Data Collection of Odometer Images via WhatsApp to Measure Vehicle Miles Traveled

Siddhartha Gulhare, Keita Makino, Ranbir Roshan and Giovanni Circella

Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis

Abstract: California sets ambitious climate goals that demand a sharp reduction in the per-capita vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Traditionally, researchers have relied on three types of VMT data collection methods – travel surveys, passively collected data, and simulated data – to estimate VMT or understand factors affecting VMT. However, each of these methods has disadvantages for obtaining a reliable VMT dataset. Although travel surveys are an inexpensive way to collect VMT data with rich traveler attributes, they often suffer from bias and errors in reporting or recalling. Passively collected VMT data, such as traffic count data, can provide precise VMT data, yet they often lack information about “who” and “why” of travel. Lastly, simulated VMT data is useful when making counterfactual testing, but they are after all not real data. In this study, to fulfill the gap between current data collection strategies, the authors introduce a WhatsApp-based VMT data collection framework. The framework deployed on the Azure cloud platform automatically lets study participants submit photos of their odometer, communicates with them for administrative events, manages submitted images and other information of the participants, and displays that data on the web UI for the study administrator. With a pilot study with 77 participants, the authors successfully collected 173 photos of the odometer. Although only 3 photos out of 173 were unusable, demonstrating the capability of the framework, a couple of potential improvements, such as an interface that aligns the photo timestamps over the days or better recruitment approaches, should be addressed in future work. View the NCST Project Webpage

Keywords: Social and Behavioral Sciences; Data collection; Mobile applications; Odometers; Photographs; Pilot studies; Vehicle miles of travel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tre
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/201603jv.pdf;origin=repeccitec (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt201603jv

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lisa Schiff ().