Public Transit Analytics is a sole proprietorship operated by Matthew Laquidara.
By training and trade I am a computer scientist and software developer. I received bachelors and masters degrees in computer science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I published work on the difficulties of providing consistent measures of computer performance. Afterwards, I worked in various software development roles at Amazon.com and Amazon Web Services, working with systems ranging from box-building machines to user-configurable network firewalls. In these roles I learned that making the right measurements, and properly communicating these measurements, is the key to making the right decisions, whether in the context of a warehouse or a web service.
My passion for transit planning originates from extensive time spent riding public transit in Boston and Seattle. I began following the processes that multiple Pacific Northwest-area agencies used when opening a light rail extension and restructuring bus service to better serve that extension. In observing that process, I found it difficult to evaluate whether the decisions made by these agencies, or the decisions they made in response to individuals and community groups, would improve the transit network. The results felt like decisions based on concessions to all sides, rather than careful analysis of shared goals. However, without my own way of generating this data, I had no support on which to base this feeling. I began writing software as a personal project to measure the effectiveness of transit restructures. Its ability to provoke conversation prompted the idea of bringing this software to public transit stakeholders as Public Transit Analytics.
As a new business, Public Transit Analytics is open to working with agencies and groups of all sizes, on projects large and small. Whether the problem to be solved is concrete or needs definition, Public Transit Analytics is comfortable examining it and understanding how to see it through to completion. Though located in Seattle, Washington, Public Transit Analytics seeks opportunities both nationally and internationally. Being entirely self-funded, Public Transit Analytics only has obligations to furnish its clients with unbiased, objective results.