Uber opens transport data on travel time, traffic peak hours in key Aussie cities

Ridesharing company Uber has made public the data it generates from over 42,000 driver partners across Australia to help government gauge average traffic and travel times in four highly populated cities.

In partnership with policy group Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, Uber produced the IPA Transport Metric, which contains real-time information that can help influence government in shaping state investment in road and transport infrastructures.

According to Uber general manager for Australia and New Zealand David Rohrsheim, the IPA Transport Metric measures the road network performance in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney at different hours of the day.

"We trust the introduction of the IPA Transport Metric will provide some valuable insights for government and industry and contribute to the debate around important city-shaping infrastructure and planning decisions across the country," Rohrsheim said in a statement.

Meanwhile IPA chief executive Brendan Lyon said the data from Uber is valuable in making better infrastructure and urban planning decisions.

“We invest tens of billions every year in transport, but until now, ways of measuring actual performance over a whole city has been either prohibitively expensive or practically impossible.

“Using Uber’s aggregated trip data gives us a detailed picture of how the road network works within out four biggest cities, changing the discussion from a tally of new project leads to a better discussion about what’s needed to make the system work better.”

While offering Uber’s data for public scrutiny and evaluation, Rohrsheim said the tech company continues to create more liveable cities as the ridesharing app makes it possible to get around without getting behind the wheel.

In Australia, Uber operates in 12 cities: Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Geelog, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula, Newcastle, Perth, Sunshine Coast, Sydney and Toowoomba.

Uber riders Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane can now pre-book a ride up to 30 days in advance with the ride-hailing app’s Scheduled Ride feature. (Read: Uber inaugurates Scheduled Rides in four Australian cities)