About Our Team 👩🏽💻
Our team, Mind the Data Gap, participated in the MHC x MTA Datathon to explore New York City’s Automated Camera Enforcement (ACE) violation data. We split the work based on what each of us does best. Some of us focused on cleaning the data, others on analyzing it, creating visualizations, or coming up with solutions. As sophomores at Baruch College, we come from different majors, including Computer Information Systems, Finance, and Accounting. This mix of skills helped us look at the data in different ways and turn ACE violation information into clear and useful insights.
Our Question
Out of the available research questions, we focused on: “Some vehicles stopped in violation are exempt from fines due to business reasons. For vehicles that are exempt, are there repeat offenders? Where are exempt vehicles frequently in violation?”
Why?
We focused on repeat exempt violations because they make up a large portion of the dataset (about 29.06% of total violations) and reveal important insights about both driver behavior and enforcement patterns. By examining where exempt vehicles (such as ambulances or commerical vehicles) were flagged most often, we aimed to understand whether repeated violations stem from drivers’ choices or from factors like camera placement and enforcement coverage. Understanding both the drivers and the system gives a clearer picture of why these violations repeat and what it might mean for traffic safety in NYC.
The M101 Route? 🚏
We selected the M101 Bus Route as our case study because it is one of Manhattan’s busiest north-south bus routes and is frequently used by CUNY students. Running through major neighborhoods such as Harlem, the Upper East Side, and Midtown, the M101 passes through areas with heavy traffic congestion, diverse road users, and multiple ACE enforcement zones. By focusing on this route, we were able to analyze violations along a corridor that is both highly trafficked and representative of broader patterns in automated camera enforcement, making it an ideal subject for our study.