>The L train is also the only line that uses modern >communications-based train control (CBTC), which allows >trains to operate in a more automated fashion.<p>It's not "more automated fashion", it's fully automated, LIDAR and all - they are fully autonomous. L trains have operators because of unions throwing a fit and most of the times they sit there twiddling their thumbs.
The author does briefly mention this, but the countdown clocks are not every accurate. I often see a wait time of "3 min" and then it's there in the next 10 seconds. Or you can see the opposite where it just hangs on "3 min" for a minute or two and was really 5 minutes away. In reality it should just report at its accuracy, e.g., "<5 min" "5-10 min", "10-15 min", etc.<p>PS, why do people stick their necks over the tracks to look if a train is coming?
Kudos to MTA NYC - the raw data to perform analysis is available here:
<a href="http://web.mta.info/developers/MTA-Subway-Time-historical-data.html" rel="nofollow">http://web.mta.info/developers/MTA-Subway-Time-historical-da...</a><p>The details on how the countdown clocks work is available here:
<a href="https://www.amny.com/transit/subway-countdown-clock-complaints-1.15351692" rel="nofollow">https://www.amny.com/transit/subway-countdown-clock-complain...</a><p>GTFS Format:
<a href="https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs-realtime/" rel="nofollow">https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs-realtime/</a>
I notice the numbered trains are all coming out ahead of the lettered trains. Is this taking into account the bug in the MTA data where the countdown clocks for the lettered trains weren't accurate at the terminal stations until a week or so ago?
Bless Todd W. Schneider and his in depth mathematical analyses of travel times in NYC. See also his epic Uber/Taxi post: <a href="http://toddwschneider.com/posts/analyzing-1-1-billion-nyc-taxi-and-uber-trips-with-a-vengeance/#update-2017" rel="nofollow">http://toddwschneider.com/posts/analyzing-1-1-billion-nyc-ta...</a>
This is interesting analysis, but it's based on NYC MTA countdown clock data which is just rampantly inaccurate on lines other than the L. It is regularly, customarily, up to 4 minutes off in either direction, in my experience.<p>Since trains are supposed to be spaced out 4-5 min or so, that means the clock is only really useful to tell if there's a huge delay.
He's completely right that the data is messy and sometimes makes no sense at all. Even a passenger waiting for a train, if paying attention, will notice trains appear, disappear and "jump around" on the countdown clocks.
Moving due to the L tunnel shutdown next year, I've been asking if any other train comes nearly as often (I rarely wait more than 5 minutes). This is a very timely list, thanks!