Victorian Future Mobility Sensing Project

(FMS Victoria)

Overview

This project was part of an exciting new Urban Mobility and Intelligent Transportation initiative by the University of Melbourne, in partnership with Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART).

FMS Victoria collected personal travel data using a smart-phone app developed by our partners at SMART. The initiative has provided insights into Victorians’ travel demand, mobility patterns and satisfaction of transport choices. The project will allow urban and public transport planners to consider possibilities for future improvements to the city, including:

  • Introducing new mobility modes such as demand-responsive transport
  • Development of self-driving vehicles
  • Understanding how people move around their local areas.

Project report

Download: FMS Victoria final report [5.47MB PDF]

Outcomes

Many transport departments around Australia and overseas already conduct detailed activity and travel surveys. These typically use a single day, paper-based, travel diary. The Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity (VISTA) is an example of this approach. The use of a smartphone app within the FMS Victoria project has shown that it was able to:

  • Collect travel data of higher accuracy and detail than those currently collected via paper surveys
  • Collect more data with ease
  • Provide more up-to-date data for planners and decision makers
  • Provide complementary data and refinements to traditional household travel diary surveys.

External partners

  • Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology
  • RACV

References

  • C. D. Cottrill, F. Pereira, F. Zhao, I. F. Dias, H. B. Lim, M. E. Ben-Akiva, P. C. Zegras, ‘Future mobility survey: Experience in developing a smartphone-based travel survey in Singapore’, Transportation Research Record, no. 2354, pp. 59–67, 2013.
  • F. Pereira, C. Carrion, F. Zhao, C. D. Cottrill, C. Zegras, M. E. Ben-Akiva, ‘The future mobility survey: Overview and preliminary evaluation’, in Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, vol. 9, 2013.