Evaluation of GPS trajectories on VGI and social websites

Nowadays, researchers tend to make use of GPS trajectories collected by companies, organizations, or volunteers. GPS trajectories on crowdsourcing websites are less widely used in researches but actually have great potential for various applications. Thus, this paper makes a comprehensive study on GPS trajectories on VGI websites and social websites. The volume, growth rate, and categories of the data are analyzed, the accuracy and integrity are identified, and additional attributes of trajectories are also discussed. Statistical results indicate that the accuracy and integrity of the data is within acceptable limits. We also conclude that this data is suitable for travel-related studies, while may not for time-related researches. Further studies and sample surveys are needed to confirm if it´s suitable for road information extraction. This data may be soon applicable to more researches because of its rapid development.