Prabhakar and Shivakumar have created a SaaS that any transportation authority can implement in order to track congestion.
Urban Engines’ software uses existing data from city transit systems and generates insights from spatial analytics to create a dynamic digital replica of a city’s transportation system. The software also helps cities implement incentive systems rooted in behavioral economics, which help increase commuter engagement and alleviate congestion during peak travel times with rewards for commuter shifts.
The data comes from a simple marker: when people swipe their cards or tokens to enter and exit a train or bus. This data is collected by subway systems and buses for payments processing but isn’t used to actually determine congestion. Urban Engines’ algorithms mash-up this data at scale, and can determine how crowded every bus or train is within a system, wait times, historical data and more. As Prabhakar explains, this is “crowd sensing” at its best.
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