Hello, world!
My name is Andrew Kuziemko and this is the first post of a new blog from a startup group within the MTA: the Data & Analytics team.
We’ve started this blog to share some of the exciting data work happening at MTA. We’ll use this space to discuss interesting analytical approaches, highlight new insights available on our Open Data and Metrics sites, and detail some of our engineering processes.
But first, who is the D&A group and what do we do exactly? Our mission is to make data easier to work with and draw valuable insights from, both inside the MTA and with the public. Our team launched in 2022 and has since grown to over 20 employees. We’re a mix of data scientists and data engineers who are all passionate about improving transportation in the NYC area. We also share a deep aversion to being sent datasets via email, or really ever doing the same task twice. So, we try hard to make everything we do part of automated data pipelines built from live data sources. We’re also committed to transparency. We believe the best way to fix a problem is to first have a common understanding of it. Therefore, many of our data pipelines flow into Open Data.
I have the privilege of leading the D&A team, but most posts will not come from me. Our data scientists and engineers are eager to share what they’ve been working on. I find what they do fascinating, and I think you will too. Some specific upcoming topics will include deep dives into our ridership data, an explanation of how we calculate bus performance, and an overview of our Open Data program.
The MTA has a lot of data across many topics and different modes, so the posts here will be pretty diverse. Most of them will be for a general audience, but others will be aimed at people with a more technical background. Either way, we’ll try to keep it interesting. So, watch this space to learn about the latest from the MTA Data & Analytics team!
About the author
Andrew Kuziemko is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the MTA.