Transit 2.0 How online partnerships and open data are spurring public transit innovation & improving public awareness of travel options

Aaron Antrim, Trillium Solutions

Spendingonautoadver/singintheU.S.peakedin2004at$24billionSource:WallStreetJournal

$44billionwasspentontransitintheUnitedStatesthatyearSource:Na0onalTransitDatabase

Howcantransitcompeteandthrive?

Planners advocate integrating transit into the streetscape.

When does my train arrive?

(trimet.org & 5 iPhone apps)

Where’s a good restaurant?

(yelp.com & iPhone app)

What time does the library close?

(Google)

How we integrate transit into the landscape of online information?

How can transit compete and thrive?

How do we integrate transit into the landscape of online information?

Open data makes transit information more ubiquitous.

Open data for transit information ubiquity

•  Examples: •  Google Transit •  Agency developer sites •  iPhone applications •  Estately •  Walkscore.com •  BrailleNote •  Multi-modal planning •  TransitAndTrails.org

•  GTFS for rural providers

Everywherethereistravelinforma/on,transitshouldbeanop/on

Everywherethereistravelinforma/on,transitisanop/on

Google Transit

The Google Transit Feed Specification, as a lightweight data standard for transit geographic and schedule data, has quickly become an increasingly ubiquitous format.

And you don’t have to be Google to use it.

We’re small and we can’t provide every customized solution people ask for…. making the data available is something that we’re very familiar with so that developers can develop the tools themselves. It’s like having an army of developers available to us.

— Tim McHugh, CTO, Trimet [full interview at tinyurl.com/trimet-cto]

“The old limits of what unmanaged and unpaid groups can do are no longer in operation; the difficulties that kept self-assembled groups from working together are shrinking, meaning that the number and kinds of things groups can get done without financial motivation or managerial oversight are growing.”

— Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody

developer.trimet.org for Portland, Oregon • Real time arrivals • GTFS schedules • Developer license • Open source

software • Transit terminology

Open data for transit information ubiquity

SF BART developer site, SF Bay Area, California • Real time arrivals • GTFS schedules • Developer license • RSS service advisories

Open data for transit information ubiquity

developer.metro.net for Southern California • Schedule API • GTFS schedules • Developer license • GIS data • Terminology and

data guide

Open data for transit information ubiquity

iTunes Application store: Applications for trip planning, maps, arrival estimates and updates.

Open data for transit information ubiquity

iBART: A free application for arrivals and trip planning. (pandav.us)

estately.com

Real estate search site lets users search by proximity to transit. Estately obtains transit info from public Google Transit Feed Spec data.

Open data for transit information ubiquity

walkscore.com: How far will public transit take you in 15, 30, or 45 minutes? Uses public GTFS.

Open data for transit information ubiquity

Sendero Group (www.senderogroup.com)

Talking GPS with refreshable braille display loads transit locations from GTFS.

Open data for transit information ubiquity

Travel Assistant Device: University of South Florida pilot project utilizes GTFS and mobile phones to tell riders with special needs when to alight from the vehicle. More at www.nctr.usf.edu/abstracts/abs77711.htm

Goose Networks: Multi-Modal Planning

Show all relevant options; 7 carpool, 3 transit

Goose Networks software uses GTFS to incorporate fixed-route transit into multi-modal trip planner

goosenetworks.com

Open data for transit information ubiquity

Goose Networks: Interagency transfers Genentech – South San Francisco

Transfer from BART to private employer shuttle

goosenetworks.com

Open data for transit information ubiquity

transitandtrails.org

Mashes up hiking trail and campground data with transit (by linking to Google Transit).

northcoastjournal.com

Online event calendar has two clicks to transit directions for all events, using Google Transit.

northcoastjournal.com

Online event calendar has two clicks to transit directions for all events, using Google Transit.

By putting this data in a common format, it can really smooth the information sharing between agencies. …We need to make connections with them [other agencies], and a lot of that now is verbal or through printed material, and there is a great opportunity to actually shuttle the information back and forth to make it much more accessible when you’re planning service.

— Tim McHugh, CTO, Trimet [full interview at tinyurl.com/trimet-cto]

Widespread GTFS adoption helps spur successful open source innovation

Example: TimeTable Publisher

timetablepublisher.org

Small agencies can benefit from GTFS, too.

Trillium WebSchedule Easy-to-use, inexpensive web-based app for maintaining and publishing GTFS. more at trilliumtransit.com

Next-generation web-based open source GTFS publishing app

beginning development.

Stay in touch at www.trilliumtransit.com/blog

Conclusion

If agencies provide standardized data, worldwide software development communities can help public transportation agencies to provide information to their customers in more useful ways and places.

Questions? Aaron Antrim, Trillium Solutions aaron@trilliumtransit.com / +1 707.633.4474 / Twitter @aaronantrim Keep up-to-date on open data and GTFS applications at www.trilliumtransit.com/blog