Mobiles Track Patterns Of Human Movement
In a paper titled Understanding Individual Human Mobility Patterns in Nature, researchers from the US report that they monitored movements of 100,000 people following their cellphone signals and found, predictably, that “most people are creatures of habit”, inclined to move around the same few locations, occasionally given to long hops.
Researchers say epidemiologists can use this finding to understand human behaviour. However, in a country such as India where about 8 million mobile users are added every month, and where no such mobility data exists, this research can pave way to a veritable treasure trove.
Transport and traffic planning requires the understanding of origin destination points to draw what is called “desire patterns” and allow informed planning, such as the development of public transport alignments, deployment of traffic police, greater density of housing and enterprise along the desire lines
The data could also be used in allocating land for purposes such as retail, commercial, recreational, educational and housing as well as in ensuring connectivity and mitigating environmental impact among other things. [Via]
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