Patent ID: 8306848

Claim:
A method of estimating a transit demand graph, the method comprising: collecting conditional information that includes at least one condition that when satisfied converts at least one non-rider into a rider, wherein riders use public transit and non-riders do not use public transit; generating, by a processor, a non-rider transit demand graph by satisfying one of the conditions, wherein the non-rider transit demand graph shows the demand of the non-riders for a public transit route; and generating a normalized transit demand graph from the non-rider transit demand graph and a rider transit demand graph, wherein the rider transit demand graph shows the demand of riders for the same public transit route, wherein generating the non-rider transit demand graph comprises: determining by the processor non-riders that are within a predetermined distance of the public transit route; determining a subset of the non-riders that become riders when the condition is satisfied; and generating the non-rider transit demand graph from the sub-set of non-riders and the public transit route, wherein determining the non-riders comprises: comparing positions of mobile phones against waypoints of the route; and determining a non-rider when the positions do not correspond with those of the waypoints.