County of Kauai Partners with Near Intelligence to Tackle Traffic Congestion with Data-Driven Solutions

PASADENA, Calif., April 25, 2023 — Near Intelligence, Inc., a global leader in privacy-led data intelligence on people, places, and products, today announced the results of its partnership with the County of Kauai, Hawaii to deliver real-world insights to inform transportation planning on the island.

“Near was thrilled to partner with the county by providing our data intelligence platform to inform recommendations for improving Kauai’s transportation system,” said Anil Mathews, CEO of Near. “The insights from our real-world data will help them understand resident and visitor travel patterns, identify intuitive solutions for reducing traffic congestion, and contribute to planning for a more sustainable Kauai.”

Kauai attracts more than a million annual visitors, who lease up to 10,000 rental cars daily, and up to 12,000 on long weekends. Between increasing tourist arrivals and residential commuters, the roadways are becoming more congested. With limits on expanding roads and highways, the island turned to technology to gain better insight into its transportation issues.

The County of Kauai was awarded technical assistance from researchers to study electrification and multi-modal improvements to Kauai’s transportation system. The team started by analyzing visitor survey data from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, Hawaii Department of Transportation data, and anecdotal information about congestion points.

While that data provided a piece of the puzzle, the County partnered with Near to supply a sophisticated data intelligence solution that could provide a deeper understanding of actual residential and tourism travel patterns to reveal origins and destinations, distance traveled, and variations across time of day, day of the week, and seasonality.

“Our partnership with Near has provided a key source of data to drive Kauai’s study forward,” said Christina Kaser, Energy Coordinator for the County of Kauai. “The Near data provides critical insights and validation around travel patterns on the island. Plus, data visualizations the researchers created are incredibly helpful as we work on making the case to key stakeholders to evolve our transportation offerings.”

The Near project data helped the team answer key questions, including:

• Where are the island’s hotspots?
• Where are common origin and destination points for visitors and residents?
• What are the main travel corridors based on time of day?
• How far do tourists typically drive in a day?
• What do transportation patterns look like at different times of year?

The County of Kauai analyzed the extensive data points from Near to deliver comprehensive visualizations into a travel pattern analysis report. This report provides insights and recommendations to consider how to reimagine travel on the island by potentially:

• Creating mobility hubs around the island where tourists can access transportation services.
• Introducing shuttles and first/last mile micro-transit solutions.
• Increasing the availability of micro transportation offerings like bikes and scooters.
• Setting up a public electric charging station network around the island.
• Encouraging use of car share.
• Establishing satellite car rental locations around the island.

The Near data and visualizations helped the Kauai team validate their anecdotal understanding of travel hotspots and hot corridors, which in turn can be utilized to develop or support future transportation plans and projects. The private sector can also use this project information to help green light specific projects, confirm the need for new routes and offerings for shuttle and tour operators, and decode prime locations for off-airport car rentals.

To read more about Near’s data in action, please visit the case study portal.

About Near

Near (Nasdaq: NIR), a global, full-stack data intelligence software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform curates one of the world’s largest sources of intelligence on people, places, and products. The Near platform’s patented technology processes data from an estimated 1.6 billion unique user IDs and 70 million points of interests, in more than 44 countries. Near’s data and insights empower marketing and operations teams to understand consumers’ online and offline behaviors, affinities, and attributes in order to engage them and grow their businesses. With a presence in Los Angeles, Paris, Bangalore, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo, Near serves scaled enterprises in retail, real estate, restaurant/QSR, travel/tourism, telecom, and financial services. For more information, please visit https://near.com.

Source: Near