Big Data and Its Uses for Development of Public Transport Mobility Policies

The OV-Chipcard, the Dutch national public transport smartcard, can provide public transport operators and authorities extensive information regarding the behaviour of smartcard owners. However, this information is limited to the data generated between check-in and check-out and contains little to no information regarding public transport users’ travel behaviour outside this ‘checked trip’. In addition, the need for alternative data has arisen in order to expand the possibilities of analysis and increase independency from operators responsible for the OV-Chipcard data. This research identifies alternative data sources, that can be used in addition to OV-Chipcard data to improve the development of public transport mobility policies. Alternative data sources are proposed using the results of a literature review and interviews with public transport operators and authorities. The interviews are subsequently used to gain more insight in operators’ and authorities’ visions regarding alternative data sources and to find out what questions they consider answerable using big data. Lastly, the contribution of identified big data sources to development of mobility policies sources is analysed. The proposed data sources, insights from public transport experts and contribution of identified sources can help public transport operators and authorities develop more efficient and effective public transport mobility policies using alternative data sources in addition to existing data.