Better Faster Cheaper - How Outside Developers Can Help Transit Agencies Inform Their Riders

better faster cheaper

Joe Hughes
Google

joe@headwayblog.com

Goal: Communicate
better with riders

Goal: Better internal
information

Problem: Agencies are
strapped for cash and
developers

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC quot;-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//ENquot;
quot;http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtdquot;>
<html xmlns=quot;http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtmlquot; xmlns:v=quot;urn:schemas-
microsoft-com:vmlquot;>
<head>
<script src=quot;http://maps.google.com/maps?
file=api&v=2&key=ABQIAAAAzr2EBOXUKnm_jVnk0OJI7xSosDVG8KKPE1-
m51RBrvYughuyMxQ-i1QfUnH94QxWIa6N4U6MouMmBAquot;
type=quot;text/javascriptquot;></script>
<script type=quot;text/javascriptquot;>

function initialize() {
if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
var stop = new GLatLng(33.88508,-117.84383);

var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById(quot;map_canvasquot;));
map.setCenter(stop, 19);
map.setMapType(G_SATELLITE_MAP);

map.addOverlay(new GMarker(stop));
map.openInfoWindow(stop, document.createTextNode(
quot;NB LINDA VISTA/ROSE FS PLAC Stop ID: 5731quot;));
}
}

</script>
</head>
<body onload=quot;initialize()quot; onunload=quot;GUnload()quot;>
<div id=quot;map_canvasquot; style=quot;width: 800px; height: 600pxquot;></div>
</body>
</html>

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.88508,-117.84383+(NB
+LINDA+VISTA%2FROSE+FS+PLAC+Stop+ID:+5731)&t=k&z=19

Most of this data is scraped or hand-entered

There’s got to be a better way.

Of course, the truth is in
bet ween. Within every
bureaucracy, there are
people working to make
things better.

The truth is somewhere in between.

In 2005, we launched
Google Transit, a fast
trip planner that made it
easy to ﬂip through
different results for a
given transit trip.

Last year, public transit
became a ﬁrst-class
citizen in Maps. This
means that it’s easy to
discover whether public
transit makes sense for
your trip...

How does Google get this
data?

How can we collect this data, for the whole world?

...and make it easier for the next developer?

So we started from
something that worked
(Portland TriMet data
dump), and created the
Google Transit Feed
Speciﬁcation (GTFS)

It’s CSV; easy to
understand, and maps
well to the DB table-
oriented workﬂow that
agency IT staff are
familiar with

It’s an open format, and
its further development
is decided by the
community of users.

The agencies prepare
these feed and put them
on their server for
Google to retrieve... but
they’re also usable by
other developers if the
agency is willing

http://www.google.com/intl/en

Agency

Your transit
project?

Devin’s hack is able to use
other agency GTFS

Think of outside
developers as a highly
motivated R&D lab

Be willing to adopt
successful projects

The ideal outcome:
Agencies get new tools
Developers get support
and recognition

Google Maps API learn how to make a mashup
code.google.com/apis/maps
Headway Wiki get inspired by what others have done
headwayblog.com/wiki
Google Transit group talk to like-minded folks
groups.google.com/group/googletransit
GTFS format learn how to publish your schedules for reuse
maps.google.com/transitfeed
Contact me get in touch!
joe@headwayblog.com

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