Data and Information as Our New Transport Infrastructure: An Exploration into How the Modern Transport System Is Being Shaped by Information Communication Technology
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation is focuses on the role that data and information has in creating and altering behavior related to transportation. To do so, it lays out a theoretical model of technological transition and then follows it up with three case studies. The theoretical model provides a structure to consider how different actors in our transportation ecosystem – users, firms, policy actors – mix with technological evolution to uphold or incrementally recreate our transportation landscape. The case studies stand on their own to highlight important findings about how data and information are impacting transportation scenarios, but collectively reinforce the theoretical models. The theory focuses on the idea of a socio-technical stack and the multi-level perspective of technological transition. The sociotechnical stack shows how a base of computing devices supply processing power that enables insight and then action. The multi-level perspective suggests that actors and influences sit at one of three interacting levels: niche, regime, or landscape. Niche actors are nimble and innovative but lack power; regime actors have power and influence but usually not speed; while the landscape is most often a set of conditions that require adherence or reaction to – sometimes imposed and sometimes created. Case 1: Big Data and Travel Desire: Comparing trip planner data exhaust to regional travel surveys The first case study shows niche actors in action. It focuses on the concept of understanding travel desire using firm or niche level journey planners. Travel desire is the need or determination to get from an origin or a destination before a trip has occurred. Data from journey planners where a user inputs their origin and destination to find a route is a source of travel desire data. This aggregated data is a byproduct of a service that users find valuable, as opposed to survey where the value is for the surveyor. This paper compares origin-destination data from a smartphone journey p…
abstract: This dissertation is focuses on the role that data and information has in creating and altering behavior related to transportation. To do so, it lays out a theoretical model of technological transition and then follows it up with three case studies. The theoretical model provides a structure to consider how different actors in our transportation ecosystem – users, firms, policy actors – mix with technological evolution to uphold or incrementally recreate our transportation landscape. The case studies stand on their own to highlight important findings about how data and information are impacting transportation scenarios, but collectively reinforce the theoretical models. The theory focuses on the idea of a socio-technical stack and the multi-level perspective of technological transition. The sociotechnical stack shows how a base of computing devices supply processing power that enables insight and then action. The multi-level perspective suggests that actors and influences sit at one of three interacting levels: niche, regime, or landscape. Niche actors are nimble and innovative but lack power; regime actors have power and influence but usually not speed; while the landscape is most often a set of conditions that require adherence or reaction to – sometimes imposed and sometimes created. Case 1: Big Data and Travel Desire: Comparing trip planner data exhaust to regional travel surveys The first case study shows niche actors in action. It focuses on the concept of understanding travel desire using firm or niche level journey planners. Travel desire is the need or determination to get from an origin or a destination before a trip has occurred. Data from journey planners where a user inputs their origin and destination to find a route is a source of travel desire data. This aggregated data is a byproduct of a service that users find valuable, as opposed to survey where the value is for the surveyor. This paper compares origin-destination data from a smartphone journey p…
author: Davidson, Adam
keywords: Environmental Studies, Human Geography, Science and Technology Studies, Transportation, Urban Studies and Planning, information communication technology, ride-hailing, data and society, urban planning, shared mobility
date published: 2020-09-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:59:30Z
provider: City University of New York - Graduate Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York