Cambridge Park and Ride: TomTom O-D

Streetwise was approached by WSP, working on behalf of Greater Cambridge Partnership, to investigate travel patterns for the Newmarket Road Park & Ride site. With the brief of trying to understand origins and destinations of vehicles parking at the site, it was clear that a traditional origin-destination survey (by ANPR) would be difficult to specify; with no firm idea of existing patterns, it would be impossible to identify suitable recording points.

This challenge was perfectly suited to utilising a historical dataset, so Streetwise proposed data be provided through the TomTom O-D Selected Link tool. Whilst the sample size is modest compared to ANPR, the ability to quickly – data was available within 24hrs of agreeing parameters – identify travel patterns over a vast area proved invaluable to the client. Harnessing a big dataset such as this delivered information on patterns across a wide date range for a fraction of the cost of primary data collection.