[ODP] Data Visualization Requested for Real-Time Traffic Incidents Dataset

[KaroEngstrom]

Audit Requirement Notice from CTM

_As you may already be aware, in July 2023, the Office of the City Auditor released an audit report addressing data reliability on the City’s Open Data Portal._

In the report, it was recommended to the City Manager that departments interpret the most desired data with visualizations and/or data stories, in addition to providing the raw data. Therefore, departments are required to provide stories and visualizations for the most-accessed datasets.

In response to their recommendations, CTM is responsible for identifying the top three (3) most-accessed datasets on the portal on an annual basis and can assist departments with data visualizations of the top three datasets, if requested.

We have identified your dataset, “Real-Time Traffic Incident Reports” (UID: dx9v-zd7x) as the most accessed dataset for 2023.

Here are some site statistics for the dataset: 41,310 Primer pageviews (overview page) 6,987 Grid pageviews (data table or tabular view page) 1,059,706 Downloads Time period: 01/01/2023 thru 01/16/2024 To see additional web performance metrics, you can visit the portal’s web analytics dashboard.

I noticed that a story page related to the dataset already exists but is incomplete and does not interpret the data with visualizations and/or data stories. The good news is that you’re not starting from scratch. Please complete the story page with the required data visualizations/storytelling by Fri. March 1, 2024.

History of the Dataset

• the dataset was based on an RSS feed published by CTM from the Oracle db until spring 2023; at that point we began to pull the data from the CTM Oracle dc directly

• this dataset was audited while CTM published a story page for it (now deprecated) with the same content as our current one, with the exception of them using a 5 minute RSS feed widget over our data table at the top of the page Previous CTM page:

• previous issue https://github.com/cityofaustin/atd-data-tech/issues/10688

  • we set up ETL directly from CTM Oracle database and went live with the story page to replace the CTM site (May 2023)

[KaroEngstrom]

Thu 1/25/24 - meeting with Apps and Data Science (Karo notes)

• We need to explain our role in publishing this data - a more precise indication of what the data is and IS NOT; this is not a crash dataset, etc. Make the limitations more explicit from the start. Maybe link to crash data as well to show where it lives and is available.
• Request for more data from resident - not seeing the issue from our end, it might have to do with UTC reporting timestamp - Charlie will respond
• Asking CTM for assistance - need to know who the CTECC people are to provide more information
• Database limitations - if we lost power and wouldn’t scrape the data, we’d lose incidents (another audit issue)
• One option is that we take down this dataset until glitches are sorted out
• Data Viz - creating some new pieces — @Charlie-Henry will draft
• Dataset Explainer / More details - reaching out to CTECC to get more background information to help contextualize — @dianamartin will reach out
• @KaroEngstrom will respond to CTM: we are working on this + further context

[Charlie-Henry]

@KaroEngstrom, I added a map to our active incidents story page. Cool if I deploy this draft?

https://datahub.austintexas.gov/stories/s/Austin-Travis-County-Traffic-Report-Page/9qfg-4swh/preview

I think for the other visuals I could make a "trends" story page which could look over a longer scale.

[KaroEngstrom]

Yes, excellent. Both sound good to me!

[Charlie-Henry]

Made a draft trends story page showing the data by day of week, hour, month, and the most frequent types.

[KaroEngstrom]

@Charlie-Henry Are these both ok to publish? I'd like to link to that Trends page from the main story page.

[Charlie-Henry]

Would y'all mind reviewing what I wrote? If we're good I say we publish it and add a link on the main story

[dianamartin]

@Charlie-Henry Looking at your content, this part looks weird.

This should have an "an" instead of an "a"

I would maybe suggest sending a screen shot of this draft page to AMD (Ally, Lance) to help with the content. They're used to drafting traffic content for PIO.

[Charlie-Henry]

Sent over to Ally/Lance for their comments. Also made Diana's suggested edits.

[KaroEngstrom]

Made small edits (amount > number) and cleaned up the first sentence. This is a great page!

[Charlie-Henry]

Lance/Ally suggested removing the part about traffic still not returning to normal levels post-COVID.

Changed the text to:

Since the low point during April 2020, traffic (and therefore traffic incidents) have returned back to typical levels.