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michael_scarn_21 t1_j9ug3sm wrote

It'll be interesting to see how the data differs from Transit Matters. The T is not unfamiliar with using practices that make its numbers look better, like not counting cancelled buses and trains towards reliability statistics.

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Smilerk t1_j9umg7b wrote

Volunteer for TM here who made the SZ tracker :)

Our algorithm only flags a slow zone when its travel time is 10% higher than the median for 4 days in a row. Some of these slow zone orders are only for a few hundred feet of track which only accounts for a few second delay in overall travel time between two train stops.

TLDR -> MBTA is showing more granular slow zones, which is important. But not all have a big impact on travel time, i.e. disruptions that riders actually feel.

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vhalros t1_j9ug1u0 wrote

Well, its an improvement over basically lying about them. What would be nice is fixing them. At least this way we will have a good idea of progress. Thanks to TransitMatters for keeping them honest.

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Funktapus t1_j9utukl wrote

Step one is admitting you have a problem

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jamesland7 t1_j9upxjh wrote

Non-Paywall Link: https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/mbta-slow-zone-maps/2982000/

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ahecht t1_j9vylve wrote

How about a link to the actual dashboard?

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deptofeducation t1_j9w3dms wrote

https://www.mbta.com/quality-compliance-oversight/fta-safety-management-inspection-response

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ahecht t1_j9wxdkd wrote

That's the compliance dashboard, not the slow zone one.

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deptofeducation t1_j9x99h8 wrote

Slow zone is on the side in PDF Format for February and March, will be interactive and digital in April.

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Stronkowski t1_j9ue97e wrote

Is this that different from what TransitMatters already had?

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austinmartinyes OP t1_j9uffl7 wrote

TransitMatters extrapolates slow zones from travel time data, which they’ve done a very good job with. This information is straight from the horse’s mouth.

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SutterCane t1_j9ugq8b wrote

Don’t call the MBTA a horse.

Horses are reliable.

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ZetaInk t1_j9uhrqr wrote

Green Line gets me to Kenmore about as quick as the pony express got mail across the west though

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SkiingAway t1_j9uy0ps wrote

The Pony Express averaged 10mph. The B/C/E branches only average 7-8mph.

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ZetaInk t1_j9uzwja wrote

So what you're saying is we need a dedicated horse lane.

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charons-voyage t1_j9vk5ti wrote

You can lead the MBTA train over the water but you can’t put it in the drink. Except that one time when the Orange line caught fire.

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vhalros t1_j9ugq9a wrote

TransitMatters can figure it out from travel times, which is great because it got the T to actually admit some of the problems. It seems like the additional information TransitMatters can't necessarily figure out is why there is a slow down (track? tunnel? train? signals?), and precisely how many miles have what level of speed restriction. Of course, what would be really great is having some idea when they are going to fix it.

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Smilerk t1_j9v4nh9 wrote

Yes! We use a combination of GTFS feeds, public MBTA apis, and data the mbta gives us itself. But it is only ever arrival and departure times. We have no insight into speeds of specific track segments between two stops

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[deleted] t1_j9upxw0 wrote

[deleted]

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AnyRound5042 t1_j9uqzdh wrote

Posts that are just links to paywalls (this goes triple for the Boston globe posting their own articles) should be taken down by mods

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HeartrendingExpress t1_j9v5y1j wrote

Here is just the dashboard

https://dashboard.transitmatters.org/slowzones?chartView=xrange

It's pretty useless, the conclusion is that we already knew the trips were hugely delayed with trains just moving at a slow crawl, sucks to be using the Red Line from JFK/UMass, that's got the single biggest delay.

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[deleted] t1_j9v7x5y wrote

[deleted]

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HeartrendingExpress t1_j9vd9wk wrote

Ok, where's the link to the new dashboard please?

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[deleted] t1_j9ve1ja wrote

[deleted]

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[deleted] t1_j9vup0w wrote

[deleted]

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deptofeducation t1_j9w3ncw wrote

https://www.mbta.com/quality-compliance-oversight/fta-safety-management-inspection-response

Took two click from the MBTA home page under press releases...

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[deleted] t1_j9x9xfh wrote

[deleted]

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deptofeducation t1_j9xjosr wrote

What do you think a dashboard is? The page is the dashboard. It indicates the level of completion and schedule progress with each of the 8 corrective action areas.

I never said 36% compete is good, but do you expect corrective action plans to be completed in a matter of weeks? Rushing them is how you run into more problems...

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Justtryme90 t1_j9vaqe8 wrote

After the full shutdown of the orangeline they still couldn't fix the slow zones. That's highly suspect.

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reb601 t1_j9va6dl wrote

Cool now fix it

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bradys_squeeze t1_j9wafci wrote

I work in GIS. I could make a public facing dashboard showing this information in like, less than a week lol

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EZ-PZ-Japa-NEE-Z t1_j9y732i wrote

Our public transportation in Boston truly is embarrassing.

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Conan776 t1_j9ujwbb wrote

"Hey good news! We've gotten a ton of money in the budget to deal with slow zones this year."

"Finally! So, how are we going to spend it?"

"Well, that's a stupid question. We're going to develop an app or something. What else would we do with it?"

"No, you are right. Makes perfect sense."

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Funktapus t1_j9uud8r wrote

It’s not an app, it’s a pdf of all the slow zones they need to fix

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CitationNeededBadly t1_j9ux06i wrote

So, they got 100 million to fix slow zones. They spent 1 million to collect and analyze data for internal purposes, like what they should fix first. They spent another 100k to make that data accessible to the public. I don't see the problem. * these are made up numbers but the orders of magnitude are the point - fixing the slow zones is gonna cost waaaaay more than just making a dashboard, and collecting the data in the first place as already necessary as a prerequisite for actually fixing stuff.

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deptofeducation t1_j9wqpuv wrote

This data's already collected. Doesn't take much to develop a dashboard for public use and transparency. There were hundreds of complaints about the lack of transparency last week, and now there are complaints about the spending on being transparent...

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