Uber Launches ‘Movement’ in Kolkata, Offers Data-Driven Insights on Traffic Patterns & Travel Times
Ratul Ghosh, Head of East India at Uber, said that Kolkata is a priority market for them and they are deeply committed to partnering with the city and bringing the benefits of mobility to help build smarter, more efficient cities.
Uber has launched a data-insights tool, ‘Movement,’ in Kolkata today to assess the impact of new infrastructure projects, big events and road closures on travel times so policymakers have the appropriate data for improving the city’s mobility patterns.
Inaugurating the Kolkata leg of the multi-city initiative, Debashis Sen, Chairman HIDCO, NDITA and Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of West Bengal said that they welcome Uber’s move to share its data in respect of Kolkata for smart solutions to its complex urban transportation problems.
He calls upon more private and public sector institutions to provide data to create a ‘Data Lake’ from which expert analysts and Artificial Intelligence can discover surprising solutions. In Smart City New Town Kolkata, they have published a draft Data Policy and created a policy framework for all entities to contribute like Uber. They need to harness the power of public-private partnerships for a better future trajectory, he said.
Ratul Ghosh, Head of East India at Uber, said that Kolkata is a priority market for them and they are deeply committed to partnering with the city and bringing the benefits of mobility to help build smarter, more efficient cities. They are excited to launch Movement in the city and hope this will encourage urban planners, governments, and experts in transportation to make data-driven decisions and better understand transportation challenges and opportunities unique to Kolkata. They aim to continue playing a key role in solving local mobility challenges and helping shape efficient urban transport in the city, he said.
Movement insights from the case study ‘Examining the impact of the AJC Bose Road Flank of Parama Flyover on travel times” highlight the positive impact of the newly constructed flank of the flyover.
The data shows an average decrease of 20-30% in travel time between EM Bypass and Race Course during January 2019 and the following months, February to June 2019 after the flyover was inaugurated.
The study also demonstrates a month-wise analysis comparing travel times between January to June 2019, against January to June 2018, recording the highest impact of reduced travel time on weekday evening peak hour commute witnessing a decrease by 25-30%.
As is typical for the last working day of the week, Fridays in 2019 see the longest travel time between the two points during the evening commute period. Comparing data sets between Fridays in January and Fridays in May 2019, a reduction of 38.5% in travel time can be attributed to the new flyover flank. With Movement depicting the city’s commute patterns, possible solutions like encouraging alternate travel times for work to home commute and carpooling can help decongest such routes.
Another set of Movement data reveals the impact of Durga Puja shopping on travel times and hints at potential solutions like ridesharing.
Movement data points to a 28% increase in travel time between Ballygunge Phari Crossing and Golpark due to last-minute shopping in the Gariahat market area during Durga Puja weekend.
However, a yearly analysis between 2016-2019, shows a small decrease in the travel time differential each year, attributed to the significant improvement and investment in traffic management by the Traffic Police.
By mining data for similar festivals, such learnings can be applied to reduce the impact of traffic disruptions in the city.
As a part of the country’s single largest comprehensive data-sharing exercise on traffic patterns to improve urban mobility in Indian cities, Kolkata will be the fifth city to gain data-driven insights from Uber’s proprietary platform, after Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.