Data analytics firm, StreetLight Data, has launched Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) counts for 2019 on the company’s widely used InSight platform.
For the third straight year, StreetLight is providing the transportation industry with early AADT metrics, enabling organizations to quickly and easily access 2019 traffic counts without waiting for months of processing time as with traditional methods. AADT is a critical measurement for analysing infrastructure projects and congestion, estimating road safety, or seeking highway funds. Historically, AADT counts have been measured manually, without coverage of all roads, and at a high cost. From getting approval, to training staff, collecting traffic counts, and validating the data, deriving just a few thousand counts can take months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
As an alternative, planners and engineers now can save time and money by accessing StreetLight’s early and comprehensive AADT metrics. For example, a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) in the Midwest uses the company’s on-demand AADT every spring to access region-wide traffic counts, without relying on data from municipalities, many of which do not have the resources to measure and report traffic counts. Using the StreetLight Insight software platform, counts can be delivered on-demand and in minutes for accurate AADT along the vast majority of the USA’s roads. The AADT 2019 exceeds industry accuracy standards, covering over four million miles (6.4m km) of urban and rural roadway. For 2019, training data was captured from 29 states across the USA, an improvement from the 26 states used in the 2018 model.
StreetLight’s AADT sample size also increased 2-4X over last year, with this year’s data validation (compared to permanent counter AADT at 6,000+ locations across the USA) maintaining its high R2 value of 0.96. Based on over 100 billion monthly location records across the country, collected from smartphones, connected cars and trucks, StreetLight’s algorithms draw on 365 days of data on more than four million miles of roadway. Available for urban and rural roads, large and small, the company’s AADT 2019 counts outperform industry-standard accuracy targets, as published in StreetLight’s 2019 AADT Methodology and Validation white paper, which is available on request from the company.
Applying proprietary machine-learning algorithms to over four trillion spatial data points over time, StreetLight measures diverse travel patterns and makes them available on-demand via InSight, the world’s first SaaS platform for mobility. From identifying sources of congestion to optimising new infrastructure to planning for autonomous vehicles, the platform powers more than 3,000 projects every month. The company’s early AADT counts is an example of how mobile phones carried by the majority of drivers, and the population in general, and the Location Based Services data used to create transportation metrics, become the ‘connective tissue’ between the IoT (Internet of Things) sensors that many cities have been deploying for some time and not making full use of. StreetLight is able to offer cities and states an advanced way to use the data they have been investing in and helping communities make true sense of this information.
“We strive every year to offer earlier and earlier AADT metrics,” said Laura Schewel, CEO and co-founder of StreetLight Data. “The sooner agencies have this essential information on traffic counts, the sooner they can observe changes in regional traffic patterns, submit accurate requests for funding, and generally free up time for other important transportation projects.”
