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    1. Technology
    2. Miscellaneous

    CTA upgrades, expands ridership information dashboard to include dynamic rail crowding data

    Sept. 11, 2020
    The new dashboard interface offers quick, easy access to customized bus and rail travel data, allowing for smarter and safer travel across the system.
    Related To: Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
    CTA
    Cta Twitter 5f5aefcbd4646

    The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has upgraded and expanded its recently launched Ridership Information Dashboard to include dynamic rail crowding data as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to provide a safer, healthier transit environment.

    Launched in June with bus data, the Ridership Information Dashboard was created to help riders better plan their trips and avoid traveling during heavy ridership periods, whenever possible, and to help promote social distancing.

    Available on CTA’s website, customers can now use drop-down menus to see how crowded a bus or train may be, based on their preferred travel times, routes or train stations, direction of travel and schedule. 

    “[This] upgrade and expansion of the Ridership Information Dashboard is the latest step in our ongoing efforts to keep our customers better informed and to continuously evolve our operations during this unprecedented time,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “Now more than ever, we need our customers to be our partners in ensuring CTA remains a safe, reliable transit option. Social distancing is a core component to us fighting the spread of the coronavirus and this tool is one of many measures we’re implementing to provide a safe and healthy travel environment for everyone.” 

    The new rail ridership dashboard provides the average rail car crowding levels at each station along the rail line. Customers will be able to customize their search by station origin and destination, hour, direction and by schedule type (i.e. weekday, Saturday or Sunday/holiday). Customers can either tap/click on their station for more detailed information, or simply glance at the number of “people” icons filled in. 

    For example, during the 8:00 a.m. hour on weekdays, Loop-bound Pink Line trains are typically reaching 25-50 percent seated capacity (i.e. 10-20 seats occupied out of 40 per rail car) by the time a train departs the California station, which is visually depicted with two filled-in people icons. 

    Similarly, the Bus Crowding Dashboard, which also has been upgraded, now features a new interface with drop-down menus for easier trip planning. To see crowding conditions on buses, customers select the direction of travel of their preferred bus route and the schedule type (i.e. weekday, Saturday, Sunday). Results are then displayed by the hour using a color-coded system.

    • Blue: Seats and space available;
    • Yellow: Limited seats and space available;
    • Red: Seats and space may not be available.

    Refreshed weekly, both dashboards show the latest ridership trend based on a two-week rolling average. Crowding by bus route and rail car should be viewed within context of the established COVID-19 vehicle maximum passenger capacity limits. Customers should also note that less-crowded conditions may exist on portions of each bus route or may vary by rail car, and the dashboard presents the two-week rolling average of ridership by the hour. 

    CTA says it is continuing to work on longer-term technology tools that would provide real-time information about capacity levels on buses and trains.