The Subte, at least for Argentinians who frequent or live in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, deserves a special mention. What do we know about this service? The main complaint from users is the low frequency during peak hours, which leads to overcrowding.
When the administration of the Subte was transferred from the national sphere to the City in 2013, two peak hour ranges were set between SBASE and Metrovías. Both ranges consist of two-hour blocks, whereas previously they each spanned three hours. The morning peak was established from 8 to 10 a.m., and the evening peak from 6 to 8 p.m. Said out loud, these time slots sound reasonable; but when looking at the concrete data, reality shows a different picture. Specifically, the period of highest traffic, the peak hour guided by Subte users, if we decide to keep it within a two-hour range, occurs between 4 and 6 p.m., concentrating 16.08% of trips made across all lines, compared to 14.05% between 6 and 8 p.m. It turns out that at 4 p.m. the service accumulates 7.18% of its trips, while at 7 p.m. only 5.20% of trips are made. Therefore, if we were to return to a three-hour peak range, it should be from 4 to 7 p.m. to cover the highest demand, encompassing 24.93% of trips. In fact, as a reference, at 7 a.m., 6.54% of all trips are made, which is 1.34% more than at 7 p.m., currently considered peak hour. This information comes from the available data in SUBTE.data[194] of the Public Policy Lab’s Open Data Program based on statistics from the Buenos Aires City Government.
| Time | Annual number of passengers in 2019 | Percentage of the total |
| 5 | 1,350,167 | 0.45 |
| 6 | 7,677,114 | 2.57 |
| 7 | 19,528,119 | 6.54 |
| 8 | 26,364,945 | 8.82 |
| 9 | 21,809,341 | 7.30 |
| 10 | 16,925,538 | 5.67 |
| 11 | 16,726,270 | 5.60 |
| 12 | 18,840,302 | 6.31 |
| 13 | 19,265,698 | 6.45 |
| 14 | 18,072,244 | 6.05 |
| 15 | 18,907,855 | 6.33 |
| 16 | 21,438,763 | 7.18 |
| 17 | 26,582,914 | 8.90 |
| 18 | 26,452,813 | 8.85 |
| 19 | 15,252,099 | 5.20 |
| 20 | 11,316,028 | 3.79 |
| 21 | 7,528,885 | 2.52 |
| 22 | 4,003,683 | 1.34 |
| 23 | 457,152 | 0.15 |
What is the point of measuring and opening up data if we do not then act accordingly with such simple modifications as those that arise from the information we have just analyzed?
The State has observed all our steps and collected information generated by us for years. Why don’t we reverse the role? Why isn’t the information the government collects from its citizens and itself available to us by default? States have tried to gather as much information about individuals as today’s big tech companies. What happens if all that information falls into the wrong hands?
Let’s think for a moment about the amount of data the State holds. Where traffic accidents happen most frequently, what types of vehicles are involved, and what caused them. Perhaps a family looking to move would be interested in which neighborhoods are the safest, which could be shown on a crime map with reported incidents. And why not also ask which hospitals have the highest success rates in complex operations to allow people to make more informed decisions when undergoing surgery? I think it would even be great to know how many vaccines or aspirins are in each warehouse and their daily consumption, thus improving logistics, spending, and investment processes. Impossible? Utopian? Not at all. It only requires better information management. Data can save lives, both by reducing response times to accidents and by alerting us to more problematic areas to create tailored solutions and also generate new jobs.
Let’s understand, there is an infinity of data that we can turn into valuable social and economic information to help improve the efficiency of services offered by the State. Therefore, all data must be opened in every State department, as, after all, it belongs to us. Eventually, individuals, data journalists, civil organizations, and companies will emerge to create applications for specific uses, and that is what we should aim for. Like in Europe, where the most pessimistic numbers in the report on value creation through open data estimated that there are currently around 100,000 jobs[195] related to exploring and exploiting open data from the private sector, which reuses the data made available by States.
In Spain, it is estimated that companies that reuse and add value to these data could have generated over 4 billion euros of wealth by 2020. Not only that, but these advances and applications also allow States to save hundreds of millions of dollars annually due to the efficiency that processed data can bring. It is estimated that the 28 EU states saved 1.7 billion euros in 2020, demonstrating that the public sector has much to gain (277 million France, 262 million Germany, 262 million England, 112 million Spain, among others). The private sector, in turn, not only generates new wealth and savings for the State but also manages to reduce its costs by not having to buy or generate the information itself. Knowing all this should lead us to think about how to effectively open the State platform.
[194] Subte.data. (201). Public Policy Lab. [Report] Subte Demand in 2019. Viewed on November 27, 2021, at https://lppargentina.org.ar/subtedata/informe-demanda-del-subte-en-2019.
[195] European Data Portal. (2022). Creating value through Open Data [Ebook] (p. 10). Viewed on April 1, 2022, at https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/edp_creating_value_through_open_data_0.pdf.
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