Development of Origin-Destination

Matrices Using Mobile Phone Call Data

Md Shahadat Iqbal, BUET
Charisma F Choudhury, UoL
Pu Wang, MIT
Marta Gonzalez, MIT
Bangladesh University
of Engineering and
Technology
Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology
University of
Leeds
Data sources

Motivation

Traditional approaches of developing
OD matrices rely on roadside and
household surveys, and/or traffic
counts
Limited sample sizes
Prone to sampling biases, non-response
bias and reporting errors
Lower update frequencies
High data collection costs








Mobile phone CDR

Mobile Phone CDR

Mobile phone CDR

Mobile Phone CDR

Coarse granularity
May not be the final origin/destination
Only transient ODs (t-Ods)
False displacements
Penetration and user bias
Location bias









Data 2: Call Detail Records

Mobile phone CDR

Challenges

B (t-O)
C
A (O)
D
F (D)
E (t-D)
Proposed framework


Actual OD = t-OD * penetration factor * phone usage
factor * vehicle usage factor



Scaling factor adjusted to match ground truth (traffic
counts)
- Microsimulation tool
Framework

Proposed framework

Convert tower-to-tower
transient OD to node-to-
node transient OD
Determine scaling factor
using simulator
CDR data
Traffic count data
Network data
Generate tower-to-tower
transient OD matrix
Actual OD matrix
Mobile phone CDR

Proposed Framework

Study area

Central part of the Dhaka city
- Area: 300km
2
, Pop.:10.7million
- No automated data collection
system in place
Mobile phone penetration rate
more than 90%
Calls from 6.9 million users
(65% of the population of the
study area) over a month
- 971.33 million anonymized call
records
Mobile phone CDR

Case Study

Step 1: Generate tower-to-tower t-OD

Step 1: Generate Tower-to-tower t-OD

Step 2: Convert to node-to-node t-OD

Step 2: Convert to Node-to-Node t-OD

Step 2: Convert to node-to-node t-OD

Step 2: Convert to Node-to-Node t-OD

Step 3: Determine scaling factor

t-OD from step 2 Seed OD in MITSIMLab
Scaled up using an optimization based approach
Step 3: Determine Scaling Factor

Step 3: Determine scaling factor

Step 3: Determine Scaling Factor

Step 3: Determine scaling factor

Step 3: Determine Scaling Factor

Results
7:00-9:00

t-OD actual OD
Results
7:00-9:00

Validation
Scaled up ODs have been applied to simulate the traffic
between 9:00-12:00 in MITSIMLab
Simulated traffic counts are compared against the observed
counts from these locations on a different day
- Root Mean Square Error 335.09
- Root Mean Square Percent Errors 13.59%
Validation

Summary
Mobile phone CDR and limited traffic count data can be
successfully combined to generate OD matrices
More economic than the traditional approaches (CDR
already recorded for billing purposes)
Convenient for periodic update of the OD matrix
Extendable for dynamic OD estimation
Particularly effective for generating complex OD matrix
where land use pattern is heterogeneous and asymmetry in
travelling pattern prevails throughout the day but there is a
limitation of traditional data sources

Summary

Session 842
Forthcoming issue of Transportation Research Part C
Email: cfc@alum.mit.edu
Questions?