Page 232 - Big Data Analytics for Connected Vehicles and Smart Cities

212 Big Data Analytics for Connected Vehicles and Smart Cities Practical Applications and Concepts for Transportation Data Analytics 213

According to U.S. DOT statistics, the lifetime comprehensive cost to so-
ciety for each fatality is $9.1 million, of which 85% is attributable to lost qual-
ity of life [4]. Each critically injured survivor has an assumed cost to society of
$5.6 million USD on average. Lost quality of life accounts for 82% of this fig-
ure [4]. The statistics for injury crashes could be further classified according to
injury severity, with different comprehensive cost figures for each subcategory.
The previous data for critically injured survivors is the highest level of severity.
These can be applied to the crash savings to determine an estimate of the safety
benefits.

• Efficiency benefits: Efficiency benefits are derived primarily from time
savings attributable to the toll road providing a faster route than par-
allel alternatives. Efficiency benefits are evaluated by comparing time
required to travel on the specific road segments, to the time required to
travel on alternative routes. The data can be obtained from journey time
surveys of both the target road segments and the alternative routes or
from a regional transportation model (mathematical simulation model).
Another factor that can be considered in the determination of efficiency
benefits is the variability or reliability of the trip time on the toll road
compared to parallel alternative routes. In the case of speed variability,
the average speed variability for each trip using the toll road would be
compared with an equivalent trip using alternative routes. The differ-
ence in variability between toll road trips and parallel road trips will
be quoted in minutes. If the reduction in variability or an increase in
reliability will unlock extra minutes for the driver, a value of time calcu-
lations can then be made. Once the time savings and reliability improve-
ments have been determined, an estimate of the value of time can be
applied to determine a dollar figure for the value of efficiency benefits,
either as a function of absolute travel time savings, or also incorporating
travel time reliability as a factor.
• User experience enhancement benefits: Determining the value of user
experience enhancement benefits is the most challenging of the three
components. User experience is subjective and difficult to measure. The
proposed approach involves the use of social media analysis, which, in
the case of this example, is the analysis of a Twitter feed. The Twitter
feed is processed to include only those tweets that relate to the target
road segments and the alternative routes. Context-specific text analytics
are conducted to identify positive and negative comments for users of
both groups of road segments. It is then necessary to apply a dollar value
to different levels of positive and negative comments. Research on the
subject was unable to identify published data regarding the value of pub-