The BostonWalks study: a longitudinal travel survey using smartphone tracking
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11116_2025_Article_10637.pdf
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5.01 MB
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Author(s)
Meister, Adrian
Bashan, Nail F.
Basu, Rounaq
Shen, Xianglu
Wang, Ryan Q.
Sevtsuk, Andres
Date Issued
June 28, 2025
Journal
Transportation
Publisher
Springer US
Citation
Meister, A., Bashan, N.F., Basu, R. et al. The BostonWalks study: a longitudinal travel survey using smartphone tracking. Transportation (2025).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
This paper introduces the BostonWalks (BWS) study, detailing its methodology, the resulting dataset, and an initial analysis. The BWS study is a smartphone-based GNSS-tracking study in the Boston metropolitan area, designed to generate an up-to-date dataset on travel behavior, with a particular focus on non-auto travel behavior and its representativeness across all population segments. The dataset encompasses approximately 155,000 trips from 990 participants, making it one of the most extensive datasets of its kind in North America. It includes both raw trajectory data and comprehensive socio-demographic information about participants. The paper outlines the survey methodology, including the technical infrastructure, recruitment strategy, and data processing techniques. A comparison of the socio-demographic and travel behavior characteristics of BWS participants with those from the National Household Travel Survey is provided. Lastly, the paper highlights the richness of the data through correlation and cluster analysis.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-025-10637-2
