Big data is now a common tool for agencies, firms, and businesses looking to understand traffic conditions and transportation patterns – from analyzing the top routes taken by drivers to anticipating how a bike lane will impact safety and congestion. 

Alongside this growing adoption of big transportation data, a host of data providers have also proliferated, presenting users with a complex array of options that can be challenging to navigate. 

INRIX is among the commonly used big data providers with solutions aimed at transportation use cases and related land use and business applications. 

INRIX is a popular choice for real-time analytics as well as safety analytics targeted at securing grant funds. Their unique offerings also include Smart Delivery analytics, which can help practitioners understand ride share and food delivery patterns, and parking and curb analytics. 

So how do INRIX’s competitors and alternatives stack up, and when should you consider other options for big transportation data? Below, we explore some of INRIX’s most common alternatives, and the pros and cons of each choice.

StreetLight

Among the leading big data providers in the transportation landscape, StreetLight is the most widely adopted transportation platform in North America. Backed by a robust set of third-party validations, white papers, and customer testimonials, StreetLight is highly trusted by transportation agencies, firms, and businesses across the U.S. and Canada.  

Due to StreetLight’s strong reputation and presence in the market, you may have already seen its data at work on a wide variety of use cases, from Caltrans’s work on expediting highway construction in Sacramento to proving the value of bus infrastructure investments in Vancouver.

So what makes StreetLight such a popular choice?

Diverse and Cutting-Edge Data Sources

StreetLight has a long history in transportation data, and has built up a 10+ year repository of mobility patterns since its founding in 2011. As data sources have come and gone, StreetLight has continuously updated its methodologies to take advantage of emerging data sources and ensure users get only the most reliable insights based on real-world traffic patterns and ample datasets. 

This allows StreetLight to turn the richest, largest, and most secure datasets available today into reliable and granular metrics used by professionals across North America. 

Specialized Solutions for Many Use Cases

Because of its long history in the industry, StreetLight also offers the advantage of an entire suite of products that address the most common challenges faced by transportation professionals. From improving pedestrian safety and deploying EV chargers to managing traffic congestion and planning construction detours, StreetLight’s purpose-built solutions make it easy for users to make data-driven decisions about their road network, client projects, or business operations.

Highly Granular Data for any Geography in North America

Streetlight’s data also offers deep granularity across space and time. Thanks to its robust repository of data and diverse set of industry-leading data sources, users can confidently dive deeper into highly granular analyses – even looking at temporal increments as small as 15 minutes, and spatial increments as small as a single road segment. In other words, you can get data on any road, any mode, and for any time period. 

That means not only can you use StreetLight to understand high-level historical trends over the past five years, but you can also monitor fast-changing traffic trends over the course of a single morning. Transportation operations experts can even monitor real-time traffic patterns that happened a few seconds ago, to ensure traffic is moving safely and efficiently. Likewise, you can zoom in on individual road segments or get region-wide insights, depending on the scope of your project. 

This granularity is a major advantage for transportation modelers, who need granular data based on real, observed traffic patterns to help predict how conditions will change over time, or in response to specific infrastructural and policy changes. 

Granular data is also highly valuable for practitioners at public agencies, firms, and businesses, who need actionable insights to prioritize projects, evaluate impact, and anticipate future needs. 

Industry Longevity and Reliability

The transportation data landscape has undergone several evolutions since StreetLight’s founding in 2011. But StreetLight’s industry-leading data science engine has stood the test of time, offering stability and transparency to its users during times of uncertainty. 

Today, StreetLight is part of Jacobs, a Fortune 500 company with years of industry knowledge, adding to StreetLight’s stability in the market.

When Might You Choose StreetLight Over INRIX?

With ample white papers and third-party validations available, StreetLight is a strong choice for users who value data transparency or need to ensure the data they use meets very specific qualifications. 

For practitioners looking to analyze all modes in one platform, StreetLight offers tools for planners to access insights for vehicle, truck, bicycle, pedestrian, bus, and rail modes. 

Because some of INRIX’s solutions are available on non-integrated 3^rd-party platforms, users who prefer an integrated, seamless experience may choose StreetLight.

Replica

Replica’s tagline is “Data to Drive Decisions about the Built Environment,” and its data offerings are designed to match. Similar to INRIX, many of Replica’s applications cater directly to transportation industry use cases, and related use cases in land use and commercial real estate. 

Some of Replica’s applications include: 

• Active Transportation Analysis
• EventSight
• GeoSnapshot
• Standard Growth Scenarios
• Transit Demand and Equity Scores

Replica’s strengths include its dashboard data visualizations and filtering capabilities, which can offer users insights on consumer spending behaviors and land use as well as more traditional mobility patterns. 

However, data recency and granularity may not be as strong as other options on the market. Transportation modelers or other users who want to analyze synthetic behaviors rather than empirical behaviors may also choose Replica. Users will also have less flexibility in how they use the data, since Replica does not offer API or ESRI integration. These limitations can make it challenging to analyze small time frames and individual roadways or segments.

LOCUS

LOCUS, a subsidiary of the consulting firm Cambridge Systematics, was once a visualization tool used exclusively for Cambridge Systematics clients. Now, it is a standalone, on-demand platform offering performance, safety, freight, EV, and multimodal mobility metrics. Like other INRIX alternatives, it specializes in delivering insights on transportation and travel behavior. 

LOCUS is a newer offering on the market with a smaller range of products. However, they emphasize custom solutions paired with consulting services through Cambridge Systematics to help customers accomplish a variety of goals. 

One unique strength to LOCUS is its real-time transit dashboard that uses farecard or survey data and routing to help customers understand transit patterns, ridership trends, and performance.

AirSage

AirSage offers transportation data “customized” to each customer’s needs, and serves public agencies, firms, and businesses. It uses Big Data to deliver insights on how people and vehicles move. 

AirSage offers a few products, including: 

• Trip Matrix – an Origin-Destination matrix the includes trip attributes and trip purpose information 
• Activity Density – measuring population movement and density, useful for event-based migration patterns such as emergency evacuations 
  • Pedestrian Activity Density – specifically for understanding pedestrian movements 
• Target Location Analysis – used to understand visitor activity at points of interest 

Many of AirSage’s products are delivered in CSV format, making it easy to integrate with your own dashboards, GIS platforms, Power BI, excel, and other mapping tools. 

It also offers easy integration with GIS platforms, Power BI, Excel, and other mapping tools. 

However, customers who value data transparency may choose other alternatives due to AirSage’s limited availability of white papers, 3^rd-party validations, and case studies. Those who want to analyze bike, bus, rail, or truck modes may also prefer other options, as AirSage places more emphasis on personal vehicle and pedestrian use cases.

Looking for an INRIX alternative?

While INRIX may appeal to those who need global transportation insights, or with specific interests in parking, curb, and signal data, StreetLight is a powerful alternative for practitioners across North America who value a seamless experience that allows them to analyze any mode, any road, and any time period within a single integrated platform. 

If data transparency is important to you, you may also appreciate StreetLight’s robust variety of 3^rd-party validations and white papers, which help make StreetLight one of the industry’s most trusted transportation data platforms, satisfying even the most highly technical users in agencies, firms, and businesses. 

If these advantages appeal to you, reach out to our team to learn more about StreetLight! We’d love to hear about your goals and help determine if StreetLight is right for you.