SPEED

Hubway faster

About the Same

MBTA faster

DISTRICTS

Somerville Ponds

North Charles

WOMA (West of Mass Ave)

Headlands

Eastie

DISTANCE

Less than 1 Mile

1 mile - 2.5 miles

2.5 - 5 miles

More than 5 miles

TRANSIT ACCESS SCORE

High

Medium

Low

PERCENT RESIDENTIAL

High Transit Access

Medium Transit Access

Low Transit Access

BASEMAP LAYERS

MBTA ISOCHRONES

HUBWAY ISOCHRONES

PARCELS

MBTA

What is Hubway's role in the greater Boston transit system?

A SASAKI STRATEGIES DATA EXPLORATION

We started by measuring access to transit.

To do this, we calculated real-time walk circles around each bus and T station in Boston at 2.5, 5, and 10 minute intervals, assigning different scoring weights based on distance and mode type. (These walk circles are not simple rings, but are “isochrones” calculated using actual walking routes via OpenTripPlanner and OpenStreetMap.) In the map below, the whitest areas are closest to the highest amount of transit options, while darker areas have lower access. This methodology allows us to assign a transit score for every Hubway station, to illustrate whether it has a high, medium, or low level of access to bus lines or the T.

Then we mapped the trips taken between Hubway stations.

Hubway’s data includes trip origin and destination points, but not the route path taken in between. Using OpenTripPlanner, we calculated the probable route taken for all Hubway trips, resulting in the network pattern shown below. By combining these calculated routes with the transit access scores for each station, patterns emerge for how people might be using Hubway within the context of the greater Boston transit system.

By looking at the extremes of the data, we found that Hubway plays three roles in the greater Boston transit system:

FIRST/LAST MILE CONNECTOR

Approximately 20%* of Hubway trips are taken to connect to the T, from areas of high transit access to areas of low transit access or vice versa.

ITS OWN MODE OF TRANSIT

Approximately 10%* of Hubway trips are taken to supplement a gap in T access, from areas of low transit access to other areas of low transit access.

SUBSTITUTE FOR TRANSIT

Approximately 15%* of Hubway trips are taken instead of the T, from areas of high transit access to other areas of high transit access.

OTHERS

Approximately 55%* of Hubway trips are taken from areas of medium transit access to other areas of medium transit access, so it’s difficult to determine a correlation.

* Our analysis includes all trips from January 2015 to February 2017.

Hubway connects neighborhoods to the T.

Approximately 20% of Hubway trips are taken from areas of high transit access to areas of low transit access or vice versa, implying that these trips serve to better connect neighborhoods to the T. The map below shows

all

high-low and low-high routes. We were surprised to find that there are relatively few trips

less than 1 mile

; most trips are between

1 mile and 2.5 miles

2.5 and 5 miles

. As expected, there are also few trips that are

longer than 5 miles

Does Hubway serve a first/last mile role?

We looked at land use for parcels within a 5 minute walking radius of

all

Hubway stations, and categorized the land use as residential or non-residential. On average, Hubway stations with

high

transit access are adjacent to only 31% residential use and Hubway stations with

low

transit access have a greater share of residential use at 48%. We expected to find that Hubway served a significant role as a first-last mile connector to the T to or from someone's home; however, this was not supported by our distance analysis.

Hubway acts as a mode of transit independent of the T.

Approximately 10% of Hubway trips are from areas of low transit access to other areas of low transit access, implying that these trips help to supplement a gap in T access. The map below shows only these

low-low routes

. You can see that there are many of these trips taken in

Cambridgeport / Fenway

where T access is lower, as well as

East Cambridge and Charlestown

What are the districts of the Hubway system?

It’s interesting to consider Hubway as its own transit system. What if we organized this transit system like a traditional subway network, with separate lines or districts just like the Red line, Green line, etc.? The map below shows the “districts” of the Hubway system, clustered according to the strength of connection and number of trips between various stations. We’ve called these five districts

Somerville Ponds,

North Charles,

WOMA (West of Mass Ave),

Headlands,

and

Eastie.

People often ride Hubway instead of taking the T.

Approximately 15% of Hubway trips are taken from areas of high transit access to other areas of high transit access, implying that the rider is choosing to use Hubway in place of the T. The map below shows only these

high-high routes

. You can see that there is a strong connection between

Cambridge & Allston / Brighton,

which makes sense given Boston’s hub-and-spoke transit network. You can also see a pattern in southwest Boston, around the

E line and orange line,

where Hubway riders may be trying to beat the T.

Is riding Hubway faster than the T?

Why would people ride Hubway instead of taking the T? While Hubway is a healthier mode of transit and perhaps more pleasant, maybe it’s also faster than taking the T too. We used the start and end points of every Hubway trip to estimate how long that trip would take if you took the T instead, and then compared this to the actual time for that particular Hubway trip to see which was faster. The map below shows routes that are

about the same

length of time.

Hubway trips

are faster along the B & C Green lines, and also serve to create a connective tissue through outer-ring neighborhoods.

Trips via T

are faster along the Red line, the 1 bus line, and the Orange line.

About This Project

Created by Sasaki Strategies, this visualization was built as a submission for the 2017 Hubway Data Challenge. For questions about the data, methodology, or anything else, we welcome you to contact us at strategies@sasaki.com.