Repurposing existing traffic data sources for COVID-19 crisis management

Abstract

Mobility behavior was impacted severely by the COVID-19 health crisis. To understand the changing situation, crisis managers need access to credible and timely data. In this paper, we look at the potential of traffic management data for crisis management. We list the different categories and types of traffic data sources and provide an overview of how policymakers, research institutions and private companies can repurpose their data to monitor the effect of the crisis and the accompanying lockdown measures on mobility behavior. Finally, we illustrate this through two use cases in the Belgian city of Ghent, and conclude that existing information from connected infrastructure in smart cities can be quickly repurposed with minimal effort.