Executive Summary
The National Center for Applied Transit Technology (N-CATT) is a technical assistance center with a mission to provide small urban, rural, and tribal transit agencies with practical resources that help them apply technological solutions and innovations. To this end, N-CATT presents the Data Practices Guidebook, a resource for agencies seeking actionable insights from data.
Beginning with an overview of how agencies can obtain more and better data, the Guidebook addresses the state of the practice and emerging trends in data collection, management, and the use of open data. On this foundation, the Data Practices Guidebook then guides agencies on how to use data through the lenses of planning and performance monitoring, partnerships, and access and equity.
Data Practices collect, structure, or analyze data to improve agency operations and how transit riders are served.
The data practices featured in this Guidebook are tailored to small urban, rural, and tribal agencies. While the discussion of these practices is drawn from experiences at such agencies, some emerging data practices are found primarily at transit providers in major metropolitan areas.
This Guidebook seeks to provide smaller agencies with both an understanding of the range of current practices, as well as others that may become more widespread in the coming years. Transit managers and planners using this Guidebook can use the prompts and checklists provided to consider current and emerging data practices that may be well-suited to your agency.
About This Document
This document was prepared for CTAA by Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning in March 2021 as part of the N-CATT cooperative agreement between CTAA and FTA. Primary authors were Adam Recchia, Reinaldo Germano, Wylie Timmerman, Jack McDowell, and Rebecca Martin of Foursquare ITP. Opinions expressed or implied in this document are those of the authors. Nothing in this document is to be interpreted as position, policy, or guidance from the United States Government. Incidental use of companies’ names or the names of their products is made solely to facilitate discussion and should not be regarded as recommendations or endorsements.
About N-CATT
The National Center for Applied Transit Technology (N-CATT) is a technical assistance center funded through a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Operated by the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA), the mission of N-CATT is to provide small urban, rural, and tribal transit agencies with practical, replicable resources that help them apply technological solutions and innovations. Among its activities, N-CATT produces a series of white papers, technical reports such as this document, and other resources, all of which can be accessed online at www.n-catt.org.
