Project Summary
The National Transit Database (NTD) maintained by the Federal Transit Administration is an invaluable source of comparative data on public transit systems, but it is far from a complete one. In particular, the NTD tells us a lot about public transit services provided by system and mode, as well as their cost. But other than the number of unlinked trips (i.e., total boardings on an individual vehicle) made by transit users, NTD provides very little data on public transit users. In addition, new transportation services, like Transportation Network Companies and dockless mobility services, may be both complementing and competing with traditional public transit services, but data on the extent and use of these services are sorely lacking. This lack of data relevant to public transit inhibits our ability to understand and optimize the use of these systems.This project will develop a framework that outlines the various types of data relevant to understanding public transit systems and their use; identifies currently available data for each of these types and their quality; and makes recommendations on how to address data needs for public transit research. The goals of this project is two-fold: (1) be a go-to source of information on all of the data sources for public transit (with an emphasis on California), and (2) identify the most pressing data needs to be addressed in the years ahead.
