Are New Yorkers returning to their pre-pandemic commutes?

Objective

The MTA Post-Pandemic Recovery Dashboard offers a comprehensive analysis of New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) recovery trends across its diverse modes of transportation. This dashboard aims to answer a critical question: Are New Yorkers returning to their pre-pandemic commutes? By providing insights into ridership recovery rates, this tool empowers users to explore, compare, and evaluate how different transportation modes are rebounding from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key Goals

• Evaluate Recovery Progress: Measure and compare recovery levels across transportation modes (Access-A-Ride, Subways, Buses, Bridges and Tunnels, LIRR, Metro-North) to assess how ridership and usage have evolved since the pandemic's peak disruption.
• Highlight Trends and Milestones: Identify when recovery milestones were achieved for each mode, including the time taken to reach specific recovery levels (e.g., 95% or 100%).
• Facilitate Data-Driven Decisions: Provide actionable insights for transportation planners, policymakers, and researchers to optimize service, allocate resources, and address underperforming modes.

Dashboard Overview

The dashboard consists of two pages designed to provide a balance of high-level overviews and detailed mode-specific analysis:

Page 1: Overview and Comparison

This page offers a comprehensive view of recovery trends across all transportation modes, enabling quick comparisons and insights into mode-specific performance. Key features include:

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Highlight total ridership and recovery levels per mode, dynamically adjusting based on the user-selected time range.
• Vertical Bar Chart: Displays recovery trends for each mode during the selected period, highlighting which modes experienced growth, stagnation, or decline.
• Heatmap: Provides a granular view of daily recovery level changes across modes, emphasizing spikes or dips in performance.

Page 2: Mode-Specific Insights

This page focuses on detailed analysis for a selected transportation mode, empowering users to dive deeper into individual performance. Features include:

• Line Chart: Displays weekly recovery trends for the selected mode, with color-coded lines to indicate whether pre-pandemic levels were reached, exceeded, or not yet achieved.
  • Trend Line: A pre-pandemic benchmark facilitates comparison with current levels.
  • Dynamic Text: Provides the exact date and time elapsed (in years, months, and days) when a user-defined recovery level (e.g., 95%) was first reached.
  • Insight: For example, Access-A-Ride reached pre-pandemic levels by December 14, 2020, continuing steady growth, while Buses have yet to reach 95% recovery.

Why Start from April 1, 2020?

Although the dataset begins on March 1, 2020, recovery levels selected by user are calculated starting from April 1, 2020—the period when transportation usage hit its lowest point due to pandemic restrictions. This provides a meaningful benchmark for tracking progress.

Key considerations:

• March 2020: Represents the pandemic’s onset, with initial declines.
• April 2020: Marks lowest ridership levels, serving as a logical baseline for recovery measurements.

Insights and Actionable Takeaways

This dashboard answers critical questions about post-pandemic commuting behavior and offers valuable insights for decision-making:

1. Which Modes are Recovering the Fastest?
   • Bridges and Tunnels achieved pre-pandemic levels within a year and have remained stable since.
   • Access-A-Ride rebounded quickly and exceeded pre-pandemic levels by December 2020.
2. Which Modes Face Challenges?
   • Staten Island Railway demonstrates slow recovery, with levels not reaching pre-pandemic, and shows significant weekly variations.
   • Buses have not yet reached 95% of pre-pandemic levels, despite occasional spikes.
3. Seasonal and Event-Based Trends:
   • LIRR and Metro-North display steady recovery trends with noticeable spikes around Thanksgiving and other holiday periods, suggesting strong seasonal influences.
4. Long-Term Growth Opportunities:
   • Subways show slow but steady recovery, indicating potential for continued growth with targeted efforts.
   • Highlighting underperforming modes like Staten Island Railway or Buses can guide resource allocation and strategic improvements.