Collective data is an emerging concept in information technology (IT) and largely a new concept to transportation agencies. There are many issues that would need to be addressed before transportation agencies could envision the potential benefits of this approach. The objective of this White Paper is to explore the application of collective information in transportation data, particularly in the collection and management of MIRE data elements. The intent of this paper is to introduce this concept to the transportation community and provide a starting point for discussions on the application and feasibility of using collective information for transportation safety data, particularly for the MIRE elements. As previously identified, the Travel Survey Manual discusses the use of these applications for collecting travel behavior.

This paper presents the opinions and ideas of the authors. The information in this paper was developed by the authors in part based on information on transportation agencies that are currently using collective data applications. This includes reviews and in some cases interviews on the following applications:

• Citizens Connect App — Boston, Massachusetts.
• Street Bump — Boston, Massachusetts.
• CycleTracks — San Francisco, California.
• Spot Reporters — Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Brookline, Massachusetts; and Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• Buckeye Asset Data Collection System (BADCS) — Ohio DOT.

The detailed findings of these interviews are included in Appendix A. Note: this is not an exhaustive list of all the existing data collection applications; rather those that fit within the context of collective data and that the project team identified as being relevant and applicable to the collection of MIRE data.