Open Transportation

"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.

Enabling Cost-Effective Multimodal Trip Planners through Open Transit Dat

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:59:46 -0400

Enabling Cost-Effective Multimodal Trip Planners through Open Transit Dat:

… The principal barrier to developing a multimodal trip planner remains the availability of data and, when using OSM as a source of data, the relatively low participation of U.S. residents in the project, compared to Europe. The OSM community recognizes this as a problem, but additional research is needed on how best to overcome it. Additional research also is needed on how best to communicate results from a trip planner to users who may have varying skill and comfort levels when it comes to bicycling and walking.

"The open-data folks need to be speaking with the data-visualization people, the architects need to..."

Wed, 18 May 2011 10:01:05 -0400

“

The open-data folks need to be speaking with the data-visualization people, the architects need to be listening to the mobility planners, the regulators need to understand the implications of new technical potentials…and all of them need to ground their work in the everyday urban experience of getting around and getting by.

Nothing has recently brought this home to me so much as a TranspoCamp panel I attended on how to tempt people who are currently non-users of public transit onto the buses, trains and trams. The panel organizers, while obviously well-intentioned, seemed to regard this as almost entirely an information problem: if only people had access to better maps, or timetables, or directions to the nearest bus stop, they’d naturally become riders on the spot, because public transit is self-evidently and transcendently a better, more rational way of getting around. (Trust me, I’m only barely caricaturing their position.)

To me, this epitomizes silo thinking. Yes. Yes, of course there needs to be excellence in the design of the constellation of informational resources around public transit, at the strategic, operational and tactical levels. But I have trouble seeing that as anything but table stakes. A more correct — certainly a more useful — approach to the problem would mean understanding the concerns, fears, conceptions of self and (yes) prejudices that keep people from seeing themselves as “the kind of people who ride the bus.”

”

- A short extract from Adam Greenfield’s terrific response to discussions at TransportationCamp, read the whole thing.