Transit history/trivia quiz

I'm back with more trivia, this time from the 2025 MBTA Passenger Survey.

For each of the following access modes, which subway (Red/Green/Blue/Orange lines) station got the largest proportion of its riders from that mode?
For example, if 70% of riders at Coolidge corner walked to that stop but 80% of riders at Washington Sq walked, Washington Sq 'wins'. That but for all the stations.
Not every station is counted separately. Most are, but a couple stations on the blue line and many of the GL surface stops are aggregated together. I will accept any of the stations in that group. Also transfer stations are counted twice, one for each line. I'll be taking the higher number for simplicity's sake, this isn't scientific.

Modes:
  • Walking
  • Bike/Scooter/Micromobility
  • Carpooled or dropped off
  • Uber/Taxi
  • Drove alone
  • The RIDE
  • MBTA bus
  • Non-MBTA bus/other transit
  • Ferry
  • Commuter Rail
  • Subway or light rail
  • Did not answer (there is actually a 'winner' by a significant margin)
Bonus: Which stations had the lowest non-zero share for each mode?

Next question: What station had the most diverse share of access modes? (I.E. what station's plurality mode was the least common?) What about the least diverse?
 
Here are my guesses (based purely on vibes):

Highest share for each mode:
  • Walking: Charles/MGH
  • Bike/Scooter/Micromobility: Alewife
  • Carpooled or dropped off: Riverside
  • Uber/Taxi: Wonderland
  • Drove alone: Quincy Adams
  • The RIDE: Wonderland
  • MBTA bus: Forest Hills
  • Non-MBTA bus/other transit: Airport
  • Ferry: Aquarium
  • Commuter Rail: South Station
  • Subway or light rail: Park Street
Lowest non-zero share for each mode:
  • Walking: Riverside
  • Bike/Scooter/Micromobility: Riverside
  • Carpooled or dropped off: Downtown Crossing
  • Uber/Taxi: Park Street
  • Drove alone: Medford/Tufts
  • The RIDE: Eliot
  • MBTA bus: Quincy Adams
  • Non-MBTA bus/other transit: Riverside
  • Ferry: Haymarket
  • Commuter Rail: Forest Hills
  • Subway or light rail: Haymarket
Most modal diversity: Forest Hills
Least modal diversity: Charles/MGH
 
alewife said:
Here are my guesses (based purely on vibes):
Click to expand...
Most common mode
  • Walking - Good guess, Charles MGH is high at about 90%, but others are higher!
  • Bike - Incorrect, Alewife is about 3.8% for bikes, 12 reporting groups are higher
  • Dropped off - Good guess, Riverside is #6.
  • Uber - Wonderland is #8
  • Drove Alone - Quincy Adams is #2, another station leads it by 10%!
  • The RIDE - Incorrect, Wonderland is pretty average
  • MBTA Bus - Correct
  • Non-MBTA bus - Correct
  • Ferry - Correct, unsurprisingly
  • CR - Correct
  • Subway - Correct
Least common mode

Walking - Another good guess, if we exclude transfer stations, Riverside is #8
Bike - Incorrect, Riverside does decently well for bike ridership
Dropped off - Not technically correct but you may as well be. DTX is 0.4%, Govy is 0.3%, Park is 0.25%, and Chinatown is 0.2
Uber - Again, not technically correct but you may as well be. Park St is 0.2%, Washington St (B) is 0.15% and Arlington is 0.1%.
Drove Alone - Medford/Tufts is actually the 9th highest
The RIDE - Eliot is in a shared group with Woodland and Waban, and is the 9th highest.
MBTA Bus - Incorrect, QA is pretty average for non-bus hubs actually
Non-MBTA bus - Incorrect, Riverside is fairly average here.
Ferry - Haymarket is the 2nd highest actually. I'll be stunned if anyone gets this one though.
CR - Incorrect, Forest Hills is the 3rd lowest for stations where the CR actually stops. 17 are lower.
Subway - Incorrect, although Haymarket is the lowest of all the actual transfer stations. Everything lower is at times questionable walking connections.

Most Modal Diversity - Forest Hills is #6
Least Modal Diversity - Charles/MGH is #14
 
Guesses before looking at the above spoilers:

  • Walking: Shawmut (certainly for the heavy rail lines, since there's no parking or bus connections)
  • Bike etc: Alewife
  • Carpooled/dropped off: Quincy Adams
  • Uber/taxi: Quincy Center
  • Drove alone: Riverside
  • The RIDE: Oak Grove
  • MBTA bus: Forest Hills
  • Other transit: Ashmont (from the BAT 12)
  • Ferry: Aquarium
  • Commuter rail: North Station
  • Subway/light rail: Park Street
  • Did not answer: Waban (rich people love not giving answers in surveys)

Lowest non-zero shares:
  • Walking: North Quincy
  • Bike etc: Braintree
  • Carpooled/dropped off: Englewood Avenue
  • Uber/taxi: Shawmut
  • Drove alone: Shawmut
  • The RIDE: Park Street
  • MBTA bus: Quincy Adams
  • Other transit: Woodland
  • Ferry: South Station
  • Commuter rail: State (I bet there's a handful of people who walk to the Blue Line from North or South Station)
  • Subway/light rail: Bowdoin
  • Did not answer: Harvard
Most diverse: South Station

Least diverse: Riverside
 
TheRatmeister said:
I'm back with more trivia, this time from the 2025 MBTA Passenger Survey.

For each of the following access modes, which subway (Red/Green/Blue/Orange lines) station got the largest proportion of its riders from that mode?
For example, if 70% of riders at Coolidge corner walked to that stop but 80% of riders at Washington Sq walked, Washington Sq 'wins'. That but for all the stations.
Not every station is counted separately. Most are, but a couple stations on the blue line and many of the GL surface stops are aggregated together. I will accept any of the stations in that group. Also transfer stations are counted twice, one for each line. I'll be taking the higher number for simplicity's sake, this isn't scientific.

Modes:
  • Walking
  • Bike/Scooter/Micromobility
  • Carpooled or dropped off
  • Uber/Taxi
  • Drove alone
  • The RIDE
  • MBTA bus
  • Non-MBTA bus/other transit
  • Ferry
  • Commuter Rail
  • Subway or light rail
  • Did not answer (there is actually a 'winner' by a significant margin)
Bonus: Which stations had the lowest non-zero share for each mode?

Next question: What station had the most diverse share of access modes? (I.E. what station's plurality mode was the least common?) What about the least diverse?
Click to expand...
I too am doing this by vibes, and also not having looked at the above guesses / hints.
Most Common Modes:

Walking - Longwood Medical Area
Bike/Scooter/Micromobility - Forest Hills
Carpooled or dropped off - Wonderland
Uber/Taxi - Assembly
Drove alone - Riverside (If we included the CR stations, I'm sure its one of the P&Rs.)
The RIDE - Braintree
MBTA bus - Ruggles
Non-MBTA bus/other transit - Airport (assuming the Massport shuttles count)
Ferry - Aquarium
Commuter Rail - South Station
Subway or light rail - Park St
Did not answer - Braintree

Least Common Modes:
Walking - Riverside
Bike/Scooter/Micromobility - Park St.
Carpooled or dropped off - DTX
Uber/Taxi - State
Drove alone - Gov't. Center
The RIDE - Chinatown
MBTA bus - Park St
(shared reasoning for all 6 of these... Downtown transfers stations are unlikely to feature modes that aren't walking as primary access.)
Non-MBTA bus/other transit - Sullivan
Ferry - umm. Also Aquarium? Most and least? EDIT:take my first answer, but maybe North station?
Commuter Rail - Quincy Center
Subway or light rail - Ashmont
Did not answer - South Station

Most Diverse: Porter
Least Diverse: Fenway
 
Last edited:
Most common mode
  • Walking - Fenway/Longwood (D) share a reporting group and they take the top spot, Bowdoin is #2. @Stlin had the best guess, LMA-Northeastern is #11.
  • Bike - Wolllaston! I would have never guessed. It's followed by East Somerville/Gilman and Braintree. @The EGE and @alewife got the closest.
  • Dropped off - Braintree, Quincy Adams is #2. Unsurprising that everybody guessed P+R stations, they take all the top spots. @The EGE got closest.
  • Uber - Oak Grove, followed by Braintree. @alewife was closest.
  • Drove Alone - @The EGE and @Stlin are correct, it is Riverside with 25%! Quincy Adams is a trailing second.
  • The RIDE - Riverside with a commanding lead, nothing else comes close although Jackson Sq comes in at #2. @Stlin is closest, Braintree is #4.
  • MBTA Bus - @The EGE and @alewife are correct, it is Forest Hills with 48%. The top 4 are all OL stations, with Sullivan, Ruggles, and Wellington coming next.
  • Non-MBTA bus - @Stlin and @alewife are correct, it is Airport at 26% and nothing else is even close. JFK/UMass is #2, Ashmont is <1%.
  • Ferry - Unsurprisingly everybody got this right. Aquarium is #1, followed by Haymarket and South station.
  • CR - @alewife and @Stlin are correct, it is South Station. North station is obviously #2 and Porter is #3.
  • Subway - Everybody got this one, it's Park St. It's actually very close between Park and Govy though, and since each line is reported separately the Blue Line at Govy technically takes the top spot, but the GL pulls down the average.
  • DNA - @The EGE has the right rationale but wrong station, it's Quincy Adams followed by Braintree.
Least common mode

  • Walking - If we include transfer stations it's Park St at 20%, if we exclude them it's Braintree with 28%.
  • Bike - It's Bowdoin, Park St is #2.
  • Dropped off - @Stlin and @alewife got close enough, DTX is 0.4%, Govy is 0.3%, Park is 0.25%, and Chinatown is 0.2%. The lowest outside downtown is Blandford St-BU Central.
  • Uber - @alewife is close enough with Park St. Park St is 0.2%, Washington St (B) is 0.15% and Arlington is 0.1%. Interestingly Green Line surface stops feature prominently at the bottom of the list for this category.
  • Drove Alone - It's actually Northeastern-LMA. @Stlin is closest.
  • The RIDE - It's Northeastern-LMA again! Surprising but I guess Mission Hill link takes care of more trips here and/or people prefer to go to other lines. @The EGE is closest with Park St.
  • MBTA Bus - Incorrect, QA is pretty average for non-bus hubs actually
  • Non-MBTA bus - It's Griggs/Allston! Why, I could not tell you. Medford/Tufts is #2 which is a damning indictment of the T's failure to create bus connections to GLX.
  • Ferry - Yeah, nobody got this. Everybody guessed connections that might make sense to make which was a faulty assumption. It's Broadway, somehow, just edging out Porter. No it doesn't make sense.
  • CR - @The EGE was closest but it's actually Science Park/Lechmere, followed by Park St. The lowest with an actual CR connection is Malden Center.
  • Subway - @The EGE was closest but the lowest is Brigham Circle - Heath St.
  • DNA - It's Eliot-Woodland with the lowest share of DNAs.

Most Modal Diversity - Nobody got it, it's Braintree in a landslide, followed by Wellington then Ashmont. @alewife was closest with Forest Hills.
Least Modal Diversity - @Stlin gets it! It's Fenway/Longwood. Although you didn't put Fenway as the winner for any of the other categories, by definition it has to be winning at least one. (Walking) Bowdoin comes second.
 
TheRatmeister said:
Most common mode
  • Walking - Fenway/Longwood (D) share a reporting group and they take the top spot, Bowdoin is #2. @Stlin had the best guess, LMA-Northeastern is #11.
  • Bike - Wolllaston! I would have never guessed. It's followed by East Somerville/Gilman and Braintree. @The EGE and @alewife got the closest.
  • Dropped off - Braintree, Quincy Adams is #2. Unsurprising that everybody guessed P+R stations, they take all the top spots. @The EGE got closest.
  • Uber - Oak Grove, followed by Braintree. @alewife was closest.
  • Drove Alone - @The EGE and @Stlin are correct, it is Riverside with 25%! Quincy Adams is a trailing second.
  • The RIDE - Riverside with a commanding lead, nothing else comes close although Jackson Sq comes in at #2. @Stlin is closest, Braintree is #4.
  • MBTA Bus - @The EGE and @alewife are correct, it is Forest Hills with 48%. The top 4 are all OL stations, with Sullivan, Ruggles, and Wellington coming next.
  • Non-MBTA bus - @Stlin and @alewife are correct, it is Airport at 26% and nothing else is even close. JFK/UMass is #2, Ashmont is <1%.
  • Ferry - Unsurprisingly everybody got this right. Aquarium is #1, followed by Haymarket and South station.
  • CR - @alewife and @Stlin are correct, it is South Station. North station is obviously #2 and Porter is #3.
  • Subway - Everybody got this one, it's Park St. It's actually very close between Park and Govy though, and since each line is reported separately the Blue Line at Govy technically takes the top spot, but the GL pulls down the average.
  • DNA - @The EGE has the right rationale but wrong station, it's Quincy Adams followed by Braintree.
Least common mode

  • Walking - If we include transfer stations it's Park St at 20%, if we exclude them it's Braintree with 28%.
  • Bike - It's Bowdoin, Park St is #2.
  • Dropped off - @Stlin and @alewife got close enough, DTX is 0.4%, Govy is 0.3%, Park is 0.25%, and Chinatown is 0.2%. The lowest outside downtown is Blandford St-BU Central.
  • Uber - @alewife is close enough with Park St. Park St is 0.2%, Washington St (B) is 0.15% and Arlington is 0.1%. Interestingly Green Line surface stops feature prominently at the bottom of the list for this category.
  • Drove Alone - It's actually Northeastern-LMA. @Stlin is closest.
  • The RIDE - It's Northeastern-LMA again! Surprising but I guess Mission Hill link takes care of more trips here and/or people prefer to go to other lines. @The EGE is closest with Park St.
  • MBTA Bus - Incorrect, QA is pretty average for non-bus hubs actually
  • Non-MBTA bus - It's Griggs/Allston! Why, I could not tell you. Medford/Tufts is #2 which is a damning indictment of the T's failure to create bus connections to GLX.
  • Ferry - Yeah, nobody got this. Everybody guessed connections that might make sense to make which was a faulty assumption. It's Broadway, somehow, just edging out Porter. No it doesn't make sense.
  • CR - @The EGE was closest but it's actually Science Park/Lechmere, followed by Park St. The lowest with an actual CR connection is Malden Center.
  • Subway - @The EGE was closest but the lowest is Brigham Circle - Heath St.
  • DNA - It's Eliot-Woodland with the lowest share of DNAs.

Most Modal Diversity - Nobody got it, it's Braintree in a landslide, followed by Wellington then Ashmont. @alewife was closest with Forest Hills.
Least Modal Diversity - @Stlin gets it! It's Fenway/Longwood. Although you didn't put Fenway as the winner for any of the other categories, by 2definition it has to be winning at least one. (Walking) Bowdoin comes second.
Click to expand...
So, full disclosure, I managed to forget that Longwood and LMA both exist, and I didn't logic that through that the least diverse should also win at least one mode.

The MBTA rider survey is self reported isn't it? Some of that really doesn't make sense except for data issues, and especially for the least common modes, I'm assuming then that low volumes of inaccurate/troll-y responses can actually skew things, especially at less trafficked stations - see Ferry @ Broadway, non MBTA Bus @ Griggs-Allston. I'd be curious as to what the total number of responses it took to drive it into "measurable".
 
Stlin said:
So, full disclosure, I managed to forget that Longwood and LMA both exist, and I didn't logic that through that the least diverse should also win at least one mode.

The MBTA rider survey is self reported isn't it? Some of that really doesn't make sense except for data issues, and especially for the least common modes, I'm assuming then that low volumes of inaccurate/troll-y responses can actually skew things, especially at less trafficked stations - see Ferry @ Broadway, non MBTA Bus @ Griggs-Allston. I'd be curious as to what the total number of responses it took to drive it into "measurable".
Click to expand...
Correct, it's self reported with seemingly minimal filtering. That's why I included it more as a bonus, the results are a bit silly and pointless since lots of things are near but not quite zero. I don't want to immediately say they are wrong, it is possible for example the RL was suspended north of Broadway and somebody walked from Rowes Wharf, or somebody wanted to get ahead of the 66 crowd and so walked to Griggs street instead.

Although there really isn't a reasonable explanation for the ferry passenger at Porter. That is clearly not correct and either the respondent entered something incorrectly, misunderstood the survey, or was being a bit of a goofball.
 
Walking: DTX
Bike/Scooter/Micromobility: Alewife
Carpooled or dropped off: Malden Center
Uber/Taxi: Back Bay
Drove alone: Braintree
The RIDE: Longwood
MBTA bus: Ruggles
Non-MBTA bus/other transit: North Station
Ferry: Maverick
Commuter Rail: South Station
Subway or light rail: Park St
Did not answer (there is actually a 'winner' by a significant margin): Chinatown

Most diverse: Harvard
Least diverse: Riverside
 
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