Lead Presenter Biography

Michael Gerke is an Assistant Researcher Scientist in the Transportation Planning Program of the Metropolitan and Statewide Planning Group at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) . Michaels research areas include the use of Location-Based Services (LBS) Data to route trips based on their Origin-Destination (OD) Points, the use of ArcGIS, R, and Python as a means of Data Visualization, and GPS data processing in both Python and SQL. Most recently Michael has worked predominantly on External Travel Studies using both LBS and GPS data and Commercial Vehicle Surveys using survey data and GPS to develop model inputs.

Co-Authors

Presentation Description

Every year TxDOT contracts with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) to conduct an External Travel Studies for several of the 23 MPO’s across the state. An external travel study focuses on the external travel into, out of, and through an area. These studies occur on a rotating 5-year basis to align with the saturation counting that TxDOT does in each area.

For the past 8 years these External Studies have been done using passive data, specifically LBS and GPS data. Within the last few years there has been changes made to both data sets causing the need for updated methodology to be created and new deliverables to be introduced.

A portion of the old methodology required the researchers to take waypoints from the GPS data and match each path to a roadway network, this part of the old methodology has changed with the introduction of the INRIX Trajectory product. This data set comes with the waypoints pre-matched to an Open Street Map network. Utilization of this data set has required the updating of methods to allowed for quicker and more accurate representation of a portion of the external data.

The new deliverables that have been introduced are stand alone visualizations utilizing both the raw unprocessed LBS and GPS data, as well as a couple visualizations using the data that has been processed to the external stations and external area. These visualizations are both stand-alone html files and linked on the TxDOT website. They are 3D interactive maps that can be moved and displayed in various ways allowing the user to have a great amount of control over how the data is presented. The visuals give a quick snapshot of how the external traffic is interacting with the modeling area and can help quickly identify some possible areas of interest in the modeling area.
This presentation will focus on the strengths and challenges of the new analysis procedure and visualizations. 

Presentation File