Streetlight Data – Shining a Light on Mobility Behaviour

Q: - Can you briefly present the company, Martin?

In today's world, cities and large companies who need traffic data usually have to count the number of vehicles, for example by video or with sensors. Laura Schewel, our CEO, observed that there was a real data gap concerning transportation, while in fact a large amount of information was available; from cellphones and navigation devices, for example.

And she realised that if all this data was collected, collated and contextualised, it would not only allow more informed decisions to be taken - about where to locate new infrastructures, from a commercial site to a cycle lane - but also make it possible to reduce distances driven, the number of accidents, and the production of greenhouse gases. Not to mention the opportunities for improving traffic fluidity and improving urban life in innumerable other ways. So she founded Streetlight Data, the first on-demand platform offering actionable transportation analytics.

Currently, we have regional offices in Richmond, Virginia and Vancouver, British Columbia, and hundreds of clients across North America, in both the public and private sectors.

Q: - Tell us your story with ENGIE.

ENGIE invests regularly in technologies that will drive how our environments function in the future, and in 2011 invested in Streetlight Data, whose data and analytics are already enabling smarter cities today. As urban landscapes become more complex, comprehensive data will be absolutely critical to maintaining and improving sustainability. I can imagine our data and solutions interacting with those brought to market by other companies in the ENGIE family, as we all collaborate to power a "smarter" world.

Q: - What does it mean for you to participate in CES?

Firstly, we hope to build awareness, recognition of the fact that a real gap in data has genuinely been filled. Up to now, no one had developed machine learning to measure the movement of various modes of traffic, including pedestrians, as we have. And we have accumulated tremendous knowledge about big data applied to transportation: last month our analytics were used in over 1,600 projects.

And secondly, we are now looking towards Europe, and CES should be a great opportunity to meet transportation leaders and practitioners from Europe.

Q: - What will you showcase at CES and why?

We will be presenting Streetlight Insight, our online platform, and RouteScience, our proprietary data-processing engine, via a video show explaining how it all works, and with a demo of our M2 pedestrian and cycle product, to point out that traffic data need not concern only motor traffic. There will be no hardware – sensors, buttons to push, etc. – because that's the whole point: there isn't any! Streetlight Data is a SaaS company.

Q: - What would be the 'magic encounter' for you at CES?

The mayor of Paris or London, maybe? Government and transportation agencies. People who are directly involved in the management of tomorrow's smart cities.

Q: - And how do you imagine Smart Cities in 2030?

I think that information will power decisions more and more. Traditionally, urban energy management has always been challenging, and energy use for transport has been almost entirely ignored in the equation because it's so diffuse and difficult to measure. I see urban energy management in 2030 including this energy use in the calculations, which will help to make smart cities more sustainable.