Blog Watcher and Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, Leveraging Big Data on Human Flows to Optimize Shared Cycle Business Ports to be set up near Sakurajyo Bridge

Blog Watcher, Inc. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Sho Niimura; hereinafter "Blog Watcher"), a provider of location data collection, analysis, and utilization services, and Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, continue to study port optimization using human flow data for Okazaki City's shared cycle business. The project has been launched in the city of Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Based on the results of the study, a new port has now been installed, first near Sakurajyo Bridge (Karasawa-cho, Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture).

This kind of initiative is one of the promotions of objective data and evidence-based policy making (EBPM), and is expected to help create a sustainable city.

Blog Watcher and Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, to Optimize Shared Cycle Business by Utilizing Big Data on Human Flow

■Background: Utilization of Shared Cycling in Okazaki City

Okazaki City was promoting the realization of a smart community with the aim of improving disaster resistance, increasing the attractiveness of Okazaki City, and further regional development. In this context, the city had started a shared cycle business to improve circulation and convenience in the city.

The number of users of the shared cycle system was one of the highest in Japan, thanks to the installation of vehicles wrapped with local celebrities, etc. However, further promotion of daily use of the system was a challenge for the economic revitalization of the community.

■ Initiatives

Based on the human flow data from Blog Watcher, we identified the locations with high travel volumes and then conducted shared port optimization based on a mathematical algorithm to derive shared cycle locations throughout the city that maintained appropriate distances between ports and to study the actual locations where new shared cycle ports would be built.

Flow of the shared cycle port study using big data on human flow

Effects of utilizing human flow data

The human flow data was analyzed to derive the recommended locations for 30 ports. As a result, Okazaki City was able to confirm that demand existed in locations where it had not sensibly assumed demand or had no proof that installation was necessary. The Sakurajyo Bridge area, where demand had been sensibly anticipated but had not yet been installed, was decided to install the port because the City was able to determine demand based on facts through this project.

We are now considering installing ports at other locations as well.

Example: Recommended locations for new shared cycle stations during weekdays.

Blue dots are recommended locations, yellow dots are locations of existing cycle ports.

Recommended locations for new shared cycle stations during weekdays

Message from Blog Watcher

Location information is a relatively new technology in data science, but it is an area where knowledge is scarce, partly because it is even newer and difficult to obtain.

Although there are few examples of community development based on data, there are already many promising results at the research level, and if used appropriately, it has the potential to improve the convenience and safety of a community.

Our goal is to analyze data based on local issues and the perspectives of local residents in order to create a town where people can move around and live more comfortably. This time, as a first step, we focused on shared bicycles, but in the future we would like to expand the application to public transportation and the layout of public and private facilities, and work to optimize the entire town using data.

BlogWatcher will continue to support those involved in community development, aiming to increase the number of "safe, convenient, and attractive cities" for people living in them.

Eiji Hirokawa, Data Scientist, Smart Planning Division, Blog Watcher Inc.

Message from Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture

In order to promote circulation in the Otogawa Riverfront Area, the city's central urban area, an electric bike share system was introduced on a trial basis in fiscal year 2009. Compared to the Tokyo metropolitan area, Okazaki City is large and less crowded, so we have implemented a data-driven management strategy without imitation.

The big data and simulation results from BlogWatcher, Inc. provided us with confirmation of what we had sensibly thought was the case, and made us aware of things we had not considered.

In urban development, we believe that creating a flow of people, that is, showing people walking around and enjoying themselves, is important because it forms a virtuous cycle that attracts private investment, which in turn creates further flows of people.

In order to effectively utilize limited resources, we will continue to promote data-driven urban development.

<Company Profile

Company name: Blog Watcher Inc.

Representative: Sho Niimura, President and Representative Director

Location: Hulic Ginza 7-chome Bldg. 4F, 7-3-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan

Establishment : April 2007

URL ： https://www.blogwatcher.co.jp/

Business description: Development and provision of location information-related services based on a location information data platform.

　　　　　 Development and provision of location information-related services based on a location information data platform.

　　　　　 Providing SDK, analysis, advertisement distribution, data linkage, etc.

　　　　　 We provide a variety of solutions related to location data.

<About the location data we use

Blog Watcher only uses data from users who have downloaded the affiliated apps and have given permission for location data acquisition.

For more information on data acquisition and utilization, please visit: https://www.blogwatcher.co.jp/terms/

The information in this press release is current as of the date of the announcement and is subject to change without notice. Please note that the information in this press release is current as of the date of the announcement and may change without notice.