Motionworks Placecast™ Transit Stations Report

Motionworks Placecast™ products provides for Places and Regions since 2019.

Transit Stations

Motionworks Placecast™ provides visits and occupancy for Motionworks Places and Regions since 2019. These insights are produced with the Motionworks Population Intelligence Platform. Placecast™ is used for investigating visitation trends at locations through time.

The following document provides an overview of the validation of Motionworks Transit Stations. Motionworks currently measures visitation at 3,314 transit stations. Places can be standalone or within a larger building or a complex. Out of the total number of places measured, 2,825 are standalone locations where they can be directly measured. The figure below indicates the distribution of all Motionworks Transit Stations across the United States.

Place Description

A public transportation station served by one more routes in a local or regional transit system. This category includes bus stops and train stops including any stations where the riders mode of travel cannot be changed.

Place Stats

Place TypeNumber of PlacesMinimum Size -sq ft-Median Size -sq ft-Average Size -sq ft-Maximum Size -sq ft-
Transit Station3,31427421,33132,603903,560

Transit Stations Geographical Distribution

Median Visits per Week 2019Median Visits per Week 2020Median Visits per Week 2021Median Visits per Week 2022Median Visits per Week 2023Median Visits per Week 2024Median Dwell Time 2019Median Dwell Time 2020Median Dwell Time 2021Median Dwell Time 2022Median Dwell Time 2023Median Dwell Time 2024
V2.25,0802,3602,1602,9803,4303,610201919202020
V2.14,7802,2702,1703,1403,9704,140312321191717

Weekly Visit Trends

The figure below shows the trend of weekly visits - median (red) as well as the 25th to 75th percentile band (green) - over time across all transit stations. This is then compared to the median weekly first-party counts (blue) if available. For this place type, the median weekly visits estimate is based on 2860 of places, whereas the median weekly first-party data estimate is based on the visits of 1899 places.

Transit Stations Weekly visits, measured vs. first party data\label{trends}

Weekly Visit Per 1K SQFT Trends (Standalone)

The figure below shows the trend of weekly visits per 1000 square feet of space (ksf) - median (red) as well as the 25th to 75th percentile band (green) - over time across only standalone transit stations that can be directly measured or at least have a polygon/size. This is then compared to the median weekly first-party counts (blue) if available. For this place type, the median weekly visits estimate is based on 2857 of places, whereas the median weekly first-party data estimate is based on the visits of 1899 places.

Transit Stations Standalone Weekly Visits per 1000 SQFT, measured vs. first party data

Day of Week and Hour of the Day Profiles

The figure below shows the average ratio of the weekly visits that fall within a specific hour of a specific day of the week. The color represents the year, and each band represents the variation over the months of the year.

Transit Stations Day of Week and Hour of Day Profiles

Weekly Visit Scores

The table below presents the historic average scores for Transit Stations. Note that 1 is a good/perfect score and 0 is a bad/worst score. Scores for each place are calculated based on how well the place compares with their cohort of places, and how far off is the place’s observed (1) visitation, (2) dwell time, (3) hourly profile, and (4) trade area distance footprint from our best estimated place based on their location, size, urbanicity, and the type of place.

If a place's score is below a certain threshold, then the place is considered unfocused and therefore processed through the unfocused methodology, which results in their stats being estimated based on the location, size, and place type of other focused places in the vicinity.

Average Dwell ScoreAverage Trade Area Distance Footprint ScoreAverage Profile ScoreAverage Visit Score
0.510.520.520.87

The figures below shows the average and 25th/75th percentiles of the score across all of the Transit Stations for every month since January 2019.

Visit Score Graph

Transit Stations Visit Score

Dwell Score Graph

Transit Stations Dwell Score

Profile Score Graph

Transit Stations Profile Score

Footprint Trade Area Distance Score Graph

Transit Stations footprint Score

Tradeareas

A trade area is where customers or visitors live and how far they are likely to travel to an establishment or neighborhood. Motionworks Placecast™ Trade Areas documents the home location of visitors by the number of visits to a Motionworks Place or Region every month since 2019. These insights are produced with the Motionworks Population Intelligence Platform.

Verification

Motionworks verifies Trade Area estimates to ensure confidence and illustrate the quality of our data. Motionworks maintains data on expected trade areas by place type from trusted third parties such as travel surveys and academic research. The following tables provide an overview of verification for each Motionworks place type nationally compared to target values Motionworks has identified for each place type. Due to the detail of Motionworks place types, there is not always a one-to-one relationship between Motionworks place types and those identified in studies and research. As a result, some values from studies and research are shared across multiple Motionworks place types.

Tradeareas visits distribution

Motionworks segments trade areas by 1) local, 2) hyper local, 3) non-local. Local is defined as the home to place distance is < 50 miles, Hyper local is defined as the home and place have the same Census block group, and Non-local is defined as the home to place distance is > 50 miles. The figure below illustrates the distribution of visits by trade area segment.

Transit Stations Tradeareas visits distribution

Local (< 50 miles from home) Statistics

Place TypeMean Travel Distance to LocationMotionworks Estimated Mean (August 2024)Change from prior monthChange from prior year
Transit Station2.4 miles2.9 miles4.0 %20.0 %

Hyper Local (same home and place Census block group) Statistics

Place TypeMean Travel Distance to LocationMotionworks Estimated Mean (August 2024)Change from prior monthChange from prior year
Transit Station0.1 miles0.1 miles2.3 %-9.7 %

Non-Local (>50 miles from home) Statistics

Place TypeMean Travel Distance to LocationMotionworks Estimated Mean (August 2024)Change from prior monthChange from prior year
Transit Station309.0 miles288.6 miles-6.9 %0.5 %

Home to place distance distribution

The figure below illustrates the home to place distance distribution by distance bin.

Transit Stations Device home to place distance weighted device visits