Northeastern & TELUS Partnership Delivers data-Driven Traffic Insights for Toronto events
A research partnership between Northeastern University adnโ TELUS is providing the City ofโ Toronto with unprecedented accuracy in understanding event-related trafficโค patterns. The collaboration originatedโ from a hackathon last year focused on โฃpredicting the traffic impact of Taylor SwiftS eras tour. Impressed by the students’ โwork, the city entered intoโ a research agreement โwith Northeastern, tasking a team of Toronto students and faculty with analyzing past eventsโ to improve traffic management.
The team developed a system capable โคof โคdetermining the number โขof people โคwithin a specificโฃ area duringโข a given timeframe, and tracking movement patterns during events. This was โขachieved by analyzingโ data from TELUS,supplemented by directโ feedback from event attendees regarding their travel methods. Initial discrepancies โคbetween expected and actual attendance numbers were resolved through close collaboration between the research team and TELUS, resulting in a reliable estimation process.
In October,the team presented their findings to the city’s traffic management team in a comprehensive โreport. Roger Brown, Director of Traffic Management, highlighted the impact of the new capability, statingโฃ it “enables Transportation Services to estimate modal split and assess the effectiveness โof travel demand management strategies withโ unprecedented โฃaccuracy andโ speed, enabling a more โคdata-drivenโข approach to supporting large-scale โขevents.”โค He further noted the technology is now being โคused to analyze travel โคpatterns for recurring major events and will inform the city’s Congestion Management Plan.
Previous data collection relied on โขpaper surveys distributed to residents, which yielded minimal responses. The current analysis confirms a high rate of public โคtransit usage – a previous hackathon analysis indicated 70% of concert attendees used transit – suggestingโ public campaigns promoting public transportation could be effective.
“They actually use real data to perform real analysis for major events,” said research group member Leung, a student in Northeastern’s analytics program.
The โฃpartnership aims to expand its โcapabilities.โ Wilder, an analytics professor โขat Northeastern, explained the city’s โgoal is to measure theโข impact ofโ advertisingโ campaigns on subway ridership, establishing a benchmark for future โคanalysis. the research group is eager to assist with traffic management for โupcoming events, including the FIFA World Cup, and explore collaborations with other companiesโ to access diverse datasets.
A current challengeโฃ lies in accurately identifying pedestrian โคand bicycle traffic, as these modes ofโค transportation are challenging โto distinguish using cellphone data patterns. The team hopes to integrate external data sources,such as bike rental details,to provide more โcomprehensive insights.