Replica, a New Tool from Sidewalk Labs, Takes Trip Data to the Next Level

Nick Bowden shares news of a "next generation urban planning tool" from Sidewalk Labs. Replica, as the new tool is called, is a "user-friendly modeling tool that uses anonymized mobile location data to give planning agencies a comprehensive portrait of how, when, and why people travel in urban areas."

"Replica provides a full set of baseline travel measures that are very difficult to gather and maintain today, including the total number of people on a highway or local street network, what mode they’re using (car, transit, bike, or foot), and their trip purpose (commuting to work, going shopping, heading to school, etc)," adds Bowden.

After explaining more about how Replica works, Bowden provides a case study from Main Street in Kansas City. There we see that Replica reports the number and percentage of trips in each mode (i.e., private auto, public transit, walking, biking, on demand auto, and other) and the changes in mode over time.

Sidewalk Labs wants Replica to eventually gain the capability of modeling the effects of service changes and interventions. Currently Replica is under development for deployment in support of Sidewalk Toronto.