Activity Information Access

[Jonathan Harris]

Hi all -- I am a new user and looking to access the Activity data. Is this available via API call? If so, how do I retrieve the data?

Thanks,

Jonathan

[Developer at MBTA]

Hi Jonathan, could you clarify what you mean by "the Activity data" and what your overall goal is? The only concept named "activity" we have in the MBTA V3 API is the activities field of InformedEntity resources (part of Alerts), but it sounds like you might be asking about something else.

[Jonathan Harris]

Hi, 

By activity data, I am referring to the  below screenshot from the API documentation page. Is there away to see information on passengers' ridership that is up-to-date?

I am having trouble finding data that has been updated more recently than late spring.

This data would be used in academic research.

Thanks,

Jonathan 

[Jonathan Harris]

Hi,

I'm looking to retrieve ridership data updated more frequently than late spring, and am referring to the activity data captured in the attached screenshot. This would be used for academic research. Please let me know if this data is readily accessible with recently updated records.

Thanks,

Jonathan

On Tuesday, October 13, 2020 at 10:28:04 AM UTC-4 Developer at MBTA wrote:

[Developer at MBTA]

Hi Jonathan, thanks for those details. To clarify, the "Activity" resource in your screenshot is unrelated to ridership data: it is a property of an Alert (representing a disruption in service) that lets us inform riders what actions will be affected by the disruption. For example, if an escalator breaks down, we can publish an Alert that indicates the USING_ESCALATOR activity is affected at the relevant station.

In general you will not find anything related to ridership data in the V3 API or GTFS, as these are focused on providing data about MBTA service itself such as schedules, maps, and real-time predictions. We do publish historical ridership data on the MBTA Open Data Portal. If you need more recent data than what is there, you may want to reach out directly to the Office of Performance Management and Innovation (OPMI) at op...@mbta.com.

[Jonathan Harris]

Understood, thank you for the explanation and suggestions!