Dashboard Help
The new Bus Performance Dashboard is a user-friendly tool that tells our customers how we're doing by:
- Displaying new measures that reflect the performance of our bus network in a way that's more relevant to customers.
- Providing our customers with valuable information—about the entire network, or just about the route, or routes, that they take.
- Offering an easy-to-use tool that improves transparency.
Frequently Asked Questions:
The dashboard indicators, except for MDBF, reflect weekday service only. MDBF is measured across all days of the week.
When no time periods are selected, data is shown for the whole day (24 hours). Peak hours are from 7 am to 9 am in the morning and 4 pm to 7 pm in the evening. Off-peak hours are the times of day outside of those hours. Exceptions are noted below.
Each route is assigned to a single borough based on the letters used for the route number. For example, data for the M60-SBS is included in the total when Manhattan is selected, but not if only Queens is selected. Similarly, the Q54 is included in Queens, and the S79-SBS is included in Staten Island. Express routes are counted in their outer borough, so the BXM7 is a Bronx route and the X27 is Brooklyn.
Service Delivered (sometimes referred to as throughput) measures our ability to deliver the scheduled service. It is calculated as the percentage of scheduled bus trips that are actually provided during peak hours. Service Delivered is measured at the peak load point, which is the stop on the route where the bus is most crowded, using GPS tracking data from Bus Time, as well as bus depot operations records.
Bus speeds measure how quickly buses travel along their routes. Speeds are calculated as the average end-to-end speed along a route using Bus Time data.
Additional Bus Stop Time (ABST) is the average added time that customers wait at a stop for a bus, compared with their scheduled wait time. The measure assumes customers arrive at the bus stop uniformly, except for routes with longer headways, where customers arrive more closely aligned to the schedule. ABST (sometimes referred to as Excess Wait Time) is a new indicator for the MTA, but is considered an industry best practice worldwide. ABST is measured using customers’ MetroCard swipes on buses combined with GPS tracking data from Bus Time. This indicator is likely to be refined and enhanced over time as the MTA gains experience integrating the latest technology. ABST is measured from 4 am to 11 pm.
Additional Travel Time (ATT) is the average additional time customers spend onboard the bus compared to the schedule. ATT (sometimes referred to as Excess In-Vehicle Travel Time) is a new indicator for the MTA, but is considered an industry best practice worldwide. ATT is measured using customers’ MetroCard swipes on buses combined with GPS tracking data from Bus Time. This indicator is likely to be refined and enhanced over time as the MTA gains experience integrating the latest technology. ATT is measured from 4 am to 11 pm.
Customer Journey Time Performance (CJTP) measures the percentage of customers who complete their journey (ABST + ATT) within 5 minutes of the scheduled time. This is a new indicator for the MTA, but is used by other transit agencies to measure service. CJTP is measured using customers’ MetroCard swipes on buses combined with GPS tracking data from Bus Time. This indicator is likely to be refined and enhanced over time as the MTA gains experience integrating the latest technology. CJTP is measured from 4 am to 11 pm.
Mean Distance Between Failures (MDBF) reports how frequently mechanical problems such as engine failures or electrical malfunctions cause delays. It is calculated by dividing the number of miles buses run in service by the number of incidents due to mechanical problems.
MDBF numbers include weekdays and weekends. This number is reported as a 12-month average.
Passenger Environment Survey (PES) indicators combine the results of surveys of a number of different aspects of bus vehicle and operating conditions in three categories:
- Appearance: For example, do the buses appear clean? Are they free of graffiti?
- Equipment: For example, do the the heat, air conditioning, and wheelchair lift work?
- Information: For example, is the information helpful and appropriate? Are the electronic signs correct? Are the announcements clear?
Separate surveys are conducted for local and express buses. Express buses are only surveyed for appearance and equipment indicators.
Surveys are conducted between 4 am and 11 pm on weekdays. This number is reported as a 12-month average.
Wait Assessment (WA) measures how evenly buses are spaced. It is defined as the percentage of actual intervals between buses that are no more than three minutes over the scheduled interval for the morning (7 am to 9 am) and afternoon (4 pm to 7 pm) peak periods and no more than five minutes over the scheduled interval for the rest of the day. This measure provides a percentage of buses passing the standard, but it does not account for extra service operated, it is not weighted based on how many customers are waiting for buses at different stops, it does not distinguish between relatively minor gaps in service and major delays, and it is not a true measurement of time customers spend waiting at stops.
The customer indicators contained in this dashboard (Additional Bus Stop Time, Additional Bus Time, and Customer Journey Time Performance) are new indicators for the MTA. Accordingly, data is not yet available prior to August 2017.
Currently, route-level data is only available for January 2018 and forward. Route-level data is a new feature, and this data has been carefully calibrated and validated to ensure its accuracy. Historical route-level data will be added on a rolling basis as it becomes available. In the meantime, borough-level data is still available for past years.
Why doesn’t the Mean Distance Between Failure indicator have historical data for Select Bus Service?
Select Bus Service equipment is sometimes used on Local/Limited routes. Prior to June 2017, data for Select Bus Service is combined with Local/Limited service. Due to better tracking mechanisms, MDBF data has been captured separately since June 2017.
Due to the survey methodology for the Passenger Environment Surveys, data is collected for SBS routes and reported under the Local/Limited service type.
Some routes, when shown individually, have extremely variable performance results. This can be because a route has few daily trips, which results in a sample size too small to produce reliable metrics, and/or because a route has atypical characteristics that make processing performance data infeasible. As their metrics can’t be calculated with any degree of certainty, these routes are not displayed individually and aren’t included in systemwide numbers.
Some routes have few daily trips, leading to sample sizes that are too small to be displayed individually. In these cases, routes that operate on a shared corridor are combined to produce reliable metrics.
Some of the metrics have been recalibrated and updated in October 2019 as part of an initiative to improve accuracy. These updates include: increasing the accuracy and consistency of source data, excluding routes on certain days that have missing or faulty data which cannot be rectified, and tweaking the methodology to better account for edge cases. The metrics shown here take precedence to any previously published data. Overall, changes have been found to be small (less than 1% at the borough and service type level).