Open Data: Challenges and Opportunities for Transit Agencies (2015)

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106 ride a bus to the train station, or take a taxi back home when working late. They might also do something entirely different the following day depending on such day’s particular circumstances like weather, traffic, or personal engagements. In this new context, having accurate information and data has become increasingly useful. Thus, it is good news that as never before, we can now benefit from so many ready-to-use technolo- gies [smartphones, global positioning system (GPS), mobile Internet, etc.]. Major transport companies (national railway, local transport or taxi companies) have begun implementing apps to help people find their way around and to plan the best route possible. How- ever, the best solution is yet to be developed: one that would meet every single need. Maybe it is not their responsibility anymore because our needs are getting more individual and unique. Or maybe, simply because the ‘ultimate’ solution will come from the users them- selves or from the infinite creativity of the internet business world” (C2). • OpenDataLab contest sponsored by Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) (http://www.tom. travel/2013/05/opendatalab-la-ratp-recompense-les- applications-voyageurs/) to promote the creation of new applications for travelers. This event had 110 partici- pants in 12 teams. There were three winning projects. • Tampere (Finland) region’s organizations, specialists and developers are committed to an open data approach. There has been four “Open Data Tampere Meets” since early 2013 (C3). • ITS Innovation Stockholm Kista is an “innovation com- petition which is organised by The City of Stockholm, Swedish Transport Administration, Stockholm Public Transport, Swedish ITS Council and Kista Science City, and financed by Sweden’s Innovation Agency. [It] is arranged as a precommercial procurement, the first ever in Sweden. The challenge for competitors is to develop innovative solutions that meet the demand of more effective travels and transports to and from the outer Stockholm district Kista. In the long run, solu- tions are to be scalable and equipped with proficient business models so that they will serve citizens in the larger Stockholm region after competition closure. In order to facilitate data access, the competition organ- isers have developed a data market where competi- tors get free access to some forty datasets through one API” (C4). Many transportation organizations are discussing and pro- moting open transit data. They include: • Mobility Lab in Arlington, Virginia, sponsors events like Transportation Techies (a group for programmers interested in transit, biking and walking) Hack Nights, in which applications and visualizations using open transit data are created and discussed. For example, on April 3, 2014, “Bus Hack Night” was held at Mobility Lab to discuss bus technologies and ways to use data that is collected from buses (http://www. meetup.com/Transportation-Techies/, accessed on April 1, 2014). • The subject of open public transport data was promi- nent in IT-TRANS, an international conference and exhibition on Information Technology (IT) Solutions for Public Transport organized by Karlsruher Messe- und Kongress-GmbH (KMK) and the International Association of Public Transportation (UITP) that was held from February 18–20, 2014. • TransportationCamp, a series of unconferences that started in 2011 and have been held in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco, California; New York, New York; Mon- treal, Quebec, Canada; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Atlanta, Georgia, has contained many sessions related to open transit data. • Several transit agencies, including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and Metro- politan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City, have held challenges and contests for application developers since 2009. • Between February 22 and April 30, 2014, U.S. DOT sponsored a Data Innovation Challenge, which promoted and recognized the creation of the most innovative appli- cations, tools and visualizations of publicly-available transportation data. • Open transport is now the subject of conferences such as the Open Data Transport day organized by a French association of transport authorities and held on June 3, 2013 (C1). • Data Days 2014 conference, which was held Feb- ruary 17–19, 2014, in Ghent, Belgium, covered the idea that open transport is creating a path to more effi- cient multimodal mobility. “Personal urban mobility is changing. Cars are no longer ‘# 1’ anymore, and com- muters are less exclusive in the way they move around in their daily life. Indeed, they use bike-share systems, APPENDIX C Transportation Organizations and Conferences Discussing and Promoting Open Transit Data

107 REFERENCES C1. “A review of the ‘Open Data Transport’ day,” June 7, 2013 [Online]. Available: http://www.sustainable-mobility. org/getting-around-today/public-transport/a-review- of-the-open-data-transport-day.html [accessed Feb. 23, 2014]. C2. “Open Transport: The Shortest Way to Efficient Multi- modal Mobility?” Data Days 2014, De Bijloke, Ghent, Belgium, Feb. 17–19, 2014 [Online]. Available: http:// www.datadays.eu/session/open-transport/. C3. Kulmala, M., and A. Lumiaho, “Open Data as Enabler for ITS Factory,” presented at 20th ITS World Congress, Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 14–18, 2013. C4. Löfgren, J., “ITS Innovation Stockholm Kista— Stimulating Innovative ITS Solutions in Sweden’s First PCP,” presented at 20th ITS World Congress, Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 14–18, 2013.