{"id":6799,"date":"2016-12-06T11:21:45","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T03:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/my\/?p=6799"},"modified":"2016-12-06T11:21:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T03:21:45","slug":"grab-ride-can-improve-traffic-620-million-commuters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/my\/blog\/grab-ride-can-improve-traffic-620-million-commuters\/","title":{"rendered":"How each Grab ride can improve traffic for 620 million commuters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grab just nabbed an award for the OpenTraffic project \u2013 an initiative that helps Southeast Asian governments solve critical traffic problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Deevya Desai, Regional Head of Public Affairs at Grab<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

“Today, Grab won the PublicAffairsAsia\u2019s 2016 Gold Standard Award for Public Private Partnership, considered to be\u00a0<\/span>the<\/i>\u00a0top honour in the public affairs industry. The award recognises Grab\u2019s strong collaboration with Southeast Asian governments and the World Bank for the OpenTraffic partnership, which we officially launched in the Philippines this April.<\/span><\/p>\n

To give some background, the World Bank leads the development of OpenTraffic, an easy-to-use traffic data platform, provided for free to governments. Grab contributes our aggregated, anonymised driver GPS data to the platform, derived from the 34 cities in Southeast Asia we operate in. To keep this data secure, the raw GPS data never leaves Grab\u2019s servers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The resulting traffic statistics are shown in real-time, providing an incredibly powerful smart data tool to governments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simply put: Every Grab ride taken provides valuable data that could be used to fix transport problems affecting over 620 million residents in Southeast Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n

How OpenTraffic Works<\/b><\/p>\n

Each day, Grab\u2019s fleet of over 500,000 drivers are criss-crossing roads, big and small, in Southeast Asia. Their Grab driver application produces GPS data, allowing us to collect a massive trove of information. The data is so rich that when the GPS points are put together, they look like a map of the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"gps-points-combined\"<\/p>\n

Now imagine if that information was converted into traffic statistics and shared with governments. City planners could use it to tackle problems common to Southeast Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take, for instance, traffic jams<\/span>\u00a0which cost Asian economies 2% to 5% of GDP each year<\/span><\/a>, according to the Asian Development Bank. With OpenTraffic, traffic authorities and city planners could use congestion patterns on roads to improve traffic signal times or route planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Governments could then relay public announcements on the best transit routes and time to travel, saving drivers and passengers time and money. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

City planners could make better decisions on where to build road infrastructure, such as overpasses, resulting in a better return on public funds.<\/span><\/p>\n