Traffic incidents in motorways: An empirical proposal for incident detection using data from mobile phone operators

Abstract

This paper proves that mobile phone usage data is an easy to use, cheap and most importantly, reliable predictor of motorway incidents. Using econometric modelling, this paper provides a proof of concept of how mobile phone usage data can be utilised to detect motorway incidents. Greater Amsterdam is used here as a case study and the results suggest that mobile phone usage data can be utilised for the development of an early warning system to support road traffic incident management