Open Transportation

Get ready for TransportationCamp DC ’13

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:01:45 -0400

TransportationCamp is returning to DC!

On January 12 2013, meet thinkers and doers at the intersection of transportation and technology. Get ready to talk and learn about improving mobility, information design methods, bike share systems, and more… It’s an unconference - it’s up to you.

Registration is open! Sign up here.

The event will be on Saturday before the start of the Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting. The venue will be announced soon.

TransportationCamp DC ‘13 is organized by OpenPlans in partnership with American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Mobility Lab, Transportation Research Board, and Young Professionals in Transportation.

"With the announcement of iOS version 6, Apple has dropped Google Maps and with it, previously..."

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:37:47 -0400

“

With the announcement of iOS version 6, Apple has dropped Google Maps and with it, previously built-in support for travel directions via public transit.

With your support, the OpenTripPlanner app, an open source application developed by OpenPlans will put transit back on the iPhone. Initially, we will offer coverage for almost all transit systems in North America (see coverage details below).

The app will also add new features that Google Maps didn’t have, allowing users to combine walking, bikes, bike-share and transit together, finding the fastest and most efficient trips regardless of mode of transportation.

”

- Transit App for iOS 6 and Beyond by OpenPlans — Kickstarter

"Have you ever been frustrated when looking for a parking spot in downtown Chattanooga, or sat..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:43:54 -0500

“Have you ever been frustrated when looking for a parking spot in downtown Chattanooga, or sat wondering at a CARTA bus stop if you missed your bus or if it was just running late? This Feb 24th, Open Chattanooga will sponsor the first in a series of themed hack-a-thons to address common urban problems through open data and technology. This month’s Transportation-themed Hack-a-thon will bring together thinkers and doers in the fields of transportation and technology for learning, debating, connecting, and creating. If you’ve ever been frustrated or confused by Chattanooga’s transportation systems and thought, “there’s got to be a better way,” this is the event for you!”

- Upcoming Transportation Hack-a-thon at the Co.Lab - CO.LAB // The Company Lab – From Idea to Business

"A camp that does not require or supply duffel bags, trunks, bunks, tents, swim instruction, or..."

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:48:44 -0500

“A camp that does not require or supply duffel bags, trunks, bunks, tents, swim instruction, or counselors, Transportation Camp is an unconference - no pre-planned sessions or experts - with transit, alternative mode, planner and data, self-described geeks gathering for a day of exchanging ideas and learning.”

- The Express Stop: Transportation Camp

"This started as a standard “why don’t agencies release more open data?” discussion..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:04:54 -0500

“This started as a standard “why don’t agencies release more open data?” discussion but Michael Frumin of the MTA summed up the nagging problem I had with this session way more eloquently than I ever could. His argument was that we can sit around and list all the reasons that agencies are reluctant to open up their data, rehashing the same discussions that have been happening at events like TransportationCamp DC over the last five years, but the people from agencies who need to hear those discussions generally are never in the room. How do things really change? Politics - the tried and true method of lobbying the decision makers at the top that open data is important so that the staff within the agencies who can actually make open data happen have an institutional mandate to do so. The arguments are the same but each battle is specific - coordinated campaigns to reach out to the people who matter like council members and general managers - to convince them that this is important. I think the challenge for events like TransportationCamp is that there isn’t a lot of institutional memory across events quite yet, so we spend a lot of time rehashing introductory discussions. Which is not to say that great work isn’t happening at TC on this front, but I think we can do even better.”

- Great summary of three sessions at TransportationCamp DC from Brian Ferris, in I had a lot of good conversations at TransportationCamp DC…. Check his full post for details of the Standards Throwdown and the provocatively-titled “Does it really matter?”

"Saturday was my first time at TransportationCamp, the so-called “unconference” that brings together..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:02:17 -0500

“Saturday was my first time at TransportationCamp, the so-called “unconference” that brings together transportation and data enthusiasts in a one-day event to explore the intersection of urban transportation and technology. OpenPlans organized the event. A couple of hundred participants converged at the School Without Walls on an icy morning, and the first order of business was to stand up, introduce ourselves, and offer three key words.”

- TransportationCamp comes to DC…and The Transit Wire was there

publiccollectors: From Interpreting Children’s Drawings by...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:40:13 -0500

publiccollectors:

From Interpreting Children’s Drawings by Joseph H. DiLeo, M.D., Brunner/Mazel Publishers, New York, 1983.

Innovative Mobility for Low-Income Communities

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:14:58 -0500

Poor communities around the country often face major transportation challenges. The urban poor is increasingly migrating from the central city situations of the mid- and late-twentieth century, to the disinvested inner-ring suburbs of today. Rural communities have been, and continue to be more impoverished than their urban counterparts. In all of these places regular transit might not be available or viable. What other options are there?

We had a great discussion during the first morning session at Transpo Camp DC about mobility solutions for low-income families and neighborhoods.

What came out of it were some excellent examples which have been collected in a Google Doc here.

The doc is editable, so feel free to add more thoughts. If you participated in the discussion, did we miss something? For people who didn’t join us, do you have other ideas?

Participants were also interested to connect with each other beyond Transpo Camp, so feel free to add your contact information to this Google Spreadsheet.

"Today in Washington, the “School without Walls was full of of civic energy around open data, tech,..."

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:33:15 -0500

“Today in Washington, the “School without Walls was full of of civic energy around open data, tech, community, bikes, smart cities, systems, efficiency, sustainability, accessibility, trains, buses, hacking, social networking, research, policy, crowdsourcing and more. Transportation Camp, an “unconference” generated by its attendees, featured dozens of sessions on all of those topics and more. As I’ve reported before, transit data is open government fuel for economic growth. Below, the stories told in the tweets from the people show how much more there is to the world of transit than data alone. Their enthusiasm and knowledge made the 2012 iteration of Transportation Camp in the District a success.”

- Great Storify from Alex Howard: Transportation Camp DC gets geeky about the present and future of transit (who also led two sessions today).

"Transportation experts, however, still focus most of their project engagement around open houses and..."

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:02:38 -0500

“Transportation experts, however, still focus most of their project engagement around open houses and public meetings. And that, according to the transportation expert I interviewed, is a total brick-and-mortar experience. We are still asking the public to go to a physical location at a specific time in order to transact … “participate” … in the public decision-making process. But wait! Aren’t transportation agencies using Facebook and Twitter to engage with the public? Yes, and no.”

- Transportation mashup: Re-thinking public engagement on Talking Transportation.

"Wouldn’t it be great if students, parents, guardians, and educators could find out if a particular..."

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:55:56 -0500

“Wouldn’t it be great if students, parents, guardians, and educators could find out if a particular bus was going to be late and when it was likely to arrive?”

- Tardy school buses? There’s an app for that

Code for Livability event

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:47:43 -0500

The White House Office of Public Engagement and The Partnership for Sustainable Communities — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — invite you to join us for the Code for Livability on January 22, 2012. The Code for Livability brings key stakeholders with backgrounds related to livability, housing, transportation and environmental issues together with experts in web development and technology to work on Solutions in REAL Time that can bring sustainability to the forefront of peoples’ everyday lives.

When: Sunday, January 22, 2012, 9:00am – 1:00pm

Where: American Public Transportation Association. 1666 K Street, NW. Washington, DC 20006

Special Guest: Chris Vein, Deputy Chief Technology Officer, White House

RSVP by January 19, 2012.

"The camp is a one night event that will kickstart entrepreneur’s and developer’s use of all of..."

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:50:31 -0500

“The camp is a one night event that will kickstart entrepreneur’s and developer’s use of all of Louisville’s currently available local data. This includes TARC’s transit feed but also PARC data, Louisville’s Open Data Initiative, and the information I’m collecting through Your Mapper.
The goal of the camp is to examine and mine the technical format of the data feeds and lay the groundwork for building apps and websites using the raw data. I want everyone to know what we have, brainstorm ideas for how we can use it, work together to come up with some prototypes, and continue the work afterwards. It’s also a great opportunity to garner support for the city’s open data site, see what other data sets are in demand, and how everything can be improved.”

- Q and A with Michael Schnuerle & the Louisville Transportation Camp

Find TransportationCamp DC on Lanyrd

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:00:05 -0500

Find TransportationCamp DC on Lanyrd

Louisville Transportation Camp, December 12th

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:05:05 -0500

Let’s use TARC’s transit feed, PARC’s open data, Louisville’s Open Data Initiative, and the Your Mapper API to brainstorm and prototype some cool local apps.

Special Attendees:

TARC director, Barry Barker

TARC marketing and technical representatives

Ted Smith, Louisville’s Innovation Director

Audience

The goal of the camp is to examine and mine the techinical format of the data feeds (TARC, PARC, Your Mapper) and lay the groundwork for building apps and websites using the raw data. So we recommend attendees that want to help out and collaborate during the camp have a good technical knowledge of how to build apps or sites.

Before the date, see if you can get a bit familiar with the GTFS feed format, and try out all the features of the transit directions on Google Maps in your browser, tablet, and phone. Please bring your favorite development laptop to work on. We will have wifi, tables, and chairs for you to get crackin’.

"We are organizing a Transportation Camp on December 15th in Montréal at the Maison du Développement..."

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:00:05 -0500

“We are organizing a Transportation Camp on December 15th in Montréal at the Maison du Développement Durable that will include a Hackathon with newly released open transportation data. Everyone is welcome!”

- Transportation Camp in Montréal « Open Transportation Research

"Transportation Camp - an opportunity or not for mobility managers? Did any of you go to..."

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:21:12 -0500

“Transportation Camp - an opportunity or not for mobility managers? Did any of you go to Transportation Camp last time when it was held in NY and San Fransisco? There is one in January in DC. Dwight, Can you tell folks about what Transportation Camp is and the unconference idea? Do you think it is worthwhile for mobility managers? Maybe it’s worthwhile to have a report to the group about it even if people can’t go. There is no charge, but travel is expensive.”

- Great rundown of TransportationCamp from Dwight Mengel: Transportation Camp in Washingon. Are you going?

"America’s 20th largest bus service — hauling 120,000 riders a day — is profitable..."

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:45:46 -0400

“America’s 20th largest bus service — hauling 120,000 riders a day — is profitable and also illegal.”

- The (Illegal) Private Bus System That Works - Lisa Margonelli - National - The Atlantic

Transit app contest for San Jose

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:03:49 -0400

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is running a transit app contest, using their open GTFS data.

(Anyone keeping track of app contests, including different prize/recognition strategies, and the outcomes in terms of new/local apps? Let me know!)

"A motley group of 16 “open data geeks,” several of humble beginnings, accepted surprise invitations..."

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:41:03 -0400

“A motley group of 16 “open data geeks,” several of humble beginnings, accepted surprise invitations to the White House for national recognition at the Champions of Change event on June 10. The gathering aimed to demonstrate the diverse potential of Web apps utilizing data sets made available by federal, state and local agencies.”

- Great to see open transit pioneers Brian Ferris and David Emory getting deserved recognition at the White House Champions of Change awards.