Big Brother is watching. And tracking our every movement. Is that an invasion of privacy or could it be the key to proper urban planning? Joe Evans takes a look at the latest location data tool to be released, Uber Movement
Location tracking is a touchy subject. On a human level, there are concerns over privacy: how many of us know that Google is tracking everywhere we go whenever we have a connected device with us and that it has been for some time, for example? You can delete that data of course, but how many of us do that?
On a business level – especially in the realm of the built environment – those concerns can quickly dissipate. Location tracking could just be one of the most helpful and lucrative proptech tools out there. And that concept has not escaped the boardroom of Uber, the on-demand taxi service loved by consumers, despised by pretty much everyone else.
This month, the firm launched Uber Movement, a database of traffic movements based on the now more than 1bn Uber rides taken since its launch six years ago.
The data is charted onto an online map and is available for use by city planners, researchers and the public, providing a tool to both manage traffic and for urban planning.
Launching the new service, Uber’s head of transportation services Andrew Salzberg said: “Every day, people use Uber to get around the more than 450 cities we serve. We’ve been working to get to know these cities, with the goal of making them cleaner, more efficient and less crowded. Along the way, we’ve found that local leaders, urban planners and civic communities are all working to crack their city.”
He added: “City planners face a myriad of challenges and we hope to tackle more of them over time.”
But how does it actually work? And why is it potentially a useful tool for urban planning? Uber Movement uses aggregated and anonymised journeys and organises them into geographical zones, mimicking the methods already used by transportation planners.
But many municipal governments often do not have the tools to collect data on a scale comparable with Uber. With the additional information available, urban planners would have more data to improve analysis and be able to make more informed decisions about urban management projects.
Dan Hughes, proptech lead at the RICS, is enthusiastic about the potential of the project.
“It is a good example of how data is being collected by new technology from outside the traditional built environment sector and how it will become increasingly available to support decision making,” he says. “Analysis and subsequent decisions are often made using multiple datasets and availability of different and more data is positive for the built environment.”
Greg Dickson, associate director at planning consultants Turley, reckons the quantity of information made available by Uber is a potential “game changer” that will provide a more accurate database than some of those currently used.
From a planning perspective, he says it represents a step change in approach, as the data will be so readily available.
“These steps are positive and have the potential to aid local planning authorities in their understanding and allocation of monies for future transport infrastructure investment and aid local transport planners in their allocation of flexible public transport,” says Dickson.
While Uber Movement is currently only available in Manila, Sydney and Washington DC, there are plans to extend across more cities before it is officially launched in mid-February. The ultimate aim of the venture is to gather information for every city in which Uber operates.
Uber is not the first to map location data. Google has been doing it for some time and in 2013, activity tracker Strava launched Strava Metro. It too uses aggregated and anonymised data, uploaded by users of the app, and uses their real life experiences of cycling, running, and walking in cities to inform transport departments and city planning groups. It has been a success, with more than 70 cities across the globe using its data to analyse their population’s exercise habits and reshape their streets.
Perhaps the next big step for this type of big data, says Dickson, is collaboration between Uber and other companies that collate location data like Strava and Google Maps, which would further improve the understanding of movement trends and assist in decisions about transport infrastructure and urban design.
