I spent a lot of time with my team at the MBTA/MassDOT thinking about how to think about data:  about what data we had and the data we didn’t, the decisions we made in the analysis and visualization process and their implications, and how to communicate with different audiences about our level of certainty. I left knowing we needed better tools for the public, transit advocates, and decision-makers to engage with how transit agencies use data.  

During my fellowship this year I wrote about it on this blog and explored what prioritizing qualitative data would look like in practice at transit agencies. I have turned some of this thinking into a website and training presentation. It focuses on questions to ask about quantitative data analysis, since that is my expertise, and points to when qualitative analysis is needed. I hope people find it useful and I welcome feedback!