September 24th, 2024

Beyond the route: Introducing granular MTA bus speed data

The MTA has launched a dataset detailing bus speeds across its network, using GPS data to analyze travel times, with updates monthly to aid transit planning and address congestion issues.

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Beyond the route: Introducing granular MTA bus speed data

The MTA has introduced a new dataset that provides detailed information on bus speeds across its network, which includes over 4,900 buses operating on 327 routes in New York City. This initiative aims to enhance public understanding of bus travel times, which are often affected by various urban challenges such as traffic congestion, double-parked vehicles, and road closures. The dataset, available on the NYS Open Data portal, utilizes GPS data to calculate speeds between major bus stops, referred to as "timepoints." Analysis of the data reveals that bus speeds tend to be fastest during overnight hours and slowest during peak commuting times, particularly in congested areas like Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. The MTA encourages users to explore this data to identify slow corridors and improve transit planning. The dataset will be updated monthly, allowing for ongoing analysis and insights into the performance of the bus network.

- MTA has launched a dataset detailing bus speeds across its network.

- The dataset uses GPS data to calculate speeds between major bus stops.

- Bus speeds are generally faster overnight and slower during peak hours.

- The MTA aims to use this data to improve transit planning and address congestion.

- The dataset will be updated monthly and is available on the NYS Open Data portal.

Link Icon 9 comments
By @woodruffw - 5 months
A fun fact about NYC's buses: many of the routes are turn-by-turn replicas of previous streetcar routes; Brooklyn alone had dozens[1]. The B46[2], for example, follows the Utica-Reid line as it ran until 1951.

They never actually tore up most of these lines; the city just paved over them. You can see them poking through the pavement whenever the city redoes the roads.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streetcar_lines_in_Bro...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B46_(New_York_City_bus)

By @vavooom - 5 months
We are excited for Open Data users to dig into this dataset, experiment, and find insights from the “speed sample of NYC’s streets” that the MTA’s 4,900 buses collect each day. This data will be uploaded on a monthly basis, and can be found on the NYS Open Data portal.

What a great dataset and effort to allow for further research into areas of the city that could benefit from anti-congestion measures (cough cough car tax) to improve bus services!

Also - where does one even store 4,900 buses in NYC? I guess most of the fleet is out on the streets all day, but I imagine servicing all of those is quite the feat.

By @willmeyers - 5 months
NYC has one of the best open data portals out there. Kudos to all the teams and agencies who manage it.
By @dml2135 - 5 months
MTA seems to be seriously upping their technology game over the past few years. Anecdotally, I've noticed their apps seem to have better UX and are more reliable. I'd be curious to learn what organization changes have happened to enable this.
By @SushiHippie - 5 months
The embedded video does not work for me on Android (neither chrome or firefox, I think it is because it adds an iframe with a /embed/ link with autoplay via javascript after the "Watch this video" button has been pressed)

This is the youtube link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MsHGqVuIK5g

By @o10449366 - 5 months
maybe someone will finally highlight how ridiculous the gridlock is on the b44-sbs route, particularly through south williamsburg. I regularly see convoys of 4-5 buses arriving at the same time because the traffic through that neighborhood is so bad that the buses eventually catch up to each other and I regularly have to wait 30+ minutes for it on either end of the route.
By @mrtimo - 5 months
Just downloaded all the data as a 2.45GB csv file. It took about 10 minutes to "export", before the download started.
By @doctorpangloss - 5 months
Do you need the data to know that busses are insanely slow?
By @voytec - 5 months
From the context (buses mentioned) I'm assuming this about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority? I had to search for how the "MTA" abbreviation can be expanded. My mind resolves "MTA" to "Mail Transport Agent".