Introducing the Seattle Consumer Index

Everyone takes note when the Consumer Confidence Index is published every month.  It’s a bellwether for future sales and good or bad economic times for everyone.  Thanks to our proprietary dataset of consumer behavior though, we’ve created something more local and immediate: the Seattle Consumer Index.

Using the PlaceProps Analytics dataset, we track and aggregate visits to four of Seattle’s largest shopping centers: University Village, Pacific Place, Northgate, and Southcenter.  Every Monday morning at 10:00 AM we will release the previous week’s results.  All you have to do is follow @SeaConsumerINDX on Twitter, or check out www.placeprops.com.

The Seattle Consumer Index is designed to act like a stock index: not only its week-over-week changes are important, but also how its level today compares to a year ago.  To establish its initial value, we also had to peg it to something.  Therefore, we set an index level of 500 for the week of July 6, 2015.  Here is a graph of its performance since the end of June:

The Seattle Consumer Index will fluctuate with seasons, weather, store sales, and consumer preferences.  We hope you find it interesting to watch, and we’ll look forward to reporting it to you every Monday morning.  If you have questions or suggestions, please leave a comment here!

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Find us at: http://www.placeprops.com

PlaceProps Analytics publishes proprietary, GPS-based consumer movement data for commercial real estate site selection, out of home audience measurement, retail trade area definition, and urban planning.  Available online. 

© 2015 Avenace Incorporated.  All rights reserved.

® "PlaceProps" is a registered trademark of Avenace Incorporated, Seattle, WA.

Pedal, Trundle, Cycle, Stride

Starting in March, PlaceProps Analytics began collecting a new kind of data from our Android application. Mobile devices have become very good at detecting the form of motion that the holder is performing, be it walking, driving, running, or cycling. This is awesome because it means that we can start making observations about the mode of transportation employed for a trip, and that can help inform decisions like where to install bicycle racks or build new bike lanes.

Earlier this month, ARCADE magazine wrote that millennials are fueling a revolution in city planning through their embrace of multi-modal transportation. In other words, they are driving less and walking and bicycling more. "Millennials no longer view driving a car as a necessity but rather a convenience." It's a trend noted elsewhere too.

Well if that's true, we should see it in our new data. So with bated breath I started digging. Here's what turned up:

Sure enough, PlaceProps is also seeing that younger people are walking and cycling more, and driving less.

Articles like those mentioned above rely on self-reporting via the Census and other traditional means of collecting data over populations. What makes PlaceProps different is that it's based on what panelists are doing day to day. Here is what 1500 bicycle trips looks like in Seattle:

So what can we learn from this unique set of data? How about showing the top zip codes in Seattle that originate bicycle trips of at least 2 miles?

Warmer zip codes originate more bicycle trips

All right 98103, we know you're just peachy, let's tone it down a little. How about the top zip codes for traffic owing to the 9 to 5 crowd? I.e., these are riders that embark between 6 and 10 AM, Monday through Friday:

West Seattle FTW

These examples are just scratching the surface.

• What about speed of transit from one area to another via bike versus car? 
• Which Urban Villages are most visited on bike; which are most walkable? 
• Is the city building bike lanes in places where unmet demand is highest? 
• Are the city's efforts to facilitate alternative transportation taking root? 

Thanks to the unique capabilities of PlaceProps, answers to these questions are within reach.

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Find us at: http://www.placeprops.com

PlaceProps Analytics publishes proprietary, GPS-based consumer movement data for commercial real estate site selection, out of home audience measurement, retail trade area definition, and urban planning.  Available online. 

© 2015 Avenace Incorporated.  All rights reserved.

® "PlaceProps" is a registered trademark of Avenace Incorporated, Seattle, WA.