Making Google data available for service planning

[Marks, Stefan]

This is an email for Google staff.

Has Google ever considered allowing transit systems to access the data they provide for internal planning purposes?

Some of the data I’d find very interesting is to answer questions about service gaps – what kind of trips people are trying to make and can’t? What are the most popular trips requested? How many times is the trip planner used?

One of the reasons why some systems use trip planners other than Google is to try to understand these kind of questions.

Another idea which I have previously hoped to try is to provide a virtual “test” environment that can be posted as a trip planner so that we can use it as a tool for public consultations.

Thanks, Stefan Marks, New Orleans Regional Transit Authority

Stefan Marks AICP

Director of Planning and Scheduling
Veolia Transportation Services, Inc.

in service to  the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA)

RTA A. Phillip Randolph Facility
2817 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70119

(504) 827-8307 (Office)

(504) 606-6086 (Cell)

(504) 827-8423 (Fax)

EMAIL: stefan...@veoliatransdev.com

 

http://www.norta.com

http://www.veoliatransdev.com

[Brian Ferris]

Unfortunately, we are not able to share log data of this kind.

Thanks,

Brian

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[Nisar Ahmed]

It is really unfortunate that Google cannot make certain type of data that would help transit agencies do better service planning available to the same transit agencies who are voluntarily providing data to Google. I feel sharing of data should be a two way transaction. That way it benefits public from both ends of the transaction.

 

--Nisar

>>> Brian Ferris <bdfe...@google.com> 8/24/2012 4:54 AM >>>

. .

[Jawalikar, Prashant S. [RA]]

I agree with Nisar in that sharing should be two ways. MTC gathers detailed statistics for usage of Transit.511 and related features. The usage is also available for Transit agencies.

I definitely encourage Google to share the usage data.

Prashant

 

From: Nisar Ahmed [mailto:NAh...@mtc.ca.gov]
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 09:12 AM
To: transit-d...@googlegroups.com <transit-d...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [transit-developers] Making Google data available for service planning
 

It is really unfortunate that Google cannot make certain type of data that would help transit agencies do better service planning available to the same transit agencies who are voluntarily providing data to Google. I feel sharing of data should be a two way transaction. That way it benefits public from both ends of the transaction.

 

--Nisar

>>> Brian Ferris <bdfe...@google.com> 8/24/2012 4:54 AM >>>
Unfortunately, we are not able to share log data of this kind.

Thanks,

Brian

On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 4:25 PM, Marks, Stefan <stefan...@veoliatransdev.com> wrote:

This is an email for Google staff.

Has Google ever considered allowing transit systems to access the data they provide for internal planning purposes?

Some of the data Id find very interesting is to answer questions about service gaps what kind of trips people are trying to make and cant? What are the most popular trips requested? How many times is the trip planner used?

[Devin Braun]

I think there would be a big breach of privacy if Google were to share trip planning queries (including address information) with government agencies, or frankly with anybody at all. 

[Nisar Ahmed]

I agree with Devin that it would be a problem if Google were to share addresses or any other form of PII. I think it is possible to provide generalized reports that would help transit agencies plan their services better without including any PII. 

--Nisar

>>> Devin Braun <devin...@sdmts.com> 8/24/2012 3:13 PM >>>

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[Catala, Martin]

I think google has done so much for bringing public transit into the modern age I think that we should just say thank you. 

If you want to capture potential destination requests I think the OTP might be able to set up something that is able to capture this information. Also I think that transit agencies have vested interest in finding untapped markets and could use other means to do this such as phone surveys, travel surveys using mobile phone apps. ,parcel information and the US census LEHD dataset. 

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[Nisar Ahmed]

Ditto to the 'thank you' note for Google. Good to know that OTP can help with the analyses that is in discussion here.

 

I do not work for a transit agency. So, I cannot speak for them, but I feel most of the transit agencies may not have the resources to work with another system like OTP. In my experience working with them I believe transit agencies are always trying their best to serve their population in the best possible way and they will do their due diligence to plan and provide service to the untapped market.

 

Google has done a lot to liberate transit information. It may be not be a huge effort (I am guessing) for Google to take another step to provide some additional data points to help transit agencies.

 

--Nisar  

>>> "Catala, Martin" <cat...@cutr.usf.edu> 8/24/2012 4:15 PM >>>

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