Explainations

The goal of writing this is twofold: to explain why I built transitdonkey and how it works. Transitdonkey was created because I enjoy riding public transit and use it frequently when traveling or commuting to work and school. In addition, I think public transit is a vital service for residents living in a city because it connects people to jobs, school, services, and events.

Remote Work and Pandemic Funding

There are two factors leading to budget deficits in almost every transit agency in the U.S. and they are remote work and the end of pandemic funding. Both factors are impacting almost every transit agency in the country leading to massive service cuts. This has particular hurt agencies that rely on a majority of fares to fund their operations such as BART. Additionally, the recent increase in fuel prices has added to the pressure that transit agencies are facing.

I believe the historic service cuts that BART has announced will hurt many commuters leading to longer travel times, more transfers, and increased costs. Ultimately, the goal of transitdonkey is to model these scenarios and provide a realistic view of their impact on your commute.

Removing Routes and Changing Schedules

Scenarios are modeled by applying proposed modifications to the current transit service. Modifications include shortening or removing routes, removing stations, and changing schedules.

Removed stations or routes are simply excluded from the current service, so any trips that used them won't appear. Schedule changes are generated from updated start times, end times, and frequencies. Because transit agencies don't publish exact schedules until a change takes effect, departure times in these scenarios are simulated so while they won't match what the agency ultimately implements, they're as realistic as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to read about transitdonkey! Please feel free to email me transitdonkey@gmail.com

Sincerely,

James :) 🚂 🚌 🚃