MIT Policy Hackathon 2025: Transit Challenge

This repository is home to documentation overviews, lists of datasets, tutorials, and pre-processed data that we provide.

Overview

We provide three main categories of datasets:

1. Data on MBTA’s network: routes, stops, schedules and frequency. Two types of network data exist: geospatial (GIS) network data of routes and stops, and the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) format that gives the full schedules.
2. Data on MBTA’s ridership and performance (travel times, headways, etc.). Both can be accessed as CSV data tables via the MBTA Open Data Portal. Additionally, the MBTA Rider Census reports demographic data of passengers.
3. Demographics data of residents in Greater Boston (population, income, race, commute destinations, etc.). The primary source of data is the US Census (which we use for our pre-processed dataset). Additionally, datasets for travel and employment patterns are described here.

List of Subpages

This documentation consists of several subpages, each as a writeup with links to datasets, figures, and occasionally some Python code:

• Demographic data
• Travel patterns and employment data
• MBTA network geospatial data
• MBTA network schedules GTFS data
• MBTA ridership data
• MBTA performance data
• Municipalities and MBTA Service Areas
• Quick introduction to GIS, and a sample project that we provide

Pre-processed Datasets

We provide a few GIS (GeoPackage) files with the MBTA network and selected US Census data. They're in the data/ folder with documentations there.

Alternatively, you can find the pre-processed GIS datasets in this Google Driver folder (Link TBA).

We also provide a sample QGIS project, as an example to illustrate the datasets and using them in GIS software. Details are in this tutorial page.

Additional Resources

The following resources can be helpful for data exploration and additional datasets:

• TransitMatters Data Dashboard: Interactive web app that gives easy visualization of system performance, such as travel times and number of trips on each route between stops. Also gives aggregated ridership for each route.
• MassGIS: The state’s official datasets, accessed via either this Mass.gov page (as a static list), the MassGIS Data Hub (an ArcGIS Server), or the interactive MassMapper. Contain many additional data categories beyond transit, such as demographics, other infrastructure, and environmental monitoring.
• MassDOT GeoDOT Open Data Portal: Official data on other modes of transportation.
• Boston Region MPO / CTPS website: The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) provides many datasets and interactive data dashboards to assist with transit planning in the region. They also cover many other modes of transportation and their integration with public transit, such as park-and-rides and biking.
• Bluebikes system data: The leading bikeshare service in Greater Boston.
• MBTA Bus Route Profiles: In 2018, MBTA published detailed reports of each bus route with descriptions and analysis, including scheduled frequencies, ridership, crowding, on-time performance etc. The data is outdated, but a great visual introduction of specific bus routes.

Python Package Installations

For those who are interested in using the Python code provided in these tutorials, you can install all prerequisite packages via pip by running these commands in a terminal:

pip install requests numpy pandas us geopandas pygris
pip install "pyGTFSHandler[osm,plot] @ git+https://github.com/CityScope/pyGTFSHandler.git"
pip install matplotlib mapclassify folium osmnx geopy