MasterCard Is Helping To Build Smarter Cities

MasterCard is putting its payments data to use by helping to support a data analytics platform aimed at fueling smarter and more inclusive cities.

The company announced Tuesday (Sept. 15) it is partnering with Cubic Transportation Systems, a business unit of Cubic, to launch the Urbanomics Mobility Project, a platform aimed at developing smarter and more inclusive cities with the help of data analysis.

The new tool will examine the relationship between the things people buy and how they travel, which MasterCard said will help urban planners and commercial developers to gain more insight into growth strategies and improve the quality of life in cities around the globe.

“This is a very deliberate smart city initiative between two industry leaders – combining their unique resources and knowledge to create a new data analysis platform for planning smart cities, growing their economies and putting in place critical transportation infrastructure and services,” Dan Collins, general manager of Cubic’s Urban Insights, in a press release.

The Urbanomics Mobility Project will leverage spending trends and insights gathered from the 43 billion transactions processed via MasterCard’s network annually. It will also utilize big data analytics and visualization technology from Cubic’s Urban Insights subsidiary.

“An essential step in enabling smarter cities is to step up the use of data available from multiple sources in order to help city leaders and planners make smarter decisions,” explained Hany Fam, MasterCard’s EVP of Enterprise Partnerships. “By combining our respective analytics and insights, we’ll be able to deliver a more holistic, up-to-date picture of how well an urban transport network enables access to services, retailers and attractions, making life better for residents and visitors.”

The data analysis platform was officially previewed during Smart Cities Week, held earlier this week in Washington, D.C.

MasterCard said the Urbanomics Mobility Project is targeted at agencies serving transit, urban planning and public service sectors, as well as merchants, land-use authorities, city and regional municipalities, and real estate developers.

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