Imagine the plight of the transportation planner asked to analyze an agency’s proposal for new bus routes.She decides that as background, she should map some basic information – population, major business locations, existing bus and subway routes and stops, street/highway capacity and use, and anticipated capital projects that might affect routes. 

If she were in Florida, she would merely have to download transit software developed by the state’s DOT.It provides information about transit throughout the state including roadway capacity, traffic signal delay, average travel times, frequency of service, number of residents and jobs located along transit lines.The software is free and is being advertised widely (www.dot.state.fl.us/Transit/transitlos/TLOS.HTM).The most difficult part in Floridawould be to get capital project information.

For that, she wishes she was in Ohio where the State DOT website contains all of the agency’s construction projects on an interactive map.The map shows the location of project sites, clicking on any site allows the user to see the scope of the project, the start and end dates and any traffic diversions (www.dot.state.oh.us/intercon/). 

But she isn’t in Florida or Ohio, she in New York City. After confirming that NYCT uses GIS software to plan bus routes, she calls to get the data.She is informed that she will have to purchase it through the MTA’s store.The MTA’s store informs her that only hard-copies of maps are available, not data sets.

On she goes to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics which provides GIS data for all railways.Of course, this still leaves a big hole in her project – rail lines do not include subway stops, and there are no bus lines or use data(www.bts.gov/gis/ntatlas/).

Thinking she will eventually get around this obstacle, she looks for the information about construction projects.She finds that the State DOT merely provides a list of construction sites with little geographical information.However, the first description of a project in NYC confounds her: “D258058 Rehabilitation of 14 Bridges at Various Locations.”

Data Dinosaurs - May 31, 1996

What is NYS DOT Hiding? - September 5, 2000

NJTPA Presents Use of GIS for TIP - April 6, 1995

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