Big data and urban mobility: a policy making perspective

While our lives become more and more mobile and connected, information and communication technologies allow people to move, work and maintain relationships; at the same time, some of these technologies track our habits and collect the aggregate information that constitutes big data. Research into the use of digital data, mobile phone data and ICT has for some years been showing the great potential of these sources in reading and estimating human movements through urban spaces. However, the emphasis to the manifold forms and contents of big data has not been paralleled by an equivalent attention to their potential relevance in terms of urban policy. The paper aims thus to understand and address the challenges posed by the relationship between big data, open data and urban mobility policy, investigating how big data can innovate urban mobility policy. To do so, the document refers to an extensive review of the existing academic literature on big data, focusing on mobility-related data and examining their possible relevance in the different steps that compose a policy cycle. The manifold relevance of big data emerges in relation to at least three aspects: first, the diverse sources and knowledge that big data provide; second, the different roles that data may have in the different stages of a policy cycle; third, the many actors who are involved not simply in policy issues, but also in the very production, storage and management of big data. These aspects are fundamental for defining how big data can intervene at distinct stages of a policy cycle and, consequently, help design an effective model for innovating urban policy