Cities and Transit Agencies are Finally Getting on Board with Bus Stop Data- Next City
- 14 hours ago
- 1 min read
By Maylin Tu
It was the most snow that New York City had seen in a decade — but the city was ready. This winter, the NYC Department of Sanitation took a new approach to clearing snow for bus riders and pedestrians. After January flurries blanketed the city, DSNY created its own app, geotagging every unsheltered bus stop and crosswalk.
“It’s literally dots on a map, and the dot is color-coded based on whether it’s been certified clear or not,” says Joshua Goodman, spokesperson for the department.
This new app allowed DSNY to rapidly clear bus stops and crosswalks. The department has cleared pedestrian infrastructure in the past, but not kept track of its work in any systematic way, despite being a data-driven enterprise.
“The idea of not having data about, for example, when trash has been collected on a given block is ridiculous and upsetting to us,” says Goodman. “And yet, for this, it really took that big storm and the fresh eyes of the new administration to push us forward.”
In New York, as in many other cities, adjacent property owners are responsible for sidewalks and curb ramps, meaning that responsibility for unsheltered bus stops (usually just a pole with a sign) is split across thousands of different people or businesses.
