Can social media data augment travel demand survey data?

Travel surveys provide valuable inputs to a variety of models. While they are well-established, and reliable, they are also associated with large expenses (both in terms of time and actual cost). With the emergence of social media and alternative data sources, researchers and practitioners often wonder if such data sources can supplement (or obviate the need for) conventional data collection efforts. In this research, we empirically examine of the use of different social media data for such applications. Data from three popular Social Media is examined and compared with data from conventional travel-diary surveys for the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. Both spatial and temporal aspects of the activities' representation are considered. The findings of this research contribute towards the identification of methodologies that can support the inference of meaningful travel information from Social Media, which could in turn improve ITS applications.