Identifying and Tracking Emerging Transportation Trends and Indicators

This report presents a study in understanding the impacts of external trends on transportation demand. Two major efforts were carried out in this project: (1) a nationwide survey was conducted to solicit opinions from transportation professionals to evaluate the impacts of various existing and emerging trends on transportation demand, and (2) geo-tagged Tweets were collected to extract public sentiments and topics related to those trends through text mining and infographics techniques. The survey results indicate that most of the technology-related trends were considered highly influential and highly likely to persist for the long term because they were mostly emerging trends. Many of the demographic trends showed influential impacts on Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) decrease, although these trends may be diminishing as some of the existing demographic dynamics transition to the next phase. It is worth noting that increasing awareness of environmental issues was considered as both highly influential and highly likely to continue in the next 10-20 years, which may indicate a more sustainable future in terms of mobility. Tweets closely in alignment with emerging transportation and mobility trends (such as shared mobility, vehicle technology, built environment, user fees, telecommuting, and e-commerce) were identified. Los Angeles, Manhattan, Houston, and Chicago were among the highly visible cities discussing such trends. Being neutral overall, people carried more positive views on vehicle technology, telecommuting, and e-commerce, while being more negative on shared mobility, user fees, and built environment. Ride hailing, fuel efficiency, trip navigation, daily as well as shopping and recreational activities, gas price, tax, and product delivery were among the emergent topics. A better understanding of these trends would allow planners and decision makers to better account for these factors in the planning process and facilitate better investment and policy decisions. The social media data-driven framework would allow real-time monitoring of transportation trends by agencies, researchers, and professionals.

• Record URL:
  https://fdotwww.blob.core.windows.net/sitefinity/docs/default-source/research/reports/fdot-bdv29-977-53-rpt.pdf?sfvrsn=4bb50c39_4
• 
• Summary URL:
  https://fdotwww.blob.core.windows.net/sitefinity/docs/default-source/research/reports/fdot-bdv29-977-53-sum.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/56907
• Corporate Authors:

  Florida International University, Miami

  10555 West Flagler Street
  Miami, FL  United States  33174

  Florida Department of Transportation

  605 Suwannee Street
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32399-0450

  Department of Transportation

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Jin, Xia
  • Alam, Md Rakibul
  • Sadri, Arif
  • Zhang, Lu
• Publication Date: 2020-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 119p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Demographics; Forecasting; Impacts; Public opinion; Social media; Surveys; Technological innovations; Travel demand; Vehicle miles of travel
• Identifier Terms: Twitter
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01773809
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: BDV29-977-53
• Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jun 7 2021 9:44AM