Spatio-Temporal Public Transport Mode Share Estimation and Analysis Using Mobile Network and Smart Card Data

Public transport plays a vital role in society and the urban environment. However, knowledge of its spatial and temporal shares is often limited to traditional travel surveys. Recently, there has been substantial progress in mobility data collection, including data from traffic, public transport, and mobile phones. Especially mobile network data is a large-scale and affordable source of high-level mobility records. Similarly, public transport smart cards or ticket validation data are being collected and made available in major cities. The contribution of this study is to unveil the potential of estimating public transport shares, by merging mobile and smart card data. Stockholm, Sweden, is used as a case study. We analyze and discuss spatio-temporal patterns of estimated public transport shares for Stockholm, using descriptive and cluster analysis. The typical representative day-types are revealed and analyzed. Finally, a regression analysis considering the weather and socioeconomic context is conducted. It provides a highly explanatory and predictive understanding of which factors impact the share of public transport in Stockholm. To conclude, combined mobile and smart card data offers a cost-efficient, large-scale, low spatio-temporal aggregation (capturing daily and hourly variations) alternative to traditional travel surveys for analyzing PT shares.