Findings

Comparing UIC-Halsted to Loyola

Being a commuter student, I am naturally interested in comparing the commuter patterns. I've known some Loyola students and I wanted to compare ridership data over the years. Of course, I am considering the fact that residents of Chicago use the two stops for day-to-day activities and that the ridership data is not strictly from students.

Obviously, I had to compare the ridership in 2020.

I expected to see a notable drop in ridership in March since that is the time when the Illinois Governor mandated that residents stayed home. There was nothing surprising about the low ridership in April, but it was interesting to see that Loyola's ridership was higher over the summer and through the rest of the year.

2020 Differences

Seeing the data by day provides more context...

While there may have been more entries at Loyola than at UIC-Halsted, seeing the data by day shows that the difference isn't as stark as it seems on the chart that shows the data by month. Sure, there were more rides at Loyola from June through August, but the months of June and July on a daily scale show less than 1000 daily rides. The same time period at UIC-Halsted trends upward to around 500 rides. Thus, the difference isn't that great.

2020 Similarities

Despite the differences in ridership, the same general trend happens. The ridership decreases early on in the year, and gradually increases after May and reaches its peak in October. Although there were some COVID restrictions, it seems that there was a slight uptick in ridership since the months of August, September, and October coincide with the start of the school year.

2019 Differences

Looking at a pre-pandemic year seemed like a good idea to get an idea of what the ridership was in general, before the pandemic.

Looking at the year 2019 by month, it is obvious that Loyola has had more rides than UIC-Halsted. Loyola has had well over 100,000 rides from May through August. More rides at Loyola during the summer was also the case in 2020, so it seems like this is a regular trend and that the actual number of rides just changed because of the pandemic.

Again, viewing the data by day provides more insight...

This time, the range of rides at UIC-Halsted and Loyola during the summer months is much greater. Ridership at Loyola from June through August nearly reaches 3,750. So then it can be said that Loyola in the summer was still considerably active.

Studying O'Hare

I'm curious as to why ridership at O'Hare increased after 2014.

I tried comparing O'Hare side by side (2014 on the left), but could not really make out anything that stood out. It seems like the same general trend, but the ridership in July, August, and September greatly increased from 2014 to 2015.

Showing the data by day wasn't much help either. Perhaps this could have been fixed with better spacing between bars, bar sizes, and more clear breaks on the y-axis.