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120 Big Data Analytics for Connected Vehicles and Smart Cities What Are Analytics? 121

improve the performance of a transportation enterprise, process, or delivery of
service.
Typically, the word analytic is used interchangeably with performance
management parameters and KPIs. The two are typically used in association
with performance reporting and measurement. The difference between these
terms and the term analytic lies in the ability that an analytic provides to go
beyond reporting and measurement, allowing for insight that can form the basis
for actionable strategies that will affect performance, rather than just measuring
it.
Promoting smart city managers and transportation professionals from
spectators to coaches can be achieved through the effective use of analytics.
This is the added value that is sought from analytics and that drives the desire
to harness the power of big data and analytics in transportation today. There are
many new technologies and approaches available in transportation. Combined
with the more traditional asphalt, concrete, and steel projects, they create value
and benefits. In order to guide the application of constrained resources into
these areas, it is necessary to have as full an understanding as possible of the
effects of prior and future investments. The insight and understanding that can
be obtained from the appropriate use of analytics will have a significant impact
on planning, design, delivery, operations, and maintenance of all aspects of
transportation within a smart city. The nature and characteristics of analytics
are discussed in this chapter, within the context of a smart city.

6.5 Why Analytics Are Valuable

The value of analytics lies in the ability to glean new understandings, to identify
trends, and to reveal patterns from a big data set. The larger and more varied the
data in the data set, then the higher the probability of new understandings and
insights. Analytics also deliver another value in the form of the ability to extract
information from and unlock the power of big data.
As the application of analytics to transportation progresses, it can be ex-
pected that wow and whoops moments will be encountered. A wow moment is
when the use of analytics reveals a new data relationship, trend, or pattern that
we did not know about previously. For example, we may find new relationships
between the level of tolling on toll roads and the volume of traffic on the road.
At the current time, a simple lookup table that relates toll level to expected
traffic volume is used. In the future we may also take account of trip purpose,
weather, and the driver’s perception of alternative routes and modes.
A whoops moment may be encountered when new insight and under-
standing reveals deficiencies in the planning or delivery of smart city transpor-
tation services. This does not need to be the end of the world, but rather the