NYMTC Strategic Data Management Kuo-Ann Chiao Technical Group Director

Most of the data, survey, forecasts covers 28 counties in the NY-NJ-Conn region. Travel does not stop at the middle of Hudson River. Economic activities that make the region a great region are moving around across all kinds of boundaries.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management Data and the tools used to analyze the data are two essential factors in transportation planning and decision-making. NYMTC staff has been assembling data from different agencies, different geographic areas, different types, different times, and provide in a series reports to members and other stakeholders.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management Everyone come to NYMTC staff for data, sometimes, for their own data.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management NYMTC is in a very unique position to provide added values to the very rich data available in this great and big region. No one else has the mission to put all the data together. Each agency has their own missions to keep their systems working properly and collect data for their operational needs.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management It would be great for an operator or a planning department to know what is going on of the systems next to theirs, so they could manage better the existing conditions and plan for a better tomorrow. NYMTC has been provided that added values to all the stakeholders through all the reports we produced and special data requests in the past more than 20 years, even started since tri-state planning commission.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management That is our niche. That is our strength. That is one of our most critical values that we could provide to our members and all the stakeholders. MTA has suggested that NYMTC staff needs to put more resources to find out what data are available and put them all together on NYMTC's website. That is something that no one could do a better job than NYMTC staff could do. We are responding to our member’s request.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management NYMTC staff produces more than 35 reports and brochures on a regular basis that have been used by members, stakeholders in the region, and other customers from all over the world. That is what we have been doing. So, what is next?

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management The world has been changing. With more interactions among the members, with more understanding of each other, with all the emerging challenges that make us need to be more efficient and more cooperative, we need to have a strategic view on how we could do a better job and what we could better serve our members' needs in this rapid changing world.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management Data itself is not sufficient anymore to meet all the new demands and challenges. We need to transform the data with visual tools to become useful information. Planners then could use the information with their experience to develop expert knowledge and make it a useful story for the decision-makers to use in their decision-making process.

Knowledge Management The Content of The Human Mind information understanding relationship knowledge wisdom understanding patterns understanding principles

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management With the matured technology of web-based applications, we could integrate all the data and transform into interactive, easy to use information. We want to be the Transportation Information Gateway that provides one-stop shopping for all the transportation information needs.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management We could call it i NYMTC. It means "my NYMTC" that provides integrated and interactive information for intelligent decision-making.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management i NYMTC will not come easy by itself. It needs lots of coordination and preparation. i NYMTC will not come easy by itself. It needs lots of coordination and preparation. We have been doing quite a few ground work in the past two years. We did a strategic data assessment and develop a matrix of data needs by 10 data categories. We started the process of data organization, standardization and sharing.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management Data Categories HighwayTransit Socioeconomic and demographic Survey Safety and security FreightNon-motorizedITS Assets inventory Financial And GIS that provides the infrastructure to link all the data together

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management The goals are to Provide standards and guidelines for data collection Provide standards and guidelines for data collection Help stakeholders collect, use, access and share data Help stakeholders collect, use, access and share data Avoid duplication of data collection Avoid duplication of data collection Better understand what data is available Better understand what data is available Integrate information and provide added value to data collected Integrate information and provide added value to data collected

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management We have been working with members on the following for each data category: Inventory of available data sets Inventory of available data sets Accessibility in electronic formats Accessibility in electronic formats Development of a schema of all data items Development of a schema of all data items Development of a data warehouse Development of a data warehouse Standards, guidelines and recommended practices for data and metadata Standards, guidelines and recommended practices for data and metadata Recommended practice for data quality control Recommended practice for data quality control

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management NYMTC staff has also been participated several data coordination and planning efforts at the national level: TMIP & FHWA Joint Panel on Data & Model Transferability TMIP & FHWA Joint Panel on Data & Model Transferability TRB Workgroup on Metadata and the Data Section Metadata Subcommittee TRB Workgroup on Metadata and the Data Section Metadata Subcommittee TRB ADJ30 Committee on Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems TRB ADJ30 Committee on Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems ASTM Committee E17.54 ADUS Task Group on data standard ASTM Committee E17.54 ADUS Task Group on data standard

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management NYMTC has been known for its innovative travel demand model NYMTC staff is also working on the frontier of strategic data management that will provide cost-effective, integrated, interactive, and user- friendly “one-stop shopping” information that will be used in the planning decision-making process.

NYMTC’s Strategic Data Management Areas of potential improvements? Or what are our opportunities? Need new resources with vision and skills that could help us to implement the strategic data management plan Need new resources with vision and skills that could help us to implement the strategic data management plan Need to continue and expand the training on GIS, metadata, development and use of web-applications, and use of standards. Need to continue and expand the training on GIS, metadata, development and use of web-applications, and use of standards. We have great tradition of data products and we have the opportunity now to make them even better. We have great tradition of data products and we have the opportunity now to make them even better.