FlowSense: High-Resolution Empirical Traffic Flow Data for Research and Decision Making

Research Project, 2025 – 2026

Empirical data on traffic flows of vehicles and pedestrians are instrumental for transport research and to support decision making in diverse domains, including transport planning, traffic safety, urban logistics, public and urban mobility. However, these data are simply non-existent or do not provide the necessary spatial- temporal coverage or resolution. The aim of this project is to produce empirical data of vehicle and pedestrian flows with high spatial and temporal resolution and extensive coverage, using reproducible methods, based on mobile phone GPS location data. The result will report the intensity of flows (relative and absolute) at the street/road segment level, in both directions, at different times of the day, days of the week, and months of the year, covering entire metropolitan areas in Sweden and abroad. The application of the data will be demonstrated in relevant transport and urban planning use cases, e.g. congestion, traffic safety, pedestrian exposure to noise. Methods and data will be made available to researchers and stakeholders through open access