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4 Big Data Analytics for Connected Vehicles and Smart Cities Introduction 5

and others looking to understand the trends and patterns associated with trans-
portation. Transportation professionals are endeavoring to extract value from
the new data by managing it and converting it into information. This book
aims to recognize and address the new challenges and opportunities faced by
transportation professionals by providing input to decision-making and strat-
egy development associated with the application of big data and analytics to
transportation service delivery within a smart city.

1.5 Why This Subject and Why Now?

The thinking behind this book is based on a simple question: How can all the
valuable lessons learned about big data and data science be assembled in a single
source? Further, how can I present these lessons in a way that is meaningful
for people who are interested in applying these techniques to transportation in
smart cities? I have been fortunate to be able to focus over the past two years
specifically on the application of big data and analytics techniques to transpor-
tation. Building on a background in transportation, this period has been full of
revelations and new insights into how emerging data science and analytics tech-
nologies may benefit transportation in smart cities. A vantage point from the
boundary of transportation and data science offers a unique perspective on how
the two subject areas can interrelate. Therefore, a definition of success for this
book would be to build awareness and interest within the smart city commu-
nity, motivating practitioners to become familiar with and to make use of the
new tools and capabilities available. Significant power can be released through
the effective use of big data and analytics for smart city transportation. While
the subject may have become somewhat hackneyed due to the widespread use
of the terms big data and analytics, there are significant possibilities in applying
these principles to smart city transportation. The fact that the terms are popular
can also be considered positive since it implies that a wider group of people has
at least an awareness that something is going on. Unfortunately, this awareness
is not always based on a firm foundation. This is another reason for writing this
book at this particular time. The hope is that this general interest in big data
and analytics will serve as a platform for adding additional information and
shedding light on the true nature of transportation mechanisms for both supply
and demand.
The nature of the revolution that is taking place in data science is not just
related to the sheer size or volume of the data. Exciting possibilities for trans-
portation exist in the fact that as the data sets get bigger, they also become richer
in insight and understanding. So it’s about having the capability to store and
manipulate vast amounts of data and obtaining better information from which
deeper insights can be obtained. This is enabled by a wider data horizon that