New York City’s public transit system took a big step toward the future today, going 180 degrees on its old policy of keeping transit data behind locked doors. As of today, info about NYC’s ridership stats and arrival times will be available to anyone who wants to use the data to make software apps for transit riders.
NYC riders should thank Portland for their future subway iPhone apps, since the new open source model is one TriMet pioneered all the way back in 2005. I wrote about how TriMet became the first major public transit agency in the world to work with Google and open up its data to everyday app developers in an article last summer:
- Andy Rementer
For four years, Portland’s public transit agency has quietly led the world in one small area: making public transit information sleek and accessible online. It is a nerdy pursuit, but not a niche one. Los Angeles, Austin, Japan, and Seattle have all used TriMet’s technology to get their own public transit schedules onto iPhones and the internet.
How did Portland become a transit technology pioneer without spending a dime? Firstly, the city is committed to open source data sharing. And it employs a computer science power couple capable of teaching Google a thing or two.
Portland > New York.
Take that, New York!
Too bad ours now takes an extra 45 minutes to arrive at the actual stops. In fact, I’d ditch the whole “cell-phone-blah-blah” aspect just to get a slightly more frequent bus, now and then.
@toilet joe: For the cost of what they spent on the “cell-phone-blah-blah” they would be able to increase frequency by around 0.2%, for one year. Meaning if the route sucks because the density is too low and it serves f$^&ing Dumbasskiss, (is that Dumbass Kiss, or Dumb Asskiss?) and so it only makes sense to run it once an hour at rush hour in the first place, it would be able to run every 59 minutes and 54 seconds instead. For that year. Then they’d go back to no “cell-phone-blah-blah” and still only run every hour.
Exactly, Trimet isn’t making (spending money on) any of the cell phone blah blahs. They have made the data available, and independent programmers are using the data to make the blah blahs. “How did Portland become a transit technology pioneer without spending a dime?”
Also, Mirk, what’s a computer science power couple? Is that some sort of kickass server config, or is it two people who are in a relationship and are doing the programming for Trimet?