Uber has announced the launch of Uber Movement in London. This is a tool that will be help urban planners to be better informed when it comes to making decisions about their city. It works by using Uber’s anonymised data from millions of trips, allowing users to view and compare past travel conditions across different times of day, days of the week, or months of the year.
“Every week millions of Londoners use our app to get around their city – whether that’s to get to their nearest train or tube stop, home from a late night or for a journey they’d otherwise need their own car for,” says Fred Jones, head of UK cities at Uber.
“With millions of GPS-tracked trips comes some fascinating data about how the city moves at different times of the day, week and year,” he continues. Jones also explains that now Uber is finally able to use that information to help inform transport policy and future investments.
Uber Movement was initially launched at a co-hosted event with London First. David Leam, head of infrastructure policy at London First commented on Uber Movement, saying that it is “an exciting new tool that will help cities like London better understand congestion and develop new solutions to tackle it. London businesses will welcome this initiative as a sign that Uber is committed to working in closer collaboration with city and transport planners to keep London moving.”
Likewise, Uber Movement is free to use and can be accessed by anyone. “Transport data is an important part of our national data infrastructure. It is vital that this data infrastructure is as open as possible, while respecting privacy and commercial confidentiality,” said Jeni Tennison, CEO at the Open Data Institute.
“That openness unlocks innovation and creates economic and social value. It is great to see large companies like Uber making their data more open so that more people can use it to make better decisions,” added Tennison.
Uber aims to keep updating the service and expand it to other UK cities such as Manchester and Birmingham in the future.
