Subway riders’ quirks
Subscribe to Decision Science News by Email (one email per week, easy unsubscribe)
A TRAIN OF DECISIONS
The New York Times reports on a report, written by the MTA, about the decisions of subway riders:
Now, the daily seating calculations of subway riders have been recorded for academic use, as part of an observational study conducted by researchers of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. A draft of their report, published on the Web site of the Transportation Research Board, drew on data collected over three weeks in late winter 2012.
It’s full of gems, such as:
“Customers do change seats as seats become available due to passengers disembarking,” the report said, in language riders would be unlikely to use: “but seat-change maneuvers incur utility costs (movement effort, and risk of desired seat becoming occupied midmaneuver).”
When a subway car has more passengers than seats, the study found that an average of 10 percent or more of the seats were not taken. And even when a subway car is less than half-filled, the authors found that a small percentage of riders would inevitably choose to stand.
Riders prefer seats near a door, the authors said, and demonstrate “disdain for bench spots between two other seats.”
H/T @heratylaw
Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisschoenbohm/8548316881
