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16 Big Data Analytics for Connected Vehicles and Smart Cities Questions to Be Addressed 17

addressed by the application of big data and analytics techniques to transporta-
tion. The intent is to confirm what can be done and raise awareness within the
transportation profession on the sorts of questions that can be asked and that
are probably already being asked in the wider world of commerce and business
beyond transportation. There is a wide variety of categories to describe perfor-
mance measurement and management for transportation; performance mea-
sures are typically supplied as answers to the questions. An overview of these
performance categories reveals that they can all be traced back to three root
performance areas: improved safety, increased efficiency, and enhanced user ex-
perience. (This assumes that the environmental effects of transportation can be
categorized under the efficiency performance area.) These three categories will
be used to structure the list of questions that can be answered through the ap-
plication of analytics, summarized as follows:

• Safety-related questions;
• Efficiency-related questions;

• Enhanced user experience-related questions.

Based on conversations with transportation professionals regarding their
needs, issues, problems, and objectives, I have created a list of 20 big questions.
The term big questions is used to indicate that these are high-level questions to
which several more detailed questions could be associated. It is likely that some
of the big questions will be more pertinent to different readership groups than
others. To address this variation, Table 2.1 relates the big questions to their
likely readership groups.
The reader may have a question at this point in the book: why are we
discussing questions instead of the answers? The answers will be provided as we
move through the book. However, since the adoption of big data and analytics
techniques in smart city transportation is at an early stage, there is consider-
able value in framing the questions as well as providing the answers. Another
important reason for defining the questions is that this is a positive way to
explain the needs, issues, problems, challenges, and objectives that can be ad-
dressed by big data and analytics. A question can also be thought of as a focused
starting point, the initial step on the road toward big data and analytics. In
many implementations beyond transportation, the quest for big data and ana-
lytics has started with a question or a problem to be addressed. Ultimately, the
systems implemented are capable of extremely flexible and varied application
right across a business or enterprise. Experience in the application of advanced
technologies to transportation suggest that taking a small focused step that de-
livers immediate results while providing the basis for business justification and
taking the next step is always the best way to ensure a successful application of