Is there such a thing as open passenger count data, and where can I find some?

[mmorang]

I'd love to play around with some passenger count data, but I don't know of any sources of open passenger count data, and I've heard horror stories from a few people who jumped through numerous hoops (including FOIA requests) trying to get it.

[jmcbroom]

Here's some data for Chicago's CTA:
https://data.cityofchicago.org/Administration-Finance/CTA-Ridership-Views/m7vs-cknd

[jmcbroom]

O/D data for May 2012, DC Metro: https://planitmetro.com/2012/10/31/data-download-metrorail-ridership-by-origin-and-destination/

[PPaulsonOregonDOT]

https://github.com/ODOT-PTS/GTFS-ride/blob/master/spec/en/reference.md outlines a data standard that was spearheaded in Oregon intended to provide a lot of the functionality you're looking for. The hope is that if tools can be developed using the standard, more transit agencies will provide open ridership data, in the same way that the original GTFS standard opened up schedule information.

[mmorang]

@PPaulsonOregonDOT This looks really useful! Do you have any examples of agencies that are already using this and any existing open datasets in this format available?

[PPaulsonOregonDOT]

@mmorang The standard has been in development for a while, but the press release for the standard only went out late last week. The next step towards adoption is the development of software tools that can take ridership data as it currently exists within agencies and easily translate it into GTFS-ride.