Probe data are increasingly being adopted by transportation professionals in the United States as a means to better measure the mobility of Americans across and within the national transportation system. Centered on new, rapidly changing forms of technology that allow mobile devices to actively determine and share their locations with analysts as a novel form of big data, probe data offer exciting advantages for measuring mobility, but they rely on technologies and methods that are not transparent to their users or members of the public. This report offers a statistics-centered definition of probe data, contrasts them with non-probe data, notes common data subtypes, discusses their advantages and limitations, summarizes their history, and proposes ways to differentiate noted subtypes. This report accompanies a set of six user guides on specific probe data types.

Infrastructure Assets: Other Highway Assets, Transit Assets
Resource Types: Research Report
Capabilities: Data & Information Systems, Tools & Technology
Management Processes: Monitoring & Adjustment, Performance Reporting & Communication