Evaluating long-distance travel patterns in Israel by tracking cellular phone positions

Long-distance trips are generally under-reported in typical household surveys, because of relative low frequency of these trips. This paper proposes to utilize location data from cellular phone systems in order to study long-distance travel patterns. The proposed approach allows passive data collection on many travelers over a long period of time at low costs. The paper presents the results of a study that applies cellular phone technology to assess trips at the national level. The method was specifically designed to capture long distance trips, as part of the development of a national demand model conducted for the Economics and Planning Department of the Israel Ministry of Transport. The method allows the construction of origin-destination tables directly from the cellular phone positions. The paper presents selected results to illustrate the potential of the method for transportation planning and analysis.