Exploring the daily mobility rhythms in an urban environment: using the data from intelligent transport systems

Abstract

The recent development of modern intelligent transport systems has caused a major innovation in the organization and management of traffic and enabled a pronounced integration of new data on the transport phenomena and processes. The goal of the study is to analyse the daily mobility rhythms in an urban environment through data from intelligent transport systems. To study daily mobility rhythms, we make use of hitherto unutilized data from inductive loops and strategic traffic detectors (parts of the ITS) within the urban area of České Budějovice, Czechia. We particularly focus on the assessment of overall daily mobility rhythms and the daily rhythms of individual locations within the urban area with a goal to reveal the main conformities and differences. The research has attained two key results. It was discovered that daily mobility rhythms differ especially in individual types of vehicles (cars, medium vehicles, and long vehicles). In the assessment of spatial differences in the daily rhythms of individual locations significant differences were revealed in the courses of daily mobility rhythms in the city centre, residential areas, and shopping areas.