What is Crowdsourcing for Operations?
Crowdsourcing turns transportation system users into real-time sensors on system performance, providing low-cost, high-quality data on traffic operations, roadway conditions, travel patterns, and more.
Three common sources of crowdsourced data include social media platforms, third-party crowdsource providers, and specially developed mobile apps. Because crowdsourced data are obtained as people travel, agencies can capture in real time what happens between sensors, in rural regions, along arterials, and beyond jurisdictional boundaries. Crowdsourced data can often be accessed by traffic management centers (TMC) with minimal or no time lags, and it does not suffer from local sensor or system outages.
When combined with traditional data, crowdsourcing helps agencies implement proactive strategies that improve incident detection, traffic signal retiming, road weather management, traveler information, and other operational programs. Agencies can make roadways safer and more reliable, improve operational efficiency, and support cost-effective monitoring through crowdsourcing for operations.
Crowdsourcing can also be used to promote acceptance of public decisions, improve transparency and efficiency of public expenditures, and foster traveler satisfaction with transportation services.