Innovative Data Uses in Urban Planning

Summary of story by Alex Hutchinson, Canadian Geographic, April 9, 2021

Canadian Geographic explored how smartphone and other location data are finding applications in Canada’s cities and interviewed StreetLight’s Martin Morzynski for a perspective on LBS data and how the company’s Vancouver-based team is working with planners north of the U.S. border.

“StreetLight analyzes the “location data exhaust” from cell phones… to figure out who’s going where in both urban and rural areas across North America. To you and me, it would look like a whole bunch of dots that are moving around, but to StreetLight’s data engine, they look like trips.”

The article explores the vast and nuanced picture of transportation that emerges, compared to that available from traditional traffic-counting methods, such as tube counters — which allows StreetLight to diagnose a variety of mobility challenges — from analyzing Vancouver’s Slow Streets during the COVID-19 pandemic to improving commuting infrastructure in the Toronto suburbs of Don Mills Crossing and Keele-Finch.

“Urban planners aren’t the only ones turning to StreetLight,” said Martin Morzynski, “Uber used StreetLight’s data to model where helipads should be located for its planned Uber Air service in Los Angeles… Siemens used it to model where electric vehicle charging stations should go. Retailers decide where to site new stores, developers conduct traffic studies for new buildings, and hedge funds look at customer traffic before investing in a firm.”

Read the full Canadian Geographic story here.