Guide to E-Scooter Trips Dashboard

Guide
Census block groups in Portland filled with various colors
The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has launched the E-Scooter Trips Dashboard which shows electric scooter (e-scooter) use in Portland since the start of the e-scooter pilot program. This page explains what data is included, how to use the dashboard, and how to download the data yourself.
On this page

What data is included in the E-Scooter Trips Dashboard?

Data on electric scooter (e-scooter) trips comes directly from e-scooter companies, as required by their permit to operate in Portland.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) gets this data using the same standards and application programming interface (API) outlined in the city’s version of the Mobility Data Specification (MDS). To learn more about MDS and follow its development, visit the Open Mobility Foundation's GitHub repository.

This data provides us with the start and end point of nearly every e-scooter trip taken in Portland. The dashboard includes all trips that started and/or ended in Portland and were longer than a minute. It also removes any data points that are likely to contain errors such as trips with a negative number for distance, trips lasting longer than four hours, or trips covering distances more than 40 miles.

We have also removed some data that fails to meet our privacy threshold. In some cases, there could be fewer than two trips at a specific time, and census block group. We have removed census block group data in these cases to protect user’s privacy.

How to use the E-Scooter Trips Dashboard

We have designed the dashboard using the Tableau platform. It shows a lot of data without having to change any of the settings. However, we want to guide you on ways you can use the dashboard to explore the data in different ways.

Once you feel ready to use the dashboard, click the link below:

Use the E-Scooter trip dashboard

How to isolate data

A table of data where one column has a blue background
Demonstration of how you can isolate data by year in Tableau

You can limit the data you’re looking at by clicking on a single filter or by clicking on a row or column in tables. This isolates the data you want and filters out the rest.

  • To use a portion of the dashboard as a filter, click on it.
    • If the data you want to isolate is in a table, click on the row or column of the table and it will now appear with a darker, blue background.
    • To add another row or column of the same table to the active filters, hold down the [Ctrl] or [Command] key and click on another row/column.
  • To select a set of rows or columns click the left- or top-most item you want, then hold down the [Shift] key and select the right or bottom-most item you want in your group.
  • To remove a row or column from the active filters, click on the row or column you would like to remove.
  • To remove a row or column from a selected group (without using the [Shift] key described previously), hold down the [Ctrl] or [Command] key and click on the row or column you would like to remove.

How to use each section

The dashboard is broken up into sections with different stats about scooter trips. Each section allows you to filter the rest of the dashboard.

Selecting more than one filter in any section and it will make a combined filter that shows information for all the criteria you selected. For example, if you select the year “2019” and the type of day “weekend” in the tables up top, the dashboards below will show only information about trips that started on weekends in 2019.

Section 1: Year and type of day

In the first section, two tables provide stats on trips by year or type of day. In this case, type of day means either weekdays or weekend days.

  • To select a year, click on a column in the "Trips by Year" table. The year column you select will change to a darker, blue color. This has now filtered the entire dashboard to show only information about trips that started during the year you’ve selected.
  • To select a type of day, click on a row in the "Trips by Type of Day" table. The row will change to a darker, blue color. This has now filtered the dashboard to only show information about trips that started on either a weekday or a weekend day, depending which row is selected.

Section 2: Time and distance

On the right side of the dashboard, two tables provide stats about the duration and distance of trips:

  1. The "Trips by distance in miles" table list the percentage of overall trips and the actual number of trips that travelled more than the number of miles indicated in the first column of the table, but less than the number of miles indicated in the following row.
  2. The "Trips by duration in hours" table is similar, but instead of miles, the row indicates hours and minutes. The first two columns break down the duration by hour, and then by every 5 minutes.

Each table has a row with "Null" in it. This indicates that there were trips that had distance or duration values that were removed as stated in the first section of this guide.

Section 3: Census block group map

Map of census block groups grayed out with several selected and colorful
Demonstration of selecting census block groups

The next section of the dashboard contains a map of census block groups throughout Portland. Each census block group is filled with a color to demonstrate the relation of number of trips starting or ending in the census block group to trips taken in all the other census block groups on the map. You can show either trip origins or destinations by using the drop down directly above the map. The map will reload when you make a selection.

Map of Portland with census block groups colored by e-scooter trips, showing a toolbox in the upper-left corner for the map highlighted by a red square.
Demonstration of the census block group map toolbox

You can select a census block group to filter the dashboard by clicking on it. By default, you can select multiple census block groups using the same methods described in the “How to isolate the data” section. In addition, the map has a tool bar with several tools for interacting with it in the upper left corner. The tool bar will only display once you hover on the map. The tool bar includes tools for zooming in and out. They change what clicking on the map does. You may click on the tool bar to to display the different tools for interacting with the map. The tool bar has the following tools listed in order:

  • The zoom area tool allows the user to draw a rectangle and zoom into the area you have selected.
  • The pan tool allows the user to drag the map and change the area shown while keeping the zoom level the same.
  • The rectangle tool allows the user to drag a rectangle on the map and select the census block groups touching the rectangle.
  • The radial tool allows the user to drag a circle on the map and select all census block groups touching the circle.
  • The lasso tool allows you to quickly select many census block groups by holding down the mouse button or using your finger on a mobile device to “draw” a shape around those census block groups you want to select.

Section 4: Heatmap

A table of colored boxes that are grayed out except for several that are selected
Demonstration of selecting heatmap combinations

The final section labeled "Weekday/Weekend Heatmap" shows information about when trips started. Each box represents the hour listed on each row within the month listed on the column.

You may select a filter by clicking on an hour in the row listing, a month in the column listings, or an individual combination of them in the heatmap itself.

Downloading underlying data

Use the following links to access the underlying datasets that the dashboard exposes:

  • Trips by census block group (~100 MB)
    • Each row is a unique trip
    • Data follows the same inclusion rules as stated in the first section of this page
    • Each row contains the following fields
      • year
        • The year when the trip started.
      • month
        • The month (1 through 12) when the trip started.
      • day_type
        • Whether the trip started on a weekday (Monday through Friday) or a weekend (Saturday or Sunday).
      • hour
        • The hour (0 through 23) when the trip started.
      • start_census_block_group
        • The GEOID code for the census block group where the trip started.
      • end_census_block_group
        • The GEOID code for the census block group where the trip ended.
      • distance
        • The distance in meters travelled during the trip as reported by operators. See the section on data inclusion above to understand NULL values.
      • duration
        • The duration in seconds of the trip as reported by operators. See the section on data inclusion above to understand NULL values.
    • Start and end census block groups are identified by their GEOID codes