[et_pb_section bb_built="1" admin_label="Section" fullwidth="on" specialty="off"][et_pb_fullwidth_image admin_label="IMAGE" src="https://news.communitech.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/martin-sanchez-139669.jpg" alt="Uber Movement data coming to Canada" title_text="Uber Movement data coming to Canada" show_in_lightbox="off" url_new_window="off" use_overlay="off" animation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" /][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built="1" admin_label="section"][et_pb_row admin_label="row"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
Good news for Canadian data geeks - earlier this year Uber started opening up anonymized transportation data through a new project called Movement. In the coming months we should see Movement rolling out to those who registered in Canada. Anyone can request the data which Uber has promised to make fully open eventually.
You can register yourself here or reach out to our data concierge for more information.
In the open data world, transportation data can be hard to come by so this is good news for many. The first wave is set to go out to city officials, planners and policymakers with the intent to help with decision making. Uber’s product manager, Jordan Gilbertson, says the data will be “anonymized and aggregated into the same types of geographic zones that transportation planners use to evaluate which parts of cities need expanded infrastructure, like Census Tracts and Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs)”.
Case studies using the data are starting to come to light, including a look at holiday traffic fluctuations in Manila and analysis on the impact events like the Metrorail outage in Washington D.C. in March of 2016. This has spurred other ride sharing companies like Easy Taxi in Latin America, French operator Le.Taxi and Grab in Southeast Asia to create a joint partnership with the World Bank and other organizations with the commitment to keep transportation data open.
Having just hit a milestone of 2 billion rides this past summer, this is just a sliver of the data treasure trove Uber possesses. If deemed successful, it seems safe to assume we’ll see more data coming down the line. We can hope that other tech giants follow suit. Lyft? Airbnb? We’re ready.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
