Accurately measuring the success of a transportation project is critical to creating compelling grant narratives, allocating resources effectively, and improving mobility, safety, environmental, and equity outcomes

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Wejo’s Carl Novelli recently joined Flow Labs on an ITSA webinar as part of the organization’s 2022 Digital Education Series. This webinar discussed how smart mobility data and AI can be instrumental in helping agencies optimize costs, track progress, and maximize impact.

The conversation began by highlighting the biggest challenge for public transportation agencies: having projects to support but not having the funding to complete them successfully. Part of what makes each project a challenge, the panelists noted, is accessing reliable and accurate traffic data. Traditional methods typically are manual and require counting cars in the field for hours. Similarly, expensive hardware sensor installments are prone to error and are limited in their ability to capture the entire network.

Fortunately, Flow Labs CEO Jatish Patel notes that modern AI and machine learning are well-positioned to better equip agencies with accurate, reliable data to help prioritize projects, increase funding availability, and reduce overall project costs. Here’s how:

1. Better prioritize projects by visualizing the entire road networks

Applications that can organize connected vehicle data and create streamlined views of congestion, accidents, and overall traffic flow throughout an entire network can be instrumental in pinpointing top trouble spots. Often having to balance multiple projects at one time, this data-driven insight helps resource-strapped agencies determine where priorities lie based on which issues are causing the most unsafe, inequitable, and wasteful conditions.

2. Increase funding availability with more holistic performance measures

Smart mobility data lets an agency build precise models of any road or intersection at any time of day at a reasonable cost. That makes building proofs of concept and articulating measurement capabilities in grant applications much more manageable. From capturing accurate environmental impact through data like fuel consumption and emissions, to continuous monitoring of how work in one area impacts disadvantaged communities, the right data can help you position a project to align with more strategic priorities. All of which are key in securing discretionary grant funds.

3. Reduce project costs with data tools that can be cross leveraged

Data-driven tools can minimize project costs in many ways, but having accurate data and scaling its impact can be the key to cleaner, clearer, safer roads. Investing in automated tools and data sources that can augment existing processes enables agencies to broaden their scope across a large area and reduce the overall cost per location.

Discover more insights on funding success from Wejo and Flow Labs by tuning into the full webinar here: https://itsa.org/event/leveraging-ai-and-connected-vehicle-data-to-generate-instant-accurate-complete-performance-reports-on-the-roi-of-any-transportation-project/

Visit our Infrastructure Bill Information Hub to learn more about how connected vehicle data can assist in securing funding opportunities.