Graduate School
MIT

Undergraduate School
Middlebury College

Mentor
Phil Puccia, Consultant and Rappaport Institute Advisory Board Member

Agency
Massachusetts Department of Transportation

Supervisor
Scott Hamwey, Manager of Long Range Planning, Massachusetts DOT

Description of Fellowship
Kelly worked on two data analysis projects for the Office of Performance Management and Innovation (OPMI) at the MBTA and the Office of Transportation Planning at MassDOT. The first project at OPMI involved research and analysis of the potential for the MBTA to offer means- tested fares as a way to offset the impact of future fare increases on low income riders. The second project was part of Focus 40, the MBTA’s long-range capital plan. Kelly analyzed and visualized where the Rapid Transit lines and bus routes are approaching or exceeding capacity during the morning peak today, and conducted a preliminary analysis of where those routes are likely to be over capacity in 2040 given regional land use forecasts. Working in consultation with staff from MassDOT’s Office of Transportation Planning, CTPS, MBTA Service Planning, and OPMI she accessed automatically collected data from the MBTA to analyze the transit system’s demand and capacity in the baseline year in a variety of ways, including the capacity according to schedule, capacity as the transit system is actually operated, and capacity if planned improvements.