Mid-America Regional Council Pilot of the Data Business Plan for State and Local Departments of Transportation: Data Business Plan

Appendix G. Regional Data Sharing Case Studies

This appendix highlights two important initiatives, led by the Mid‑America Regional Council (MARC), that have increased data sharing in the Kansas City region. These were gathered through email and phone interviews with MARC staff.

Bicycle/Pedestrian Data Sharing Scheme Between Mid‑America Regional Council and Overland Park

Through this initiative, MARC and the City of Overland Park share their bicycle/pedestrian count data using equipment devices coming from the same vendor, along with a common platform to analyze and visualize the data.

How It Came to Fruition

MARC owns two portable bicycle counters and four portable pedestrian counters that are available for local jurisdictions to borrow. When the City of Overland Park was considering purchasing bicycle/pedestrian counters for their own use, they contacted MARC to learn about their experience. The City ultimately opted to purchase the same equipment that MARC had and, with this decision, MARC staff saw an opportunity for collaboration. The two organizations had some fruitful discussions, after which they agreed to enter a voluntary data-sharing agreement whereby each organization has access to data produced by both sets of counters. The fact that they both use counters and software from the same vendor ensured full interoperability, maximizing their efforts to better understand bicycle/pedestrian mobility in the region.

Overcoming Challenges

When MARC purchased its counters, the agency was faced with erroneous data and a lack of standards to correct it. Beyond manually changing the count errors by "eyeballing" the data, MARC had no guidance to address this issue. Faced with this, MARC and Overland Park staff painstakingly went through the process of identifying possible causes for the data inaccuracies; and after many trials and errors, it identified certain practices to install the equipment in a way that it produced dramatically more accurate data. In other words, as MARC planner Kaitlyn Service stated, "the best way to get good data is to prevent the equipment from recording bad data" by fine-tuning how to install it.

Lessons Learned and Next Steps

The common platform allows for a low-maintenance data sharing scheme, enabling multiple organizations' access to information from any given counter regardless of counter ownership. MARC hopes to continue advancing this program in the following ways:

• Develop best practices guide for data collection (equipment installation).
• Organize a cooperative purchasing agreement.
• Encourage other jurisdictions to join this initiative by acquiring compatible counter equipment.

Kansas City Regional Map

Through this initiative, route information from all public transportation providers in the Kansas City (KC) area were incorporated into one single, dynamic map. This can be accessed through the KC Smart Moves website.⁴

How It Came to Fruition

The initiative was first developed by the Regional Transit Coordinating Council, which serves as a MARC-led regional advisory committee for transit policy and funding priorities. It stemmed from the idea that a transit user does not care about who manages which bus routes; instead, this user looks at the system as a whole to determine his or her mobility options. To support a more integrated system, this regional transit map is part of a larger effort to create a single brand for all transit agencies in the region. While this initial idea came from the involvement of various transit stakeholders, MARC led the effort to develop the map from General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data.

Overcoming Challenges

This system is based on collecting GTFS feeds from transit agencies to integrate them into the regional transit map. However, some of the smaller transit agencies did not have their routes in GTFS format and their routes were not available. In one case, Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA), the largest transit provider, assisted a smaller agency in converting its routes to GTFS format. In other cases, the route information was obtained in the form of shapefiles. Another challenge was having to deal with GTFS-specific data quirks; through quality assurance (QA)/quality control (QC) and trial and error, MARC staff developed methods to address them. Lastly, certain analyses require advanced skills in database management and programming (e.g., calculating frequency of service). MARC staff did not have this capability and when having to conduct these analyses they would do so manually, spending considerable time and effort.

Lessons Learned and Next Steps

Although not all agencies were able to provide their data in GTFS format, MARC’s flexibility and willingness to work with them using available resources ensured their successful inclusion in this initiative. With the hiring of two new staff with advanced data management skills, MARC hopes to automate more processes in its semi-annual update of this map.