Foursquare ITP worked with NFTA to create an onboard passenger origin-destination survey for the Buffalo metropolitan area. NFTA initiated its origin-destination study during COVID-19. While the survey provided an opportunity to understand how the pandemic impacted NFTA travel patterns, the pandemic raised challenges around data collection and data quality.

Foursquare ITP led the development of the final report and an interactive online dashboard for NFTA’s use to explore the data. Our data science team was also instrumental in data cleaning and processing, developing a trip-chain validator that flagged responses that required additional attention due to unusual or improbable routings.

Our work helped deliver a higher-quality survey sample. The final report took a large range of data and identified key trends that may impact future planning at NFTA.

Solutions and Outcomes
  • Helped improve the quality of location data in the Buffalo survey by more than 60% by using our Trip Chain Validator tool.
  • Created interactive online dashboards of the final report for NFTA to explore.