Welcome to "Riding the Rails," an interactive visualization of MBTA subway ridership from 2019 to 2022. Using data from the (MassDOT) Mobility Dashboard, this project presents daily ridership across stations and subway lines in Greater Boston. The tool features bubble maps and bar charts, allowing users to explore ridership variations by year, line, and neighborhood, providing insights into MBTA ridership patterns over time.
Visualization One
Ridership Across Subway Stations
This bubble map visualizes the busiest MBTA subway stations. Each bubble represents a station, with its size indicating ridership. Users can zoom in to explore clusters and hover over stations to see details like total ridership and available lines. The map allows toggling between different years to observe changes in ridership patterns over time.
Visualization Two
Ridership Across Subway Lines
This bar chart shows how ridership is distributed across different subway lines. Each bar segment represents the total ridership for that line for the selected year. By toggling between the different years using the drop-down selector, we can easily compare how ridership has changed over time and identify any trends.
Fun Fact
Origin of MBTA Colors
Green Line
This color was chosen because the Green Line travels along the trees and suburban lawns of Brookline and Newton. The subway runs from the Lechmere area, heading west to Boston College and Chestnut Hill.
Orange Line
Orange was chosen because this line previously ran along Washington Street, once known as the Orange Way. This subway runs from the Malden/Medford area, heading southwest to Forest Hills.
Red Line
The red line color choice was based on the Harvard Crimson, because this subway leaves from Cambridge, heading south- east to Braintree and Quincy.
Blue Line
Because this line runs along the coast, it was named for the blue of the Atlantic. This subway extends from the Government Center area, transporting to and from the airport.