Analysis

09: Incline Investigation

Core OTP Patterns

Coverage: 2019-01 to 2025-11 (from otp_monthly).

Built 2026-03-03 02:23 UTC · Commit defd5c8

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Analysis Navigation

Data Provenance

flowchart LR
  09_incline_investigation(["09: Incline Investigation"])
  t_otp_monthly[("otp_monthly")] --> 09_incline_investigation
  01_data_ingestion[["Data Ingestion"]] --> t_otp_monthly
  t_route_stops[("route_stops")] --> 09_incline_investigation
  01_data_ingestion[["Data Ingestion"]] --> t_route_stops
  t_routes[("routes")] --> 09_incline_investigation
  01_data_ingestion[["Data Ingestion"]] --> t_routes
  t_stop_reference[("stop_reference")] --> 09_incline_investigation
  01_data_ingestion[["Data Ingestion"]] --> t_stop_reference
  t_stops[("stops")] --> 09_incline_investigation
  01_data_ingestion[["Data Ingestion"]] --> t_stops
  d1_09_incline_investigation(("polars (lib)")) --> 09_incline_investigation
  classDef page fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#1d4ed8,color:#1e3a8a,stroke-width:2px;
  classDef table fill:#ecfeff,stroke:#0e7490,color:#164e63;
  classDef dep fill:#fff7ed,stroke:#c2410c,color:#7c2d12,stroke-dasharray: 4 2;
  classDef file fill:#eef2ff,stroke:#6366f1,color:#3730a3;
  classDef api fill:#f0fdf4,stroke:#16a34a,color:#14532d;
  classDef pipeline fill:#f5f3ff,stroke:#7c3aed,color:#4c1d95;
  class 09_incline_investigation page;
  class t_otp_monthly,t_route_stops,t_routes,t_stop_reference,t_stops table;
  class d1_09_incline_investigation dep;
  class 01_data_ingestion pipeline;

Findings

Findings: Incline Investigation

Summary

The Monongahela Incline is a data pipeline artifact. It appears in the route catalog but has zero OTP measurements. OTP was never recorded for either of Pittsburgh's two inclines.

What the Data Shows

Table	MI Records	Details
`routes`	1 row	route_id=MI, mode=INCLINE
`otp_monthly`	0 rows	No OTP data whatsoever
`route_stops`	2 rows	Upper Station, Lower Station (78 weekday trips, 549 weekly)
`stops`	2 Incline stops	W15307 (Upper, Mount Washington), W15308 (Lower, South Shore)
`stop_reference`	4 Incline stops	Both inclines present historically (first_served=1503, last_served=2510)

Observations

Both the Monongahela Incline (MI) and the Duquesne Incline (DQI) exist in the routes table with mode=INCLINE, but neither has any OTP data.
The inclines are physically operational and appear in PRT's GTFS feed with regular service (78 weekday trips).
The OTP measurement system (whatever generates routes_by_month.csv) simply does not cover incline routes. This is likely because inclines run on a fixed schedule with no traffic interference, making OTP measurement less meaningful.
The ANALYSIS-PROPOSAL.md described this as "zero values" -- in fact, there are no values at all, not even zeros.

Conclusion

This is not a data quality issue to fix. The inclines were included in the route catalog because they're part of PRT's GTFS feed, but were excluded from OTP measurement, likely by design. No further action needed.

Review History

2026-02-11: RED-TEAM-REPORTS/2026-02-11-analyses-01-05-07-11.md — 3 issues (0 significant). Expanded OTP query to explicitly check both MI and DQI (substantiating the claim that neither incline has data), updated METHODS.md question wording.

Output

No chart outputs declared.

No interactive outputs declared.

data incline_report.csv

all data found for MI across tables.

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data incline_report.txt

plain-text summary of findings.

data incline_route_stops.csv

Stop-level route associations for incline routes extracted from route_stops.

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data incline_stop_reference.csv

Historical incline stop records extracted from stop_reference for data lineage checks.

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Methods

Methods: Monongahela Incline Investigation

Question

The Monongahela Incline may have zero or missing OTP data. Is this a data pipeline artifact, or was OTP never measured for the Incline?

Approach

Query the otp_monthly table for both incline route_ids ('MI' and 'DQI') and examine all values.
Check if 'MI' appears in route_stops and what stops are associated.
Check the routes table for mode and name (including all INCLINE-mode routes).
Cross-reference with the stop_reference table for historical Incline stops.
Summarize findings as a data quality report.

Data

Name	Description	Source
`otp_monthly`	Any MI records	`prt.db` table
`routes`	MI metadata	`prt.db` table
`route_stops`	MI stop associations	`prt.db` table
`stops`	Physical Incline stops	`prt.db` table
`stop_reference`	Historical Incline stops	`prt.db` table

Output

output/incline_report.csv -- all data found for MI across tables
output/incline_report.txt -- plain-text summary of findings

Sources

Name	Type	Why It Matters	Owner	Freshness	Caveat
otp_monthly	table	Primary analytical table used in this page's computations.	Produced by Data Ingestion.	Updated when the producing pipeline step is rerun.	Coverage depends on upstream source availability and ETL assumptions.
route_stops	table	Primary analytical table used in this page's computations.	Produced by Data Ingestion.	Updated when the producing pipeline step is rerun.	Coverage depends on upstream source availability and ETL assumptions.
routes	table	Primary analytical table used in this page's computations.	Produced by Data Ingestion.	Updated when the producing pipeline step is rerun.	Coverage depends on upstream source availability and ETL assumptions.
stop_reference	table	Primary analytical table used in this page's computations.	Produced by Data Ingestion.	Updated when the producing pipeline step is rerun.	Coverage depends on upstream source availability and ETL assumptions.
stops	table	Primary analytical table used in this page's computations.	Produced by Data Ingestion.	Updated when the producing pipeline step is rerun.	Coverage depends on upstream source availability and ETL assumptions.
polars	dependency	Runtime dependency required for this page's pipeline or analysis code.	Open-source Python ecosystem maintainers.	Version pinned by project environment until dependency updates are applied.	Library updates may change behavior or defaults.