PTV Group is to launch a new data platform, PTV Access, which offers APIs to integrate location and mobility data into software solutions.
The firm says powerful interfaces deliver refined data from transport models as well as public and commercial sources, delivering insight which goes beyond traffic management.
While key markets for mobility data include urban and transportation planning, PTV is also targeting sectors which require location information for decision-making.
"New mobility trends and solutions can be discovered via the interface, creating competitive advantages for various industries, such as real estate and retail," says Christian U. Haas, CEO of PTV Group. "We will gradually add interfaces for other mobility data to the data platform."
The information is derived from automatically-generated transport models and sources including points of interest data from public and commercial providers. PTV's algorithms create new datasets from this, which means users can make objective, data-based comparisons of potential locations and are able to visualise mobility indicators.
The PTV Accessibility Score API provides an accessibility index for various modes of transportation – bicycle, public transport, car or pedestrian – for any given address. The index ranges from 0 (poor) to 100 (very good), indicating how easily a destination can be reached in a given time.
The system calculates times based on a multimodal geographic database comprising the current road network, available and up-to-date public transportation route and schedule data, and bicycle infrastructure information. The API includes all points of interest, such as schools, supermarkets, train stations and pharmacies, which contribute to the index calculation.
For retailers, PTV says, location and mobility data are important for assessing a location's sales potential, "especially as a counterbalance to online retail".
The new interface provides data on the daily number of vehicles passing a location and the traffic volume - which may be helpful in comparing possible site locations.
PTV Traffic Volume API provides location-based daily traffic information, offering average traffic volumes for an address, for different time periods, categorised by day types, and hourly values for the surrounding roads. These values are calculated using a transport demand model and calibrated using public road counts.
