Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) on June 23 announced the formation of Urban Insights Associates Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Urban Insights’ mission is to deliver data-driven insights that will shape the urban transportation network of the future, enable greater mobility and make cities more efficient in the provisioning of transportation services.
Hany Fam, president, MasterCard Enterprise Partnerships, said, “With more than half of the world’s population now living in urban areas, a seamless travel and transit experience is a key concern for users and operators alike. Data can provide critical insights to balance transportation demand with supply, and we welcome Cubic’s move to bring predictive analytics to this business with the launch of Urban Insights.”
The transportation industry is already a leader in the volume and variety of data that is generated from on-board sensors and data collection points introduced by passenger counting systems, vehicle location systems, ticketing and fare collection systems, and scheduling and asset management systems. Existing data warehouses that hold the data therefore contain unprecedented potential for deriving insights that inform planning activities and aid in managing transportation networks. Still, use of conventional data management tools and practices, until now, have left these insights mostly hidden.
“Our customers have asked for help to combine the data that Cubic’s management systems create with the many other data sets they collect to understand the interplay of these systems and derive insights to improve operations,” said Matthew Cole, executive vice president and deputy for strategy, business development and diversification, CTS. “This customer need was the genesis of Urban Insights.”
By employing a carefully tailored data science methodology, Urban Insights’ consulting teams will help unlock the potential of these rich information stores. Transportation planners will see a fuller and more accurate picture of the factors that cause inefficiencies in the operation of intermodal transportation networks. Urban Insights will assist agencies in gathering the relevant data, analyzing and assessing the meaning of these data in the context of the desired outcomes and in turn, helping them to deliver the optimal level of service to the right locations at the right times.
“I applaud Cubic’s leadership in the formation of Urban Insights to bring predictive analytics to the industry — providing much-needed insights to help solve transit and mobility problems,” said Michael L. Pack, director of The Center for Advanced Transportation Technology at The University of Maryland.
