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1

Stronkowski t1_j9ue97e wrote

Is this that different from what TransitMatters already had?

9

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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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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vhalros t1_j9ugq9a wrote

Replying to Stronkowski (#1,969,029)

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.

12

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."

−4

Smilerk t1_j9umg7b wrote

Replying to michael_scarn_21 (#1,969,333)

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.

80

Funktapus t1_j9utukl wrote

Step one is admitting you have a problem

43

CitationNeededBadly t1_j9ux06i wrote

Replying to Conan776 (#1,969,952)

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.

5

Smilerk t1_j9v4nh9 wrote

Replying to vhalros (#1,969,419)

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

5

Justtryme90 t1_j9vaqe8 wrote

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

2

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

1

deptofeducation t1_j9wqpuv wrote

Replying to Conan776 (#1,969,952)

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...

2

deptofeducation t1_j9xjosr wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,987,056)

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...

1

EZ-PZ-Japa-NEE-Z t1_j9y732i wrote

Our public transportation in Boston truly is embarrassing.

1