With new maps and apps, the case for open transit gets stronger. Earlier this year, the news broke that Apple would be dropping default support for transit in iOS 6. For people (like me) who use the iPhone to check transit routes and times when they travel, that would mean losing a key feature. It also has the potential to decrease the demand for open transit data from cities, which has open government advocates like Clay Johnson concerned about public transportation and iOS 6. This summer, New York City-based non-profit Open Plans launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new iPhone transit app to fill in the gap. “From the public perspective, this campaign is about putting an important feature back on the iPhone,” wrote Kevin Webb, a principal at Open Plans, via email. Open Plans already had a head start in creating a patch for the problem: they’ve been working with transit agencies over the past few years to build OpenTripPlanner, an open source application that uses open transit data to help citizens make transit decisions.
Tech-For-Transit-Summary.pdf (application/pdf Object) Open Data et mobilité : l'occasion de réinventer les transports - Mobilité. Opening up transport data creates economic and social value | Open Data Stories. A leading and popular journalist in the open data space is Alexander Howard, Government 2.0 Washington D.C. correspondent for O’Reilly Media (at the date of this post, Alex had a mere 76,905 Twitter followers). Do a Google search on the man and you’ll find a trove of interesting stories spanning the open data and wider Gov 2.0 worlds. Among Alex’s various articles is a piece that appeared in Huffpost Tech on 5 March 2011, Transit data drives economic engine for open government.
In it, he explained how ‘technologists, train fans, government workers and East Coast civic hackers in the United States had gathered for a sold out unconference at the New York Law School Institute for Information Law and Policy to discuss how the modern transit system could be improved, focusing on the intersection between technology, citizens, public data and government’. Perhaps even more telling than these passages is the video from Streetfilms.org which Alex added to his piece and which is reproduced here: Open Data is Bringing Public Transportation Into the 21st Century" Open data is the raw material of 'new industrial revolution' | Public Leaders Network | Guardian Professional.
The UK leads the world in making ever more data freely available, according to Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude. There are more than 40,000 unique public sector datasets on www.data.gov.uk – the largest resource of its kind in the world – from real-time transport data to information on routine hospital activity. But what is the point of open data? Even those who applaud the commitment to transparency that progressively releasing this information demonstrates need to see that this openness is not an end in itself – that the release is only the start of the story. So, what do people actually do with open data? The answer, coming loud and clear from all over the country is: they use it to build new businesses and grow existing ones, creating jobs and improving public services.
Maude was speaking to SMEs at an event hosted by Digital Birmingham to launch the Open Innovation Community Hub – an online shop window, discussion forum and information resource for open data. Deprivation Study Finds Access to Real-Time Mobile Information Could Raise the Status of Public Transit. + Share this In November 2010, Latitude Research and Next American City launched a study to investigate how new technologies and information access can improve transit and other life experiences; specifically, the study sought to uncover how cities, transportation providers and technology companies can work together to develop these information-based solutions and, ultimately, encourage adoption of more sustainable transit. The results of the study indicate that, while users value the freedom and control a car provides, mobile information solutions could replicate this sense of autonomy without needing to own a car—primarily by helping users to make informed, in-the-moment decisions about what’s available near them and the best ways to get around.
Study participants—18 regular car users who agreed to go car-free for one week—experienced unexpected benefits as a result of re-thinking their daily transit. “New daily commute” — photo by Boston study participant, Ben L. Key Study Insights. Tech for Transit Study Highlights Big Opportunities for Mobile. + Share this A few months ago, Latitude Research (in collaboration with Next American City), asked regular drivers in Boston and San Francisco to go car-free for one week and to rely on other forms of transit instead.
Participants shared their experiences and ideas for improvement, suggesting opportunities to redesign the experience of going car-free (e.g. not owning a car) so that it’s more convenient, personalized and enjoyable—largely through the help of mobile information technologies. Key opportunity areas include: Apps that enable aspirationsCollaborations between “competing” entitiesBetter integrations of transit with other local information Photo by Jennifer R., San Francisco study participant. Apps that enable aspirations: make it easy to be good. Photos by Mark V., San Francisco study participant. Download the full study report here. Study lead: Marina Miloslavsky Header image courtesy of Fabio Venni, (cc) some rights reserved. Open data factsheet v2.
Open Data + Urban Transport = ? | safe, clean, affordable... For fun, suppose you were a software developer, and you came up with a terrific idea to communicate public transit information. For example, imagine your city experiences frequent floods, and you have devised an automated system that sends SMS texts to passengers, advising them of alternative transit routes during emergencies. How much revenue do you think you could earn for that software? How many people could you positively impact? What if I told you that today, by taking advantage of one tiny revolution in open data, you could take those numbers and multiply them by 350, turning $100,000 into $35 million, or 1 million people into 350 million?
Sounds pretty good, right? The GTFSThe revolution comes in the form of a standardized data protocol – the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), which is a free and open template for entering data related to basic transit system services, such as routes, stops, fares, and schedules. Here's what’s in it: Okay – this does not look very exciting. The Economics of Open Data – Mini-Case, Transit Data & TransLink. TransLink, the company that runs public transit in the region where I live (Vancouver/Lower Mainland) has launched a real time bus tracking app that uses GPS data to figure out how far away the next the bus you are waiting for really is. This is great news for everyone.
Of course for those interested in government innovation and public policy it also leads to another question. Will this GPS data be open data? Presently TransLink does make its transit schedule “open” under a non-commercial license (you can download it here). I can imagine a number of senior TransLink officials (and the board) scratching their head asking: “Why, when we are short of money, would we make our data freely available?” Let me explain. First, there are not a lot of obvious ways TransLink could generate wealth directly from its data. In contrast a free application encourages use. When the this analysis is applied to licensing data it produces the same result. But let me go further. Procurement Analysis Conclusion.
TRB-2011-OneBusAway-Changes-Paper.pdf (application/pdf Object) Silicon Valley: Public transportation fosters innovation through open data. By opening up a public data feed for third party developers, the San Francisco Bay Area Transit System found an ideal way to foster innovative application development for mobile devices. The BART has been sharing transit data for over the past 13 years, but recently opened up a public data feed for third party developers.
BART began to share information publically on real time departures, elevator advisories, geospatial data and on APIs (application programming interfaces). This concept known as open data is founded on the notion that data should be available for anyone to use freely without authorizations or copyright restrictions. By publically disclosing transit information online, the BART is looking to directly benefit customers without having the intention of in-house developers to create applications. Information sharing is a two-way street Multiple apps created compliment each other. Open data in action. Transit transparency: Open data in action A much talked about innovation in public policy recently has been the push to achieve greater transparency and accountability through open government strategies, where the public has access to government information and can participate in co-producing public services.
At the Transparency Policy Project we have been investigating the dynamics behind one of the most successful implementations of open government: the disclosure of data by transit agencies in the United States. In just a few years, a rich community has developed around this data, with visionary champions for disclosure inside transit agencies collaborating with eager software developers to deliver multiple ways for riders to access real-time information about transit. Transit agencies have long used intelligent systems for scheduling and monitoring the location of their vehicles.