Research Request - SACOG Questions regarding NTD Monthly Ridership by RTPA

[csuyat-dot]

Complete the below when receiving a research request, and continue to add to this issue as you receive additional details and produce deliverables. Be sure to also add the appropriate project-level label to this issue (eg gtfs-rt, DLA).

Research Question

Single sentence description:

• Respond to questions via SACOG email regarding specific visuals on NTD Monthly Ridership webpage on Cal-ITP portfolio

Detailed description:

• Specific questions are:

1. "El Dorado County Transit only date through June of 2019 is shown, but data are available through June of 2022. ... Is there a way to add the information from the small non-NTD monthly reporters to what is presented if we assisted in the collection of those data?"
2. in the section on change in unlinked passenger trips year-over-year it appears that Yolo Transportation District is no included, but should be since they are a monthly reporter on UPT.
3. Do you know if the demand response category is lumping in microtransit/on demand service with demand response service? It may be interesting to show the recent changes/expansions in microtransit service availability

How will this research be used?

What will be achieved or informed? What is the intended impact?

Stakeholders & End-Users

Who is asking the question, and who is the audience?

• Barbara VaughanBechtold. Capitol Valley Regional SAFE Program Mgr./Transportation Planner at SACOG

Metrics

• any specific calculations
• you think will be needed

Data sources

• Cal-ITP data sources:

• https://ntd-monthly-ridership--cal-itp-data-analyses.netlify.app/readme

• External data sources:

• https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/data-product/monthly-module-adjusted-data-release

• Remaining data source questions:

Deliverables

Notebook, dashboard, narrative, presentation details.

• email and/or meeting with Barbara

Timeline of deliverables

Estimated completion date

[csuyat-dot]

initial responses to questions:

1. Looked into El Dorado County Transit data from Monthly RTPA site and did not see data from 2022. MAY be possible to add in their data but only if the data format matches exactly like the NTD?
2. Looked into Yolo Transportation District and data for their change in UTP YoY, data shows up as negative value (-5604 and -4992 change 1year 1/2024 and 2/2024 respectively). Need to investigate chart code to see if there are axis constraints for negative numbers.
3. Per NTD Q&A, "Yes, in most cases microtransit services are reported to the NTD as Demand Response."

[csuyat-dot]

related issue regarding report tweaks

• Research Request - NTD by RTPA report tweaks #990

related issue regarding RTPA data request

• Create Spreadsheet to track NTD Data Requests from RTPA #1057

[csuyat-dot]

initial email:
"I was reviewing the SACOG region monthly ridership trends information posted - https://ntd-monthly-ridership--cal-itp-data-analyses.netlify.app/rtpa_sacramento-area-council-of-governments/0__monthly_ridership_report__rtpa_sacramento-area-council-of-governments.

I know there are limitations to what data are shown based on the source of the information used, but it appears that some data are missing in what is presented.
For the SACOG region it appear that for El Dorado County Transit only date through June of 2019 is shown, but data are available through June of 2022. They are a smaller reporter and only report on unlinked passenger trips annually and not monthly. Is there a way to add the information from the small non-NTD monthly reporters to what is presented if we assisted in the collection of those data?
Also, in the section on change in unlinked passenger trips year-over-year it appears that Yolo Transportation District is no included, but should be since they are a monthly reporter on UPT.

Do you know if the demand response category is lumping in microtransit/on demand service with demand response service? It may be interesting to show the recent changes/expansions in microtransit service availability."

[csuyat-dot]

sent this email to Barbara. leaving issue open until report is adjusted for Yolo Transportation District.

Hi Barbara,

Hope you are doing well. My name is Christian Suyat and I work with Gillian in Caltrans/Cal-ITP. Apologies for the late response but we wanted to let you know that I have been working your questions and wanted give you an update.

1. The intent of the Monthly Ridership site is to publish the ridership data for monthly reporters using the NTD monthly ridership page as the source. After discussing with my senior colleagues, separately adding El Dorado County Transit’s data to the site might not be feasible if their latest data is not already in the NTD. It would require reworking our code as well as a commitment from SACOG to consistently and reliably send us data in the exact format as NTD.
2. We took a look the Yolo Transportation District UPT data and confirm you are correct, their data should be shown on the change in UPT section but is not. I am currently working on adjusting our website ensure other transit agencies like Yolo Transportation are shown accurately. I will let you know when this fix is active.
3. Per NTD Q&A, "Yes, in most cases microtransit services are reported to the NTD as Demand Response."

[csuyat-dot]

fix to address question 2 is completed. see

• Monthly Ridership by RTPA chart adjustment #1117