The MBTA’s new data "dashboard,” unveiled this weekend, represents a start toward better transparency, say data-hungry T-watchers—but also has a ways to go before becoming a useful tool for the public.
The site, unveiled over the weekend, is part of an effort by the T to consolidate various reports, previously located in sundry corners of its website, into a coherent, user-friendly, and data-driven resource for the public.
The site will be “really, really valuable for the public in understanding where your money is going,” MBTA Fiscal Management Control Board member Monica Tibbits-Nutt told WGBH News.
And it does already offer data previously unavailable to the public, such as on-time performance data for the system’s bus, commuter rail and train lines—including all four Green Line branches.
It also lets users view the daily performance measurements of each individual train and bus route in the system. (Previous weekly reports gave only aggregate figures for buses, for example), and includes ridership data, by monthly average, for each of the system’s four subway lines and for bus routes.
But next to the wealth of data that exists for T performance, the dashboard is still skinny on detail.
That, T officials say, will change: MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo affirmed in an email that the dashboard as it exists is just a “first iteration,” and that the T is in the process of adding various features—and that the T’s Office of Performance Management and Innovation will be posting progress on its “DaTa [get it?] Blog” as updates are rolled out.
Rafael Mares, an attorney who focuses on transportation for the Conservation Law Foundation, said he thinks the “dashboard” is a step in the right direction.
“I think it’s great that the T is doing this,” Mares said, emphasizing that he wants to see the site be a neutral source of data. “I’m hoping that this is where they put good or bad data out there and don’t make it a marketing tool.”
Josh Ostroff, outreach director with the transit advocacy group Transportation for Massachusetts, agrees that the site is "a wonderful evolutionary step"—and also noted that "we see many potential enhancements in the future, and anticipate that the MBTA, in the interest of transparency and accountability is going to be receptive to user suggestions for more information."
Among the data his group would like to see at some point, Ostroff said, was detailed budget information and regular updates on capital projects and "other service improvements that riders should expect both with the recent fare increase and the need to substantially improve the state of public transportation" in the region.
In the meantime, WGBH News' Data Desk has put together a little wish list of the kinds of numbers that will let riders and taxpayers get a closer glimpse into a transit agency working hard to improve itself. Those stats might include:
