Identifying Human Mobility Patterns in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area using Call Detail Records

Abstract

This paper presents the utilization of mobile phone data for transport models, with spatial modeling of the study region in geographical units that allows the integration of aggregated call detail records (CDR) with demographic data and other sources. The algorithm used for the estimation of the origin–destination matrices obtained a distribution of the number of trips compatible with those of a household survey conducted in 2013. With the use of a one-year dataset, two mobility patterns were identified in Rio de Janeiro: home–work and weekend trips. Changes in mobility patterns because of an important road modification were also detected, demonstrating that the use of CDR for urban planning and monitoring is a robust and low-cost option.