Challenges and Opportunities in Transportation Data

From the time and money lost sitting in congestion and waiting for traffic signals to change, to the many people injured and killed in traffic crashes each year, to the emissions and energy consumption from our vehicles, the effects of transportation on our daily lives are immense. A wealth of transportation data is available to help address these problems; from data from sensors installed to monitor and operate the roadways and traffic signals to data from cell phone apps and - just over the horizon - data from connected vehicles and infrastructure. However, this wealth of data has yet to be effectively leveraged, thus providing opportunities in areas such as improving traffic safety, reducing congestion, improving traffic signal timing, personalizing routing, coordinating across transportation agencies and more. This paper presents opportunities and challenges in applying data management technology to the transportation domain.