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More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling

Posted by heypaul on Tue Apr 23 20:22:18 2024

I think it would be more accurate to attach tracking devices to each rider

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Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling

Posted by Stephen Bauman on Tue Apr 23 23:21:21 2024, in response to More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling, posted by heypaul on Tue Apr 23 20:22:18 2024.

I read that the MTA will be making this making this data available to the public. Its usefulness will depend on how they accumulate the data.

They used to publish turnstile data. Unfortunately, they followed what they had done before computers. Totals for each turnstile bank were read every 4 hours. Even worse, the 4 hours varied from station to station - even along the same line. This made it fairly useless for determining where and when crush loads are likely to appear on a platform. This data also included the exit counter.

The people now in charge of complying with the MTA's open data requirements stopped posting this data. The replacement gives hourly entrance totals by station - not turnstile bank. Nobody cares when/where people get off.

There are devices that can accurately measure how many passengers are entering and leaving trains or buses. These are cameras that are mounted at the doors. The software can determine the whether passengers are getting on or off. It can process the numbers in real time. System-wide use of these devices could provide the basis for an accurate passenger use metrics.

There are weight sensors on each rail car. The weight sensors could be used to estimate the passenger count in each car. This is what the passenger loading displays use on the LIRR. It was implemented internally by the MTA. Operations and planning were not interested in this data. It was added as passenger information enhancement, like the count down clocks. There's no reason why this could not be extended to the subways.

Some existing real time GTFS data for MTA buses has a field for the number of passengers on the bus. There are problems with using the bus GTFS-RT data because of how it's collected. The device on the bus will transmit every 30 seconds with information it knows: the vehicle number; vehicle position (lat/long); and passenger count. It will transmit this information, only if it has moved within the last 30 seconds. The MTA must then figure out the trip id, route and direction from the raw data. That's a bit complicated.

However, I think using measurements on the vehicles themselves, rather than passenger data (turnstile or OMNI taps) should prove a better solution. The problem is that the MTA's existing compression methods for the vehicle data is embedded in its culture.

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Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling

Posted by randyo on Wed Apr 24 03:40:47 2024, in response to Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling, posted by Stephen Bauman on Tue Apr 23 23:21:21 2024.

FYI, there is NO “and” in the title of the NYCT Operations Planning Dept.

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Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling

Posted by heypaul on Wed Apr 24 10:26:27 2024, in response to Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling, posted by Stephen Bauman on Tue Apr 23 23:21:21 2024.

Ridership modeling seems like an interesting academic micro study, but some of the macro solutions you suggested could provide a lot more useful direct information.

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Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling

Posted by Stephen Bauman on Wed Apr 24 12:28:05 2024, in response to Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling, posted by heypaul on Wed Apr 24 10:26:27 2024.

They could also add facial recognition software to the entry/exit to nail origin/destination for all trips.

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Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling

Posted by LuchAAA on Wed Apr 24 12:56:01 2024, in response to Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling, posted by Stephen Bauman on Wed Apr 24 12:28:05 2024.

Or ask people to tap out using OMNY when leaving the system.

Someone like me would do it voluntarily because I like the topic and don't find it intrusive or inconvenient.

Offering reduced fare to those who tap out of the system could work.

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Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling

Posted by heypaul on Wed Apr 24 13:45:38 2024, in response to Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling, posted by Stephen Bauman on Wed Apr 24 12:28:05 2024.

Can facial recognition scan and identify large numbers of people at a time?

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Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling

Posted by BILLBKLYN on Wed Apr 24 14:07:12 2024, in response to Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling, posted by Stephen Bauman on Wed Apr 24 12:28:05 2024.

The Left says facial recognition is "racist".

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Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling

Posted by Lou from Brooklyn on Thu Apr 25 08:22:03 2024, in response to Re: More Than You Want to Know About MTA's Ridership Modeling, posted by Stephen Bauman on Tue Apr 23 23:21:21 2024.

My AM swipe is Brighton Kings Hwy and PM swipe is DeKalb but they don't pick up the days I decide to take the R one more stop to Jay Street usually when it is raining so I don't have to walk as far as from/to MetroTech and Dekalb.

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