How fast is the bus?

March 23rd, 2013

This fast:

Agency Line Avg Speed(MPH)
SORTA 82x 47.2
SORTA 52x 43.5
SORTA 42x 35.7
SORTA 67 35.4
SORTA 71 32.7
SORTA 75x 32.2
TANK 22X 31.5
TANK 2X 29.7
TANK 28X 29.4
TANK 29X 28.9
TANK 32X 28.2
SORTA 30x 27.4
TANK Gateway 27
SORTA 12x 25.8
SORTA 23 25.5
TANK 1X 24.9
SORTA 81x 24.6
SORTA 29x 24.2
TANK 30X 23.8
SORTA 28 23.6
SORTA 14x 23.1
SORTA 3 23.1
TANK 17X 23
SORTA 50 22.8
SORTA 74x 22.8
TANK 19X 22.4
TANK 18X 22
SORTA 2x 21.8
TANK 9 21.6
TANK 25X 21.5
TANK H5AM 21.1
SORTA 25x 20.5
TANK H2PM 20.4
SORTA 40x 19.8
SORTA 77x 18.7
SORTA 41 18.4
SORTA 20 17.4
SORTA 32 17.4
TANK H8AM 17.1
SORTA 15x 17
SORTA 24 16.9
TANK 1 16.8
TANK H9PM 16.7
TANK 33 16.7
TANK H1AM 16.5
TANK 25 16.5
TANK H1PM 16.2
TANK 11 16.2
SORTA 10 16.1
TANK ND2P 15.8
SORTA 38 15.6
TANK 3 15.4
TANK H3PM 15.3
TANK 23 15.2
SORTA 11 15.1
TANK 16 15.1
TANK NPIA 15
SORTA 78 15
SORTA 49 14.9
TANK NPI 14.8
SORTA 27 14.8
SORTA 19 14.7
SORTA 16 14.7
SORTA 85 14.5
SORTA 17 14.4
SORTA 6 14.3
SORTA 64 14.3
SORTA 39 14.2
TANK 7 14
SORTA 21 14
TANK 20 13.9
TANK H6PM 13.9
SORTA 43 13.9
TANK 5 13.9
SORTA 4 13.5
SORTA 31 13.2
SORTA 51 13.1
SORTA 33 13.1
SORTA 1 12.7
TANK 12 12.2
TANK H4PM 11.1
TANK H2AM 10.8
TANK Southbank 10.4
TANK H7PM 9.9
SORTA 46 9.6
TANK HTPM 7.9
TANK H5PM 6.6

Interesting stuff! And pretty close to a normal distribution. The “H…” lines are TANK’s school bus lines by the way.(EDIT: See the comments for a much better account of TANK naming conventions) And of course the speed varies by location and time of day. Everything will be slower downtown than on the highway.

I derived the numbers from the GTFS feeds from both agencies. All of the numbers look like they’re in the right ballpark, but I haven’t gone through this line by line to rule out anything weird like big scheduled layovers. I’ve also updated the “shapes from GTFS” file to include average speeds for the line. There should be a map coming soon…it will be interesting to see if I can use the data to identify chokepoints in the system and potentially how they vary throughout the day as traffic changes. Of course the data isn’t from actual observed speeds, just inferred from the length of route segments and their scheduled times throughout the week.

Transit agencies: I know your planning departments must do interesting statistical analyses of your routes internally…it would be awesome if you shared the results with the world!

2 responses to “How fast is the bus?”

  1. Tim Bender says:
    04/19/2013 at 9:44 am

    Naming convention clarification for TANK routes:
    * Example: H1AM
    – (H)=Holmes High School, (ND)=Notre Dame High School, (HT)=Holy Trinity High Schoo
    – (AM)=Morning, (PM)=afternoon
    – (1)=1st Trip, (2)=2nd Trip, etc.
    – (NPI) or (NPIA) = New Perceptions

    Not Shown:
    NKUS =NKU Shuttle