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The Maryland Department of Transportation has won approval to use a data analytics firm to gain greater insight into the commuting patterns of Baltimore-area motorists.
Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn said the San Francisco-based firm 鈥� which tracks cell phone signals 鈥� will give the department a much broader sense of where people begin and end their travels, without compromising the privacy of individual drivers.
The Board of Public Works 鈥� made up of the governor, comptroller and treasurer 鈥� approved the one-year, $236,137 contract with StreetLight Data on Wednesday. The vote was unanimous.
Rahn said MDOT will focus on the Baltimore Beltway-Interstate 70 interchange near Woodlawn, which he referred to as 鈥渢he three bridges鈥� because of its stacked flyover ramps.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really a chokepoint,鈥� he said in an interview, 鈥渁nd it鈥檚 an area that has needed improvements for quite some time, so we鈥檙e trying to address that.鈥�
On its website, which is geared to industry professionals, StreetLight Data boasts that its 鈥淚nsight鈥� system can 鈥減rocess trillions of geospatial data points to measure how pedestrians, bikes and vehicles interact.鈥�
鈥淪elect any zone or roadway and analyze where trips end or originate,鈥� the site says. 鈥淎nalyze all routes between two cities, a downtown and a bridge, or between specific intersections. Customize your O-D [origin-destination] locations 鈥� office campus, park or shopping mall, an individual store. Select any day of the week and time of day.
鈥淭his is next-level O-D. We can support a travel demand model, a corridor study, a turning movement study and more.鈥�
The contract with StreetLight Data was pulled from the Board of Public Works agenda in July because Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp (D) and Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D) had concerns about the system鈥檚 privacy.
An exchange of letters between the two officials and State Highway Administrator Greg Slater followed.
鈥淭his is not a threat in any way to people鈥檚 privacy,鈥� Rahn said. 鈥淎bsolutely there is no collection of personally-identifiable information. 鈥� All [the system] knows is a signal went by. That鈥檚 all it鈥檚 providing.鈥�
In seeking the approval of the board, State Highway Administration officials said 鈥渘o other vendor鈥� offered 24-hour-a-day/seven-days-a-week traffic monitoring.
The agency also saw value in 鈥渁 platform allowing MDOT SHA to pull data already processed by an outside vendor, rather than be the owner of potentially private sensitive information.鈥�
Del. Kumar P. Barve (D-Montgomery), chairman of the House Environment and Transportation Committee, said the legislature will hold a hearing on the StreetLight system next year.
鈥淚鈥檓 certainly in favor of knowing what traffic patterns are, so we can have proper traffic planning,鈥� Barve said. 鈥淏ut I think the legislature ought to know the specifics of how this is working.鈥�
鈥淚 do want to know exactly what is taking place here,鈥� he added.
