The Swedish car movement data project – rationale, methodology and first results

Paper in proceeding, 2010

For plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the optimal dimensioning, economic viability, and their potential to contribute to the conversion of transport to electric propulsion are dependent on the possibilities of the individual vehicles to replace fuel by electricity. Major factors determining the possible driving on electricity are the battery capacity, the movement pattern of the individual car and the recharging possibilities in the form of available suitable infrastructure. Today there is a lack of good data on the movement patterns for the cars. The aim of the ongoing project described here is to gather a larger amount of data on the characteristics and distribution of the movement patterns of individual privately driven cars in Sweden. 500 randomly selected cars will be tracked for about two months each in 5 campaigns using 100 equipments. The logging is performed with commercial equipment containing a gps unit, including a roof-mounted antenna, and a gprs communication unit. Logged data are time, position, speed, and number and id of used satellites. The measurement started in June 2010 will end in June 2011. We will here present measurement experiences so far and results based on the initial measurement campaign