Taking lessons from other societally critical sectors
Standing on the shoulders of giants
We take our inspiration from the UK's BioBank - since 2006 this large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing in-depth genetic and health information from over 500,000 UK volunteers aged between 40 and 69 years old has been helping accelerate medical research. As a resource it has become a major contributor to the advancement of modern medicine and treatment and has enabled several scientific discoveries that improve human health.
Collecting an unprecedented amount of biological and medical data with full user consent including some even regularly providing blood, urine and saliva samples. As well as detailed information about their lifestyles which are then linked to their health-related records to provide a deeper understanding of how individuals experience diseases. It is globally accessible to approved researchers and scientists undertaking vital research into the most common and life-threatening diseases.
The data – the largest and richest dataset of its kind – is anonymised and made widely accessible by UK Biobank to researchers around the world who use it to make new scientific discoveries about common and life-threatening diseases – such as cancer, heart disease and stroke – in order to improve public health.
Leading by example
It is with this brilliant example in mind that TravelAi conceived its operational, technology and business model - challenging the industry to build an equivalent UK BioBank for mobility - A UK TransportVault?
Supported by international privacy advocates the Omidyar Network, Benchmark Initiative’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme, Ethical Geo and Geovation, who TravelAi worked with to develop and launch an Open Source anonymization tool for trajectory data.
This was to enable the wider use of the high resolution spatio-temporal data that TravelAi's IP generates, so it can serve a wider set of goals and transport stakeholders - with the ultimate aim towards better functioning transport systems for drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists.
The solution and process were then open sourced and released here on Github for a wider audience to discover to work with. And also, because the team believe in the importance of transparency and the power of data to solve critical sector challenges to start building the transport systems of the future today.
The end points of the obfuscated trips are described using the UK principle of Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs). This relatively unique exercise studying the UK to create roughly equal sized areas of population. Typically comprised of 400 to 1200 households or 1000 to 3000 citizens and is the standard for the UK Census. Survey and National Travel Surveys amongst others.
So why do we ask for Email information?
The only reason we ask volunteers and user's emails is so that they can get in touch with us and we can use this to delete their data should they so wish. This is a requirement of being an ICO member and legal requirement.
Underlying this work to protect the privacy of individual travellers while gaining insights into their journeys, is a mission to help make transport systems work better for citizens, to cut costs for operators, and improve environmental sustainability.
Crucially, all the multimodal data that we help generate is strictly with the consent/opt-in of end users. In fact volunteers can switch this on or off at will.
Our Benchmark and Omidyar Network supported output:
We outlined the work in a three-part series which was published on the Benchmark Trust website:
This is part of a wider body of work to build a transport data commons that due to its multimodal, potentially continuous time-series and spatio-temporal nature can be utilised by transport planners, service providers and infrastructure owners alike. Instead of multiple transport stakeholders commissioning multiple transport surveys, sometimes overlapping, almost always costly and then sourcing from digital and data silos.
The MyWays app is then an ideal companion service to be running for collecting longer time series data due to the effortless data capture. Running side-by-side with the same sample groups for example volunteer into the National Travel Demand Survey or the Census surveys.
We take our inspiration from the UK's BioBank - since 2006 this large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing in-depth genetic and health information from over 500,000 UK volunteers aged between 40 and 69 years old has been helping accelerate medical research. As a resource it has become a major contributor to the advancement of modern medicine and treatment and has enabled several scientific discoveries that improve human health.
Collecting an unprecedented amount of biological and medical data with full user consent including some even regularly providing blood, urine and saliva samples. As well as detailed information about their lifestyles which are then linked to their health-related records to provide a deeper understanding of how individuals experience diseases. It is globally accessible to approved researchers and scientists undertaking vital research into the most common and life-threatening diseases.
The data – the largest and richest dataset of its kind – is anonymised and made widely accessible by UK Biobank to researchers around the world who use it to make new scientific discoveries about common and life-threatening diseases – such as cancer, heart disease and stroke – in order to improve public health.
Leading by example
It is with this brilliant example in mind that TravelAi conceived its operational, technology and business model - challenging the industry to build an equivalent UK BioBank for mobility - A UK TransportVault?
Supported by international privacy advocates the Omidyar Network, Benchmark Initiative’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme, Ethical Geo and Geovation, who TravelAi worked with to develop and launch an Open Source anonymization tool for trajectory data.
This was to enable the wider use of the high resolution spatio-temporal data that TravelAi's IP generates, so it can serve a wider set of goals and transport stakeholders - with the ultimate aim towards better functioning transport systems for drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists.
The solution and process were then open sourced and released here on Github for a wider audience to discover to work with. And also, because the team believe in the importance of transparency and the power of data to solve critical sector challenges to start building the transport systems of the future today.
The end points of the obfuscated trips are described using the UK principle of Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs). This relatively unique exercise studying the UK to create roughly equal sized areas of population. Typically comprised of 400 to 1200 households or 1000 to 3000 citizens and is the standard for the UK Census. Survey and National Travel Surveys amongst others.
So why do we ask for Email information?
The only reason we ask volunteers and user's emails is so that they can get in touch with us and we can use this to delete their data should they so wish. This is a requirement of being an ICO member and legal requirement.
Underlying this work to protect the privacy of individual travellers while gaining insights into their journeys, is a mission to help make transport systems work better for citizens, to cut costs for operators, and improve environmental sustainability.
Crucially, all the multimodal data that we help generate is strictly with the consent/opt-in of end users. In fact volunteers can switch this on or off at will.
Our Benchmark and Omidyar Network supported output:
We outlined the work in a three-part series which was published on the Benchmark Trust website:
- Part 1 – The knowledge paradox in transport
- Part 2 – Importance of place, time and duration
- Part 3 – It’s not just about the destination, it’s about the journey too
This is part of a wider body of work to build a transport data commons that due to its multimodal, potentially continuous time-series and spatio-temporal nature can be utilised by transport planners, service providers and infrastructure owners alike. Instead of multiple transport stakeholders commissioning multiple transport surveys, sometimes overlapping, almost always costly and then sourcing from digital and data silos.
The MyWays app is then an ideal companion service to be running for collecting longer time series data due to the effortless data capture. Running side-by-side with the same sample groups for example volunteer into the National Travel Demand Survey or the Census surveys.
