People Movement Data gives planners the opportunity to truly understand how people move through cities, towns and public spaces, so how can this data be applied to uncover unique, real-world insights?
Compare daytime and night-time economies
Daytime and night-time economies are vastly different within most commercial precincts and they (broadly) depend on human activity. Because People Movement Data is timestamped, it's easy to split activity into day versus night, allowing planners to see how trade might fluctuate throughout a full day and then correlate that movement activity with actual or potential economic activity. These insights can be used to identify underperforming areas that could be activated at night and then, if it's worthwhile, add anything from entertainment to eateries to increase lasting visitation.
Evaluate public spaces that are hard to assess
Some assets are difficult to assess - both in terms of outright visitation and how they're being used - without costly measures like Bluetooth or WiFi devices, CCTV, Telco data and more. Parks, walking tracks and even beaches are prime examples of this challenge, and for those responsible for assessing their efficacy, this is a problem. However, because People Movement Data is gathered from the GPS traces of opt-in mobile app users, the spatial breadth of the data is all-encompassing. This means that movement activity can be assessed - and in granular detail thanks to the spatial accuracy of GPS - in hard-to-reach places, giving planners key insights on where and how people move in areas that are generally blind spots.
Assess the real impact of your project over time
You planned and implemented a great project that resulted in a new or enhanced space, but what was its actual impact? Post-implementation analysis is essential to understanding whether your asset is performing its place function, but the difficulty in doing so often makes it prohibitive. Common tools like surveys serve a strong qualitative and quantitative purpose, but they can transfer bias and unnecessary noise into your analysis, while also only offering insights for a particular sliver of time. People Movement Data, however, can be used to quickly and effectively assess the impact of your project by demonstrating changes in activity levels over time, even in small spaces. This means that you can see if there's a greater volume of people passing by the street art you helped commission or staying for longer around the Placemaking project you activated (or any number of other examples).
Understand how far people are willing to travel
Knowing the level of activity that's happening in an area is important information, but understanding where those people are coming from to reach it can often be even more telling. With People Movement Data, it's possible to track trip trends all the way back to where a journey started, meaning it can even be used to track interstate versus intra-state travel. In the instance of a tourism region, these insights can be leveraged for marketing purposes, helping to focus a tourist region's advertising efforts to target specific states and regions - whether that's to magnetise more people from a booming market or to correct a visitation dip from a traditionally strong state or region.
See if your place has staying power
A place's appeal can be judged by a number of factors - such as the number of people using it for its intended purpose - but the quality of each visit can be estimated using data as well. Depending on the place, how long people are staying can have an undeniable correlation with the attraction of an area. In addition to this, there is a common link between length of stay and economic activity in commercial precincts. Because of its timebound nature, People Movement Data can show how long people are staying in an area, helping you to assess the enduring appeal of the area you're investigating.
Plus, with the ability to show you where trips originated, People Movement Data can give you insights into how far afield people are travelling to reach a destination - allowing you to use multiple metrics to better understand the pulling power of a place.
Define what the new normal actually is
The COVID-19 pandemic had a truly profound effect on society at large, both during lockdowns and out of them. Now, with the world slowly settling into a reshaped cadence of how we work, recreate and move, planning is more uncertain and challenging than in years gone by. However, by understanding how people move, when they move and where they're moving using People Movement Data, it's possible to plan with a high level of insight and efficacy. Plus, with access to current and past movement data, it's possible to accurately compare time periods, uncover trends and set new benchmarks for how people move through cities and public spaces in a COVID-adjusted world.
Explore case studies all over the country
Depending on the dataset(s), the search for geospatial insights is often limited to a specified area of interest. However, the ubiquitous nature of People Movement Data means that it's possible to readily compare dwells and trip data for any number of locations across Australia. This means planners can investigate analogous places to their own in a bid to find insights on activity levels, where people are staying for extended periods, how long they're staying for and even where they're coming from to reach a location. With this information, planners can formulate more concretised ideas for their own projects and better inform decision makers with highly relevant case studies.
