How it Works
What does the TransitCenter Equity Dashboard Do?
The TransitCenter Equity Dashboard tracks how well public transit systems in seven US regions serve their riders, and how changes to transit service affect riders over time. The dashboard measures access to opportunity on transit, transit service intensity and transit affordability for people of color, people living in poverty, essential workers, and other people who rely on transit to meet their daily needs. The dashboard also includes metrics of transit reliability and how travel times to key destinations on transit compare to travel times by car. The dashboard shows these data with a series of charts, interactive maps, and downloadable data sets. Data begin in February 2020 and are included for Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco-Oakland, and Washington D.C.
You can learn more about how to use the Equity Dashboard with this demo:
Who made the dashboard?
The TransitCenter Equity Pulse was funded by TransitCenter and was completed in May 2021 by Sustainable Systems Research, LLC, SF2 Enterprises Inc, University of Vermont, and Klumpentown Consulting. The project team includes Jeff Allen, Steven Farber, Alex Karner, Willem Klumpenhouwer, Lisa Li, Rick Liu, Mitchell Robinson, Diego Da Silva, Dana Rowangould and Amer Shalaby. The work was performed in collaboration with Mary Buchanan and Steven Higashide at TransitCenter. Community partners in the seven US regions provided feedback and guidance on the dashboard.
How do I cite this dashboard?
Please reference the following paper:
Klumpenhouwer, W., Allen, J., Li, L., Liu, R., Robinson, M., Da Silva, D. L., Farber, S., Karner, A., Rowangould, D., Shalaby, A., Buchanan, M., & Higashide, S. (2021). A Comprehensive Transit Accessibility and Equity Dashboard.Findings, July.
How is the information shown on the Dashboard calculated?
Below we provide a brief description of the methods used to create the dashboard. A more detailed methodology is available here(PDF). Please contact [email protected] for more information.
Accessibility represents the ease with which people can reach the places they want and need to go. Accessibility is a function of transportation and land use (where essential destinations are located). Access to opportunities measures, which represent the ease of reaching a specific type of destination, are a commonly used measure of accessibility. The dashboard evaluates access to opportunity on public transit with several measures, including number of jobs, low-wage jobs, or amount of park space accessible in a set amount of time. The dashboard also shows access to opportunity in terms of the travel times to nearby grocery stores, hospitals, urgent care facilities, pharmacies, and colleges or universities.
Measures of public transit accessibility can capture many characteristics of transit systems that affect people’s ability to reach their destinations, including the location of stops and routes, what kinds of destinations can be reached on those routes, the speed or directness of routes, the frequency of service, fares, and time spent walking to and from a transit stop or transferring between routes. We estimate transit and car accessibility by calculating transit and car travel times to the locations of destinations across each region. For some measures, we also estimate accessibility using a fare constraint to represent lower-cost transit travel.
Transit travel times between all Census block groups in each region are estimated using the OpenTripPlanner (OTP) tool. OTP uses a detailed pedestrian network from OpenStreetMap (OSM). Transit schedules are represented by General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data for transit operators in each region. These GTFS data are obtained from TransitLand and OpenMobilityData. Transit travel times are capped at 90 minutes and include all parts of a door-to-door trip, including time walking to and from a transit stop, time spent waiting for a transit vehicle, time spent traveling in vehicle(s), and time spent transferring between transit vehicles. Areas where no destination can be reached within 90 minutes are displayed on maps in the "least access" quantile. Car travel times are estimated using ArcGIS Network Analyst (ArcGIS Pro 2.7) and the ESRI Streetmap Premium network based on HERE data to represent typical road traffic conditions.
Transit fares are estimated using a simplified heuristic. We created a fare calculator that uses OTP to generate detailed transit itineraries for the shortest trip between all Census tracts in each region. The fare calculator estimates the cost of each itinerary based on a database of manually calibrated rules representing fare information from each transit operator’s website. These fare rules include the cost of transfers within and between agencies. In a small number of cases these rules are simplified. We assume that transit travelers pay for a one-way ride with an intermediate purchase choice that is less expensive than cash, such as a ticket or card where available. We assume cash fares where no intermediate choice is available. We do not include discounted fares like student or senior fares or options that require a large up-front purchase like monthly or weekly passes. The fare constraints used in each region are determined based on the cost of living and base transit fares. They are set at $4 for a one-way trip in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia and $5 in Boston, the District of Columbia, New York City, and San Francisco-Oakland. The fastest transit time between each pair of tracts in the region and its accompanying fare is then estimated for two different transit networks: one that includes only low-cost modes (local bus plus comparable-cost modes) and the other including all modes (all available public transit options). When determining the travel time between two locations, we select the shortest of the two travel times that meets the fare constraint (if applicable). A full list of transit agencies and premium modes (which are excluded from the low-cost travel network) is included below.
We consider five categories of destinations. Destinations and data sources include:
- Jobs and low-wage jobs ($1250/month or less): US Census LEHD
- Grocery stores and supermarkets: SNAP retailers
- Healthcare facilities: hospitals, urgent care facilities, and pharmacies
- Parks and other green space (including cemeteries, school yards, etc.): OpenStreetMap queried with the Overpass API.
- Higher education: colleges and universities and supplemental colleges
We combine travel times (fare-constrained transit, unconstrained transit, and car) and the location of these destinations to estimate how many destinations can be reached in a certain amount of time, e.g. jobs reachable within 30 minutes. These types of accessibility measures are estimated for destination types that are widely available, including jobs, low-wage jobs, and parks and greenspace. The dashboard’s data download also includes a similar gravity-based accessibility measure that uses a continuous decay function to weight opportunities based on how quickly they can be reached.
We also estimate travel times reach a certain number of opportunities, e.g. travel time in minutes to one hospital or to three hospitals. The travel time to one hospital reflects the minimum possible time to reach a hospital. The travel time to three hospitals measures travel time to the third-closest hospital, capturing people’s need for options, where the closest hospital may not match someone’s needs in terms of the cost or type of care provided. These types of measures are used for healthcare facilities, grocery stores and supermarkets, and higher education.
Transit service intensity represents how often an area is served by transit. Using transit schedules from GTFS feeds we estimate the total number of unique transit trips that visit stops within 200 meters of a block group, and estimate the average number of unique trips per hour over a 24-hour period.
Transit reliability measures evaluate the on-time performance of transit vehicles in a particular transit system, calculated as the fraction of all vehicles in that system that are between 1 minute early and 5 minutes late. The dashboard shows on-time performance for a select number of transit operators that provide direct reports about the status of delay of every vehicle (e.g., minutes early or late for the next stop) in their real-time GTFS feeds. Where a transit operator does not provide on-time performance we do not report reliability. Available GTFS-realtime and NextBus transit feeds across all regions are sampled on approximately an hourly basis (with exact times randomly picked from each hour). Transit reliability is shown on the Story page. Population and block-group level measures of transit reliability are not available.
Equity indicators shown on the Story pages summarize population-weighted access and transit service intensity for groups of people, weighting these outcomes based on where group members live across the entire region (including areas in the MSA, economic region, urban core, and equity neighborhoods). Data on race and ethnicity, income level, and parent-child status are obtained from the 2018 five-year American Community Survey data from the US Census. Essential workers are defined based on residential location of workers listed in the US Census LEHD data. The residential locations of each of these populations is also available as a demographic overlay in the map pages. The Story page also evaluates outcomes for people with specific travel constraints, including people traveling with limited fares or people traveling on weeknights.
For each region, accessibility and transit service intensity scores are computed for the entire region and then summarized for four analysis boundaries. The Metropolitan statistical area (MSA) consists of a high-density urban center and its suburbs, and is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. TransitCenter defined the Economic Region as the high-density urban center plus surrounding counties that meet at least one of these criteria: where at least 3% of the people who work in the central city live; where at least 3% of the people who work in the MSA live; where at least 3% of residents of the central city work; or where at least 3% of residents of the MSA work. The Urban Core is a contiguous area with the region's highest existing transit use and/or potential for transit use TransitCenter defined this area based on: workflow to and from the central city, population density, household incomes, race and ethnicity, and presence of high-frequency transit. Local transit advocates gave input on the definitions. Equity Neighborhoods are areas that local transit advocates identified as meriting additional resources for transit improvements because of past disinvestments or marginalization in planning decisions.
We also evaluate transit accessibility measures relative to car access to provide an indication of equity of access for different mode users.
Where can I find the data and source code?
Population-weighted summaries, populations by block group, dot overlays, and reliability data (where available) can be found on the data page for a specific region.
Due to the size of the data, bulk block-group level scores across all destinations and measures are not available for direct download. You can access and download the block-group specific scores for a single destination and measure via the following steps:
- Visit the map page for the desired region.
- Use the map configuration panel to choose the dataset you would like to download, and update the map.
- Click the download tab on the side panel and choose whether to download as CSV or as a spatial dataset.
If you would like to request a larger portion of the dataset for research or analysis, please email [email protected]
In addition the source code used to generate the measures and the web dashboard are publicly available:
- Fares, travel times, access calculations (including access to destinations and transit service): https://github.com/diluisi/TransitCenter
- Accessibility measures (general functions): https://github.com/jamaps/tracc
- Realtime Data Gathering (including reliability measures): https://github.com/wklumpen/equity-pulse-realtime
- Website Code: https://github.com/wklumpen/equity-pulse-web
Reading Downloaded Transit Scores
Access and transit scores will have a column (block_group
) for the GEOID of each
block group in the region, be named using a key representing each opportunity and measure combination. For all
scores except for transit service, names are in the form:
[opportunity]_[parameter]_[period]_[autoFlag]_[fareFlag]
Where period
is one of AM
(weekday morning peak), PM
(weekday evening), or WE
(weekend). Transit service names are in the form
los_trips_[period]
, where period
is one of WKD
for a weekday measure and
SAT
for a Saturday measure. The table below provides a reference for the other various options in
the score keys.
Opportunity | Measure Type | Unit | Code | Parameter 1 | Parameter 2 | Parameter 3 | Auto Ratio | Fare Capped | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Description | Code | Description | Code | Description | Code | Yes | No | Yes | No | ||||
Jobs | Cumulative | Jobs | C000_P |
30 min | c30 |
45 minutes | c45 |
60 minutes | c60 |
autoY |
autoN |
fareY |
fareN |
Low-Income Jobs | Cumulative | Jobs | CE01_P |
30 min | c30 |
45 minutes | c45 |
60 minutes | c60 |
autoY |
autoN |
fareY |
fareN |
Groceries | Travel Time | Minutes | snap_M |
Closest | t1 |
3rd Closest | t3 |
- | autoY |
autoN |
- | fareN |
|
Hospitals | Travel Time | Minutes | hospitals_M |
Closest | t1 |
3rd Closest | t3 |
- | autoY |
autoN |
- | fareN |
|
Urgent Care | Travel Time | Minutes | urgentcare_M |
Closest | t1 |
3rd Closest | t3 |
- | autoY |
autoN |
- | fareN |
|
Pharmacies | Travel Time | Minutes | pharmacies_M |
Closest | t1 |
3rd Closest | t3 |
- | autoY |
autoN |
- | fareN |
|
Parks | Cumulative | Acres | parks_P |
15 minutes | c15 |
30 minutes | c30 |
- | autoY |
autoN |
fareY |
fareN |
|
Post-Secondary Institutions | Travel Time | Minutes | schools_M |
Closest | t1 |
3rd Closest | t3 |
- | autoY |
autoN |
- | fareN |
|
Transit Service Intensity | Average Hourly Trips | Trips | los_trips | Options are WKD for weekday service, SAT for Saturday service. |
Note: An additional gravity-based accessibility score is included for access to jobs, both low-income
and all. A gravity-based accessibility measure that uses a continuous decay function to weight opportunities
based on how quickly they can be reached. These scores are represented with the paramater nexp
.
These scores are not included in the summary data as they are not used in the story page.
Transit Agencies and Routes Used
New York
Data Note: The Staten Island Ferry is incorrectly classified as a "premium" route, despite being a free service. This is known issue, however due to the relatively low impact of the error and the high cost to correct it we are leaving it as-is. A more detailed explanation can be found here.
Agency | Premium Routes |
---|---|
Connecticut Transit Shore Line East | All Rail; Bus Routes: SLET |
JFK Airtrain | Bus Routes: 2877, 2878, 2879 |
Monroe County Transit Authority | None |
MTA: MNR Hudson Rail Link | None |
Nassau Inter-county Express | None |
NJ Transit | All Rail; Bus Routes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 |
NYC Ferry | All Ferry |
Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH) | None |
Southeast Area Transit District | None |
NYCDOT (Staten Island Ferry) | All Ferry |
Westchester County Department of Transportation (Bee-Line Bus) | Bus: 18013 |
MTA: Long Island Rail Road | Rail Routes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
MTA: Metro-North Railroad | Rail Routes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 |
MTA | Bus Routes: BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, BM5, BXM1, BXM10, BXM11, BXM18, BXM2, BXM3, BXM4, BXM6, BXM7, BXM8, BXM9, QM1, QM10, QM11, QM12, QM15, QM16, QM17, QM18, QM2, QM20, QM21, QM24, QM25, QM3, QM31, QM32, QM34, QM35, QM36, QM4, QM40, QM42, QM44, QM5, QM6, QM7, QM8, X27, X28, X37, X38, X63, X64, X68 |
Academy | Bus Routes: SIM1, SIM10, SIM11, SIM15, SIM1C, SIM2, SIM22, SIM23, SIM24, SIM25, SIM26, SIM3, SIM30, SIM31, SIM32, SIM33, SIM33C, SIM34, SIM35, SIM3C, SIM4, SIM4C, SIM4X, SIM5, SIM6, SIM7, SIM8, SIM8X, SIM9 |
Chicago
Agency | Premium Routes |
---|---|
Chicago Transit Authority | None |
Metra | All Rail |
Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District | All Rail |
PACE | Bus Routes: 755-317, 850-317, 851-317, 855-317 |
Washington D.C.
Agency | Premium Routes |
---|---|
Arlington Transit | None |
Calvert County Public Transportation | None |
Charles County VanGo | None |
DASH Bus | None |
DC Circulator | None |
DC Streetcar | None |
Fairfax Connector | Bus Routes: 393, 394, 395, 396, 599, 698, 699 |
Fairfax CUE | None |
Maryland Transit Administration | Rail: MARC |
Montgomery County MD Ride On | Bus Routes: 6461 |
OMNIRIDE | Bus Routes: 3335, 3336, 3337, 3338, 3339, 3340, 3341, 3346, 3348, 3349, 3350, 3351, 3354, 3355, 3356, 3357, 3358, 3360, 3361, 3365 |
Prince George's County TheBus | None |
Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland | None |
TransIT Services of Frederick County | None |
Virginia Railway Express | All Rail |
WMATA | Bus Routes: 11Y, 17B, 17G, 17H, 17K, 17L, 17M, 18G, 18H, 18P, 29W, 5A, B30 |
Prince George's County TheBus | None |
Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland | None |
TransIT Services of Frederick County | None |
Virginia Railway Express | All Rail |
WMATA | All Subway; Bus Routes: 11Y, 17B, 17G, 17H, 17K, 17L, 17M, 18G, 18H, 18P, 29W, 5A, B30 |
Los Angeles
Agency | Premium Routes |
---|---|
Anaheim Resort Transportation | None |
Airport Valet Express | None |
Avalon Transit | None |
Beaumont Transit | Bus Routes: 3420, 15730, 16684 |
Big Blue Bus | Bus Routes: 3265 |
Corona Cruiser | None |
Culver City Bus | None |
Duarte Transit | None |
El Monte Transit | None |
Foothill Transit | Bus Routes: 490-155, 493-155, 495-155, 498-155, 499-155, 699-155, 707-155 |
Glendale Beeline | None |
Gold Coast Transit | None |
Kern Transit | Bus Routes: 1161, 1162, 1164, 1166, 1167, 1168, 1173, 1175, 1367, 1368 |
LA Go Bus | None |
LADOT | Bus Routes: 626, 627, 628, 629, 630, 631, 633, 634, 635, 636, 637, 638, 640 |
Lawndale Beat | None |
Long Beach Transit | None |
Metro - Los Angeles | Bus Routes: 442-13135, 460-13135, 487-13135, 489-13135, 501-13135, 550-13135, 577-13135, 910-13135 |
Metrolink Trains | All Rail |
Mountain Transit | All Cable Tram; Bus Routes: 240, 241, 242, 243 |
Norwalk Transit System | None |
OmniTrans | None |
Orange County Transportation Authority | Bus Routes: 206, 211, 213, 701, 721, 794, 53x, 57x, 64x |
Palo Verde Valley Transit Agency | Bus Routes: 358, 6467 |
Palos Verdes Peninsula Transit Authority | None |
Pasadena Transit | None |
Riverside Transit Agency | Bus Routes: 200, 204, 205, 206, 208, 210, 217 |
Simi Valley Transit | None |
Spirit Bus | None |
SunLine Transit Agency | Bus Routes: 1294 |
Thousand Oaks Transit | Bus Routes: 5234 |
Torrance Transit System | None |
Ventura County Transportation Commission | None |
Victor Valley Transit Authority | Bus Routes: 7106 |
Philadelphia
Agency | Premium Routes |
---|---|
Cecil Transit | None |
NJ Transit Rail | All Rail |
SEPTA | None |
Port Authority Transit Corporation | All Rail |
San Francisco-Oakland
Agency | Premium Routes |
---|---|
AC TRANSIT | Bus Routes: F, G, J, L, LA, NL, NX, NX1, NX2, O |
Altamont Corridor Express | All Rail |
Angel Island Tiburon Ferry | All Ferry |
Blue & Gold Fleet | All Ferry |
Caltrain | All Rail |
Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority | All Rail |
City of Palo Alto Shuttle | None |
Commute.org Shuttles | None |
County Connection | None |
Dumbarton Express Consortium | Bus Routes: DB, DB1 |
Emeryville Transportation Management Association (Emery Go-Round) | None |
Fairfield and Suisun Transit | Bus Routes: 11144, 11128 |
Golden Gate Ferry | All Ferry |
Golden Gate Transit | None |
Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority | None |
Marin County Transit District | None |
Mission Bay TMA | None |
Rio Vista Delta Breeze | Bus Routes: 29, 31 |
SamTrans | Bus Routes: FCX-184 |
San Benito County Express | None |
San Francisco Bay Ferry | All Ferry |
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency | Cable Tram Routes: California Street Cable Car, Powell-Hyde Cable Car, Powell-Mason Cable Car |
San Joaquin Regional Transit District (RTD) | Bus Routes: 150, 152, 163 |
Santa Cruz Metro | Bus Routes: 17-130 |
SolTrans | Bus Routes: 13571, 11098 |
Sonoma County Airport Express | Bus Routes: 12331 |
Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit | None |
Stanford Marguerite Shuttle | None |
Tideline Water Taxi | None |
Tri Delta Transit | None |
Union City Transit | None |
VTA | Tram Routes: All; Bus Routes: 101, 102, 103, 104, 121, 168 |
WestCat (Western Contra Costa) | Bus Routes: 2676 |
Bay Area Rapid Transit | All Rail |
Boston
Agency | Premium Routes |
---|---|
128 Business Council | None |
Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park | All Ferry |
Brockton Area Transit Authority | None |
Cape Ann Transportation | Bus Routes: 2846 |
Coach Company | Bus Routes: 12119, 12138, 12143 |
Lowell Regional Transit Authority | None |
Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority (including Vineyard Fast Ferry) | Bus Routes: 2799, 2803, 2805, 2807 |
Massport / Logan Express | Bus Routes: 11704. 11705, 11706, 11707 |
MBTA | Bus Routes: 170, 325, 326, 351, 352, 354, 426, 428, 434, 450, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 553, 554, 556, 558, 741, 742, 743 |
Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority | Bus Routes: 10735, 10736, 70738 |
Middle West Regional Transit Authority | None |
Middlesex 3 TMA | None |
Montachusett Regional Transit Authority | Bus Routes: 3510, 4729 |
Patriot Party Boats | None |
Peter Pan Bonanza Division and Peter Pan Bus Lines | None |
Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (including Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway Co.) | None |
Rhode Island Public Transit Authority | None |
Seastreak | None |
Southeast Area Transit District | None |
Southeastern Regional Transit Authority | None |
The Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority | None |
Worcester Regional Transit Authority | None |
Yankee Line | Bus Routes: All |
Photo Credits
Photo credits for banner-style images on the front page in order of appearance: Chicago Transit Authority, Outfront/JCDecaux and Joren. Homepage tile images and individual story page image credits can be found in the table below:
Boston | Chicago | Los Angeles | New York | Philadelphia | San Francisco-Oakland | Washington D.C. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Homepage Tile | Kevin Zolkiewicz | Benjamin Dziechciowski | Frederick Dennstedt | Peter Burkas | David Wilson | Sunny Lam | Thomas Hawk |
Banner 1 | Aimee Custis | Phil Beard | Dan Reed | Rhythmic Diaspora (Flickr user) | 7Beachbum (Flickr user) | Paul Sullivan | Nevermind the End (Flickr user) |
Banner 2 | Aimee Custis | Chicago Office Movers | Outfront/JCDecaux | Scott Shaw | David Wilson | Jim Maurer | Nevermind the End (Flickr user) |
Banner 3 | Shinya Suzuki | Sawyer Bengston | T.H. Rogers | Alexander Cromarty | Kyle Ortiz | SFMTA | Thomas Hawk |
Banner 4 | Kevin Zolkiewicz | Joe Sosa | Outfront/JCDecaux | Around the Horn | Elvert Barnes | Bernard Spragg | C. Watts |
Banner 5 | Yu-Jen Shih | Austin Wehrwein | Sharon Hahn Darlin | NYC DOT | Kyle Ortiz | Steve Rhodes | Ben Schumin |
Banner 6 | Shinya Suzuki | John W. Iwanski | Dan Reed | MTA | David Wilson | Jim Maurer | Kyle Anderson, WMATA |
Coronavirus | Mangopear Creative |