onebusaway multi-region – rapidly expanding mobile transit apps to new cities
DESCRIPTION
OneBusAway Multi-region makes is easy for new cities to make Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, and Windows 8 apps available in their region. This presentation discusses the background, goals, and outcome of the project.TRANSCRIPT
Center for Urban Transportation Research | University of South Florida
OneBusAway Multi-regionRapidly Expanding Mobile Transit Apps to New Cities
Sean J. Barbeau, Ph.D.
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Background
• Real-time transit information has many benefits– Shorter perceived wait time [1]
– Shorter actual wait time [1]
– Lowers learning curve for new riders [2]
– Increased ridership (maybe?) [3]
– Increased feeling of safety (e.g., at night) [5][6]
• Riders prefer accessing real-time transit info via mobile apps [1]
[1] Kari Edison Watkins, Brian Ferris, Alan Borning, G. Scott Rutherford, and David Layton (2011), "Where Is My Bus? Impact of mobile real-time information on the perceived and actual wait time of transit riders," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Vol. 45 pp. 839-848.[2] C. Cluett, S. Bregman, and J. Richman (2003). "Customer Preferences for Transit ATIS," Federal Transit Administration. Available at http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/jpodocs/repts_te/13935/13935.pdf#sthash.jwn5Oltr.dpuf[3] Lei Tang and Piyushimita Thakuriah (2012), "Ridership effects of real-time bus information system: A case study in the City of Chicago," Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, Vol. 22 pp. 146-161.[4] Aaron Steinfeld and John Zimmerman, "Interviews with transit riders in San Francisco and Seattle," ed, 2010.[5] Brian Ferris, Kari Watkins, and Alan Borning (2010), "OneBusAway: results from providing real-time arrival information for public transit," in Proceedings of the 28th International CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, pp. 1807-1816. [6] A. Gooze, K. Watkins, and A. Borning (2013), "Benefits of Real-Time Information and the Impacts of Data Accuracy on the Rider Experience," in Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 13, 2013.
Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger
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Challenge
• Custom mobile apps are expensive– Some estimates > $150,000k for a single platform [7]
– Doesn’t include maintenance cost• Implementing and maintaining custom apps on
all popular smartphone platforms is cost-prohibitive
• Open data is good, but doesn’t always result in apps by 3rd party developers
[7] Larry Lauvray "iPad App Development Cost - A Breakdown." Propelics Blog, Vol. Accessed at: http://www.propelics.com/ipad-app-development-cost-a-breakdown/
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OneBusAway
• Open-source real-time transit information system
• Created by University of Washington
• Includes mobile apps:– iPhone– Android– Windows Phone– Windows 8
http://onebusaway.org
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OneBusAway – Mobile Apps
Android Windows Phone &Windows 8
iPhone
Support user location, route, stop contextual/personalized informationAll OPEN-SOURCE!
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OneBusAway
• Open-source real-time transit information system
• Created by University of Washington
• Includes mobile apps:– iPhone– Android– Windows Phone– Windows 8
• 2012 – Mobile apps only available in Puget Sound
• How do we expand them to new cities?
http://onebusaway.org
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Innovation – OneBusAway Multi-region
• Created centralized server directory
• Modified apps to find cities using directory
• Add a new city by adding a record in the directory
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OneBusAway Server Directory
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OBA – Android app
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Results
• OneBusAway mobile apps deployed to new cities:– Tampa (tampa.onebusaway.org)
– Atlanta (atlanta.onebusaway.org) (w/ Georgia Tech)
– More coming soon!• Sustainable, scalable, low-cost, and low-maintenance
model for expanding real-time transit apps to new cities– New city supplies real-time info & OneBusAway server,
OneBusAway project provides the apps• Controlled study in Tampa w/ Georgia Tech– Still analyzing results
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New OneBusAway Region Checklist
Transit Data in GTFS format AVL system that provides arrival estimates Implement a GTFS-realtime (or SIRI) feed Set up a OneBusAway Server Do some quality-control testing Launch OneBusAway apps in new city!
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Acknowledgements
• Full acknowledgements for OneBusAway Multi-region Initiative are at:– http://bit.ly/OBA_multiregion_blog
• Funding for USF’s work provided by the National Center for Transit Research
• Thanks to Hillsborough Area Regional Transit’s support for the OneBusAway Tampa public deployment
