Uber has announced its Movement tool is now available for free in Toronto, to allow some of its anonymized travel data from its millions of tracked rides to be seen for the first time for partners or researchers:
Until now only Uber has been able to use that information. But we’ve heard feedback from the cities we operate in that access to some of our aggregated data could help inform transport policy and future investments.
That’s why we’re today launching Uber Movement in Toronto – a free tool which uses Uber’s anonymised data from millions of trips to help urban planners make decisions about their city.
The company says the free tool will let anybody “compare past travel conditions across different times of day, days of the week, or months of the year.” Other data available includes journey times across the city when major sporting events are taking place, along with road closures or more.
“Gridlock in the GTA costs as much as $6 billion annually in lost productivity. By sharing our aggregated and anonymized trip data, Uber can help inform decisions about how to adapt existing infrastructure and invest in future solutions to make our cities more efficient,” said Rob Khazzam, General Manager, Uber Canada, in a press release. “We’re committed to deepen how we partner with cities and excited about how urban planners and transportation professionals can use this free resource.”
Uber says “we want to be a better partner to city planners and regulators, so we hope this data will help give them valuable insights for the future.”
Uber Movement launched back in January 2017 and is currently available in 21 cities worldwide, with Toronto being the first city in Canada to see data released.
