Analysis Of Mobile Phone Data Research Articles

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Transportation Sector: A Report on China

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in the last quarter of 2019 seriously impacted the transportation industry. Countries around the world adopted various restrictions and policies to prevent the spread of the pandemic, which resulted in a sharp drop in the demand for transportation of goods. In order to analyze the impact of the pandemic on China’s current transportation sector and envision measures that may be taken while recovering from the impact of COVID-19, the current impacts and policy measures were analyzed. This research utilizes data derived from passenger counts, analysis of mobile phone data, discusses what long-term effects may alter future transportation behavior, and how transportation operators should respond to this problem. The government preparedness, recovery measures during/after pandemic, and their effects are analyzed. Results suggested that information transparency, traceability of infection source and hierarchical prevention system is essential for epidemic prevention and control. Moreover, changes in lifestyles and business operation styles due to the pandemic are also outlined and discussed. Finally, this article summarized the influence of COVID-19 to transportation system as well as the lifestyles and the whole society in the long-term, and stated that future research could delve more deeply into this area. The research findings provided solid policy implications and experiences for constructing sustainable transportation system and improve flexibility, reliability, and resilience of traffic governance in post-pandemic era.

Analysis of Mobile Phone Data to Compare Mobility Flows and Hotspots Before and After the Opening of High-Speed Railway: Case Study of Honam KTX in Korea

Mobile phone data provides information, such as the home (origin) and current locations of people. The data can be used to analyze the impact of new high-speed railway (HSR) openings. This study examined the population observed in stations and cities of the Honam HSR line in Korea, based on mobile phone data recorded one year before and after its opening. We analyzed the volume of the population observed at each railway station, density of the distance between home and station, and activity hotspots in a city. The results show that the number of people and travel distance increased after the opening of the HSR. The distance to access railway stations increased, as the HSR saves travel time. Moreover, the activity hotspots in a city increased after the opening of the HSR, as more people gathered near the station area. The findings show that the mobility measures enhanced after the opening of the HSR for regional travel and local activities. These measures can help transit agencies and planners in providing better intercity travel.

Understanding Human Mobility and Workload Dynamics Due to Different Large-Scale Events Using Mobile Phone Data

The analysis of mobile phone data can help carriers to improve the way they deal with unusual workloads imposed by large-scale events. This paper analyzes human mobility and the resulting dynamics in the network workload caused by three different types of large-scale events: a major soccer match, a rock concert, and a New Year’s Eve celebration, which took place in a large Brazilian city. Our analysis is based on the characterization of records of mobile phone calls made around the time and place of each event. That is, human mobility and network workload are analyzed in terms of the number of mobile phone calls, their inter-arrival and inter-departure times, and their durations. We use heat maps to visually analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of the movement patterns of the participants of the large-scale event. The results obtained can be helpful to improve the understanding of human mobility caused by large-scale events. Such results could also provide valuable insights for network managers into effective capacity management and planning strategies. We also present PrediTraf, an application built to help the cellphone carriers plan their infrastructure on large-scale events.