# Meet Replica

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly), 2018-04-07

cycling, data, driving, location-data, mobile-data, replica, sidewalk, sidewalk-labs, sidewalk-toronto, startups, tech, tech-urbanism, toronto, uncategorized, urban, urban-cycling, urbanism, urbanism-tech

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Sidewalk Labs is currently building out a platform called Replica that will support them in their development plans here in Toronto. [Replica is](https://www.sidewalklabs.com/blog/introducing-replica-a-next-generation-urban-planning-tool/): 

_“a user-friendly modeling tool that uses anonymized mobile location data to give planning agencies a comprehensive portrait of how, when, and why people travel in urban areas.”_

Here is a preview of the Replica dashboard showing a section of Main Street in Kansas City. I hope the animated GIF shows up for you.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/aa8c45a1f8011fa5c0430683d1cf72fa.gif)

The platform uses a combination of mobile location data (~5% of the population) and on-the-ground checks, typical stuff like manual traffic counts and transit boardings.

The goal is to understand in real-time who is using a street, as well as how (driving? cycling?) and why (going to work?).

Their [introductory blog post](https://www.sidewalklabs.com/blog/introducing-replica-a-next-generation-urban-planning-tool/) obviously stresses the importance of personal privacy, but I am curious how they determine where people are going.

I suppose if they pair journeys with destinations (and the durations at those destinations) they can make reasonable assumptions around the why.

I think the benefits to all of this are clear. But does any or all of this worry you from a privacy standpoint?

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly/meet-replica)*