README.md

Boston Bus Equity Dataset

This dataset contains MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) bus service data for Boston Bus Equity analysis.

Dataset Subsets

1. arrival_departure

Bus arrival and departure times data (2020-2026).

Schema:

• service_date (date): Service date
• route_id (string): Bus route identifier
• direction_id (int): Direction (0=outbound, 1=inbound)
• half_trip_id (string): Half trip identifier
• stop_id (int): Bus stop identifier
• time_point_id (string): Time point identifier
• time_point_order (int): Order of time point on route
• point_type (string): Type of point
• standard_type (string): Standard type
• scheduled (datetime): Scheduled arrival/departure time
• actual (datetime): Actual arrival/departure time
• scheduled_headway (float): Scheduled headway in minutes
• headway (float): Actual headway in minutes
• year (int): Year derived from service_date
• month (int): Month derived from service_date

Records: ~161 million Size: ~1.9 GB

2. ridership

Bus ridership data by trip, season, route, and stop (2016-2024).

Schema:

• season (string): Season and year (e.g., "Fall 2023")
• route_id (string): Bus route identifier
• route_variant (string): Route variant
• direction_id (int): Direction
• trip_start_time (time): Trip start time
• day_type_id (string): Day type ID
• day_type_name (string): Day type name (weekday, saturday, sunday)
• stop_name (string): Bus stop name
• stop_id (int): Bus stop identifier
• stop_sequence (int): Stop sequence on route
• boardings (float): Number of boardings
• alightings (float): Number of alightings
• load_ (float): Passenger load
• sample_size (int): Sample size
• year (int): Year derived from season
• season_name (string): Season name (Fall, Spring, etc.)

Records: ~7.9 million Size: ~50 MB

3. survey

MBTA 2024 System-Wide Passenger Survey data.

Schema:

• aggregation_level (string): Level of aggregation
• service_mode (string): Service mode (Bus, Rail, etc.)
• reporting_group (string): Reporting group
• measure_group (string): Measure group
• measure (string): Measure name
• category (string): Category
• weighted_percent (float): Weighted percentage
• ObjectId (int): Object identifier
• year (int): Survey year (2024)

Records: ~14,000 Size: ~244 KB

4. gtfs_stops

GTFS bus stop locations and information.

Schema:

• stop_id (int): Stop identifier
• stop_code (string): Stop code
• stop_name (string): Stop name
• stop_lat (float): Latitude
• stop_lon (float): Longitude
• zone_id (string): Fare zone
• municipality (string): Municipality name
• on_street (string): Street name
• at_street (string): Cross street
• wheelchair_boarding (int): Wheelchair accessibility
• vehicle_type (int): Vehicle type

Records: ~10,000 Size: ~550 KB

5. gtfs_routes

GTFS route information.

Schema:

• route_id (string): Route identifier
• route_short_name (string): Short route name
• route_long_name (string): Long route name
• route_desc (string): Route description
• route_type (int): Route type
• route_color (string): Route color (hex)
• line_id (string): Line identifier

Records: ~400 Size: ~25 KB

6. census (race, poverty_rates, per_capita_income)

Boston neighborhood demographic data from Census/ACS (2015-2019).

Files:

• census_race.parquet - Race/ethnicity by neighborhood
• census_poverty_rates.parquet - Poverty rates by neighborhood
• census_per_capita_income.parquet - Per capita income by neighborhood

Records: ~30 per file Size: ~5-11 KB each

Usage

import pandas as pd

# Load arrival/departure data
df = pd.read_parquet("data/arrival_departure/arrival_departure.parquet")

# Load ridership data
ridership = pd.read_parquet("data/ridership/ridership.parquet")

# Load survey data
survey = pd.read_parquet("data/survey/survey.parquet")

# Load GTFS data
stops = pd.read_parquet("data/gtfs/gtfs_stops.parquet")
routes = pd.read_parquet("data/gtfs/gtfs_routes.parquet")

# Load census data
census_race = pd.read_parquet("data/census/census_race.parquet")

Data Source

• MBTA Open Data Portal: https://mbta-massdot.opendata.arcgis.com/
• Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA)

License

This dataset is derived from publicly available MBTA and City of Boston data.

Citation

If you use this dataset, please cite:

@dataset{boston_bus_equity_2025,
  title={Boston Bus Equity Dataset},
  author={Boston Bus Equity Team},
  year={2025},
  publisher={HuggingFace},
  url={https://huggingface.co/datasets/LumenscopeAI/BostonBusEquity}
}