patterns and much more.
The massive amounts of data being collected above us has inspired
many start-ups, like AirSage, that have later contracted with government
organizations like MPO to conduct
traffic pattern studies with much more accuracy. Previously, traffic studies
would cost $300,000 annually and consist of someone literally driving around
the city and reporting back traffic patterns. When MPO contracted with AirSage
to do a traffic pattern study, it cost a mere $25,000 and saved them hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
If North Carolina could save hundreds of thousands of
dollars by just tapping into cell phone data that was already there – imagine
the possibilities. The data is there, you just need to find a way to uncover
it. Here at PublicStuff we find we’re
uncovering more and more data every day from the thousands of service requests
we receive all over the country. We’ve
been able to tap into backend systems from years ago, organize it in our
workflow system and combine that with newly gathered information through our
CRM system. As such, we’ve been able to
help over 45 of our city partners to uncover years worth of development
patterns and city trends to make more research backed decisions regarding city
planning and much more. Our recent ESRI integration, that will allow us to
integrate with multiple mapping layers, will further open the flood gates of information
that cities are able to tap into. To
test out the data in your area, register your city today. The
only question left is how will you utilize the data that’s out there to make
your city even greater?
