Data Spotlight: Explore Traffic Patterns on Miovision Dashboard

In order to understand traffic trends and patterns, Cambridge uses a vendor called Miovision. Miovision sensors installed at intersections throughout the city detect size, general shape, speed, and location of objects as they move through the intersections. Using size and shape, the Miovision software categorizes the objects into types of vehicles (cars, vans, trucks, bicycles, pedestrians, etc.).

Data from the sensors is collected in 15-minute increments and transmitted to the City in simple categories such as overall traffic counts, pedestrian numbers, and turning behavior at each intersection. From there, the City can aggregate the data into time periods like rush hours and weekdays, and look at trends over time. 

A traffic dashboard has been created using the sensor data at https://cityofcambridge.shinyapps.io/MiovisionTrafficVolume/ for exploring traffic patterns visually from February 1, 2020, to the current week. Users can choose types of vehicles, intersections, date ranges, and days of the week and see the data displayed in charts. 

Because data collection began about six weeks before COVID started impacting traffic, the effect of the pandemic is starkly visible in charts like the one below, which displays all types of vehicle traffic through all of the Cambridge intersections equipped with sensors. Thanksgiving and Christmas are also clearly visible each year, as well as a summer dip in traffic.

1: All traffic at all sensor intersections

The dashboard allows users to filter by vehicle type; below is a chart showing bicycle traffic only, at all sensor intersections. It is clear from the chart that bicycle traffic is much more impacted by weather than other types of traffic.

2: Bicycle traffic at all sensor intersections

Users can filter by intersection, choosing any number of intersections that have a Miovision sensor installed. They can similarly choose any number of weekdays to display in a chart, and any date range. Here is a chart showing only data from Prospect Street and Massachusetts Avenue (Central Square), and only on weekdays (excluding weekends), and in the date range of 1/1/22 to 12/31/23. 

3: Central square traffic 2022-2023 by weekday

The Cambridge Open Data team encourages members of the community to explore various traffic patterns at https://cityofcambridge.shinyapps.io/MiovisionTrafficVolume/. Try it for yourself and don’t hesitate to share feedback.