‘Google Street View can map travel patterns’
LONDON: Google Street View has the potential to estimate how common cycling is in cities, and potentially other travel patterns too, a study has found.
The analysis of 2,000 Google Street View images from 1,000 random locations in each of 34 cities in the UK found strong agreement with data on cycling, and public transport and motorbike use, said researchers from the University of Cambridge.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that physical inactivity claims up to 3.2 million premature deaths across the world including 2.6 million in low- and middle-income countries, they said.
Increasing active transport, such as cycling or walking, is one way to improve physical activity levels in a population, according to the researchers.
To understand and improve urban travel, data is needed on modes of transport used. However in most countries, up-to-date, accurate data is often not available at the city level.
Recently, researchers have turned to big data sources to estimate walking, cycling, and other travel patter ns in cities.
The new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, explored for the first time the potential of using Google Street View images to predict travel patterns at the city level.
Google Street View is the service provided within Google Maps through which users can navigate through the panoramic imagery of the streets. Google Street View has been widely used by researchers to map the built environment such as road infrastructure and green cover.
Google Street View is available in at least 90 countries covering a range of low- and middle-income settings and all continents. Over time more countries are expected to be included, researchers said.
This opens multiple exciting opportunities to estimate levels of cycling, and potentially other transport modes, across thousands of cities worldwide.