App Quest 3.0 is here: real-time data expands to LIRR & Metro-North; trial use of wireless beacons at Grand Central subway station

[Aaron Donovan]

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), AT&T, Transit Wireless, the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) and ChallengePost today announced the opening of App Quest 3.0, the third annual challenge seeking to generate the best transportation-related apps for New Yorkers using MTA data. App developers will be able to compete for a total of $50,000 in prize money being contributed by AT&T.  

More information about App Quest 3.0 can be found at http://mtaappquest.com 

To increase MTA transparency and to give developers new forms of data to work with, the MTA is releasing four new sets of raw data. App developers will be able to use the new data and merge it with existing data to create apps that have never been seen before. 

The new data sets are:

• Train departure times, current on-time status and track assignments for all LIRR and Metro-North stations enabled on the Train Time™ system. This is the data that is currently available through the official Metro-North Train Time™ and Long Island Rail Road Train Time™ apps and websites.

• From MTA Bus Time™, historical bus locations every 30 seconds over more than three months.

• Historical train arrival estimates at every station on the 123456L subway lines, S 42nd Street Shuttle and the Staten Island Railway every five minutes, starting Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014.

• Newly reformatted and easier to use data on turnstile counts at each subway station.

And to enable the possibility of greater navigation functionality of apps, App Quest 3.0 will incorporate the use of experimental wireless PROMObeacons that have been set up at the Grand Central-42nd Street subway station. The PROMObeacons can transmit to beacon-enabled apps to allow the apps to know the precise location of an app user within a subway station. That could help sensory impaired people, or people unfamiliar with the layout of given subway stations, find their way through a station. The PROMObeacons have been installed by Transit Wireless as an experimental “proof-of-concept” beta test to take place as part of App Quest 3.0. The beacons will not receive any data from smartphones, and they will only transmit data to smartphones if a user affirmatively opts to enable location services underground.

“We have been extremely impressed with the creativity, functionality and all-around usefulness of the apps that have been built with MTA data since we began posting it online four years ago,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast. “Apps foster greater MTA transparency and help our customers use our system more effectively, so we hope to see the creation of even more great apps. We are delighted to be partnering with AT&T, NYU CUSP, ChallengePost and Transit Wireless to stimulate the creativity of app developers and to help generate more apps that will further enhance our customers’ experience.”

“The continued expansion of underground connectivity in addition to the wealth of information available to the MTA provides us with the opportunity to use technology to enhance the daily experience of millions of transit riders and AT&T is excited to be a leader in these efforts,” said Marissa Shorenstein, AT&T New York State President. “The innovative solutions that have been developed as part of App Quest in previous years have greatly benefited New Yorkers and we look forward to seeing the ideas created with the new data being provided to developers.”

“We are ‘beta-testing’ the PROMObeacon technology in underground stations for App Quest 3.0 as we continue to enhance technology for the NYC subway ridership, so the opportunity to allow app developers to apply this technology during the hackathon was ideal,” said William Bayne, CEO of Transit Wireless. “We are pleased to support the MTA and AT&T with our underground technology solutions and to be involved with the hackathon this year.

“App Quest is the best transit-related grassroots software initiative in the world,” said Brandon Kessler, CEO of ChallengePost, the web platform powering the competition. “It has repeatedly served as a launch pad for apps which have gone on to achieve enormous commercial success. It also provides New Yorkers with high-value apps that save them money and make their rides more efficient.”

While all transportation-related apps that use official MTA-released data are encouraged, the App Quest organizers are particularly interested in these four types of app categories:

• Snapshots and analysis of rider feedback and their observations in subways, buses and railroads.

• Real time maps of MTA bus, subway and railroad routes for smartphone apps and other mobile devices. 

• Transit apps enabling instantaneous trip planning, combining any mode of MTA transit. 

• Apps connecting with wireless beacons in subway stations to help sensory impaired people navigate safely, and for people unfamiliar with New York's transit system.

Apps that are entered into the App Quest 3.0 challenge will be eligible for these prizes:

Accessibility Innovation Track

• Grand Prize for Best Accessibility App for Disabled MTA Customers - $10,000

• Runner-up Prize for Best Accessibility App for Disabled MTA Customers - $7,500

Consumer/Transit Rider App Track:

• Grand Prize for Best Transit Rider App - $7,500

• Runner-up for Best Transit Rider App - $5,000

Additional Non-Track Prizes:

• Best Way-Finding Application for Novice Transit Riders - $5,000

• Best Data Visualization App - $5,000

• Best App Using Crowd-Sourced Data - $5,000

• Popular Choice Award - $5,000

• Large Organization Recognition Award - Non-cash, recognition only

App developers will have until February 3 at 5 p.m. to submit their apps for consideration. Winners will be announced in mid-March.  

Challenge Post will post information about all of the apps on a central webpage, and the public will be able to cast their votes from Feb. 12 to Feb. 25 to determine who wins the Popular Choice award. For the other prizes, the apps will be judged by a panel of experts in technology and customer service:

• Barbara Cohn, Chief Data Officer, NYS Office of Information Technology Services

• Rachel Haot, New York State Chief Digital Officer & Deputy Secretary for Technology 

• Brad Hargreaves, Co-Founder of General Assembly

• Todd Haselton, Executive Director of Mobile, TechnoBuffalo

• Scott Heiferman, CEO and a Co-Founder of Meetup

• Andrew Nicklin, New York State Director of #OpenNY 

• Michael Salvato, Program Manager, Enterprise Asset Management, MTA 

• Marissa Shorenstein, President of AT&T New York

• Omar Usmani, Executive Partner at Aeon Nexus Corp.  

App Quest 3.0 will include a Developer Day on November 22 at NYU CUSP in downtown Brooklyn that will offer competitors a chance to participate in person or virtually to connect with experts on the MTA data sets.  Participants will also be able to form, join, or expand teams during a teammate match session.  To register, visit:  http://cusp.nyu.edu/event-registration/?ee=120 

The MTA currently provides 20 sets of data for app developers, including real-time service status for all lines, real-time elevator and escalator status, data on items in the MTA’s lost and found units, and real-time bus locations and subway arrival estimates for trains on eight subway routes and the Staten Island Railway. The MTA also publishes daily traffic volumes at its toll plazas, and the volume of subway customers using each bank of turnstiles at each station every four hours, and at each station based on type of MetroCard. Three to four times each year, the MTA publishes schedules for all MTA services, in raw, machine readable data formatted for app developers.

The MTA releases its data to app developers freely over the Internet. There is no charge to access MTA data. For app developers who have an app that is free to download and wish to use MTA trademarks, such as logos and subway line icons, the MTA waives the fee it would normally charge for for-profit uses of its logos.

This is the third App Quest challenge.  Last year, $40,000 in prize money was awarded to six apps: Citymapper (Grand Prize and MTA Wish List Award), Subculture.FM (Second Prize), Transit App (Third Prize), Accessway (Honorable Mention), Bus NYC (Honorable Mention), and Moovit (People’s Choice Award).  For a complete list of the winning apps and what they do, see this press release.

In its 2011-2012 App Quest challenge, the MTA awarded prizes to 10 apps, with Embark NYC receiving the Grand Prize. For a complete list of the 2012 winners, see this press release.

While the MTA has released nearly 10 of its own official apps, the MTA also encourages its customers to use apps built by third party developers by including them in its online App Center gallery, which can be found here: http://web.mta.info/apps/ 

[clevercommute]

Thanks for posting this. 

I read about this in AM NY today...and something in that article (http://www.amny.com/transit/app-quest-promises-50-000-prize-for-mta-navigation-apps-1.9611866) caught my eye.

The author said: "Among new data at developers' disposal is real-time information on the exact location and train arrival time of a Long Island Rail Road or Metro-North train, using global positioning systems and other train-monitoring technology."

Where/how can a developer see the GPS location of a given train? 

Thanks, 

--Josh 

[John Larsen]

Long Island Rail Road GTFS RT feed information

Endpoints

There are three endpoints provided

1.       The Protocol Buffer feed is at

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/LIRR/gtfsrt/realtime/[PutAPIKeyHere]/proto

2.       The JSON data feed is at

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/LIRR/gtfsrt/realtime/[PutAPIKeyHere]/json

3.       The XML data feed

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/LIRR/gtfsrt/realtime/[PutAPIKeyHere]/xml

Dataset

All of the datasets conform to the GTFS RT specification located at

https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs-realtime/

This feed implements Trip Update.

Use the TripUpdate.TripDescriptor.Id to match the GTFS schedule Trip.trip_id to join to the schedule information.

[John Larsen]

Metro-North Railroad GTFS RT feed information

Endpoints

There are three endpoints provide

The endpoint address is the same for all of the feeds. It is at

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/gtfsrtwebapi/v1/gtfsrt/[PutAPIKeyHere]/getfeed

To access the protocol buffer feed, add an http header GET request

Accept:  application/x-protobuf

To access the JSON feed, add an http header to the GET request

                Accept: application/json

To access the XML feed, add an http header to the GET request

                Accept: application/xml

Dataset

All of the datasets conform to the GTFS RT specification located at

https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs-realtime/

This feed implements the Trip Updates portion of the specification.

Within the TripUpdate.VehicleDescriptor, the label refers to the train number represented in the GTFS schedule Trip.trip_short_name. This is how you would link the train status from the GTFS RT to the GTFS schedule.

[John Larsen]

In order to get access to the LIRR and MNR feeds, please shoot me a direct message with your MTA API Key and I will get your key processed to access the feed.

PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR KEY ON THIS OPEN FORUM!!!

ENJOY!!!

See you at the Developer Day!

[clevercommute]

Thank you for this. I just want to clarify something here: 

The article said: "Among new data at developers' disposal is real-time information on the exact location and train arrival time of a Long Island Rail Road or Metro-North train, using global positioning systems and other train-monitoring technology."

Does this mean that (1) developers have access to lat/long GPS data or (2) the feeds you shared contains information about delays/issues (e.g., the "delay" fields)...and THAT information comes to MTA via "global positioning systems and other train-monitoring technology"? 

Put another way: Does MTA expose the coordinates of a train for use by developers? 

--Josh 

[John L]

No it does not and it is an unfortunate choice of words.

The feeds do not give out GPS locations of the trains. The various tools that the railroads have at their disposal, signal system, rfid tags and some onboard GPS, allow the railroads to produce data to run the signage at stations and terminals. We are simply tapping into the signage feeds to give the status of the trains and the status at those locations.

At this time, the alerts are not being populated, but that does not mean that we will not do so in the future when a comprehensive feed can fulfill the specification.

Cancellations are considered in the feed regarding trains and stops that are new or removed are also considered.

I hope that answers your questions.

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[clevercommute]

Thanks...for the replies over the weekend. 

I agree that an unfortunate choice of words was indeed used. 

In any event, I'm a bit confused: if the feed does not show coordinates _or_ alerts...then what business purpose does it serve? 

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[John L]

Lateness down to the minute , Cancellations, added/removed stops ...

To my knowledge, other than screen scraping, there is no other feed that gives this information out to developers.

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[John L]

I don't think that should be a literal interpretation. It says "using global positioning and other train monitoring" and that is how the location status and times are determined.

The GTFS RT locations map back to the GTFS schedule stops which have GPS coordinates.

Look for something to be released today for the feeds with documentation and have your API keys hand as they will be needed to get access to the data.

[gentlehyeman]

How do we get access to PROMObeacons data?

Thanks.

[clevercommute]

Thanks for the note. I hope I'm not reading too much into this...but I just want to be sure my tone was OK. 

To be clear: I think MTA has done a lot of great work to supply developers with a large amount of data. It helps the passengers...and it enables innovative companies. 

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[Serena Pietruszka]

Hi gentlehyeman,

To get access to the PROMObeacons data you'll need to fill out the form on the challenge Resources page (http://2014mtaappquest.challengepost.com/details/resources). Once completed you'll be given access to the Transit Wireless Beacon Developer Kit. 

Best,

Serena

[gentlehyeman]

Hello,

Thanks for the info.   It appears that the Dev Kit is only available for iOS and Android and not Windows Phone.   Please confirm.

[Mikko Virkkilä]

Hi,

You are correct. Currently Windows Phone does not have APIs for an application to scan for beacons, instead Bluetooth scanning is always handled by the OS. As this means it is not possible for an application to monitor nearby beacons on Windows Phone, we are unable to do indoor positioning on that platform.

- Mikko

[XYZ]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply. I am no Bluetooth expert but found the following link that explains Bluetooth in Windows Phone apps.

http://developer.nokia.com/community/wiki/Introduction_to_Bluetooth_support_on_Windows_Phone_8

Please advise if we can use this API to connect to ATT beacons.

Thank you.

---

From: Mikko Virkkilä
Sent: ‎11/‎23/‎2014 8:32 AM
To: mtadevelop...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [MTAdev] Re: App Quest 3.0 is here: real-time data expands toLIRR & Metro-North; trial use of wireless beacons at Grand Central subway station

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[XYZ]

Please help with the question.

Also, are the beacons already installed at GCT subway for us to test?

Thank you.

---

From: XYZ
Sent: ‎11/‎23/‎2014 10:57 AM
To: mtadevelop...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [MTAdev] Re: App Quest 3.0 is here: real-time data expands toLIRR& Metro-North; trial use of wireless beacons at Grand Central subway station

[Mikko Virkkilä]

There was an unfortunate typo in the previous post, so I deleted it to avoid confusion and below is the same post with the typo corrected.

Hi,

Yes, the beacons are already installed. 

It is not possible to use Bluetooth 4.0 beacons from an application running on Windows Phone. This is because of OS level limitations.

The beacons use the Bluetooth 4.0 standard and transmissions over Bluetooth 4.0 cannot be picked up with devices with earlier Bluetooth versions. The page you linked is correctly states that on Windows Phone 8, there are no APIs for Bluetooth 4.0. Hence on Windows Phone 8.

Windows Phone 8.1 does have APIs for Bluetooth 4.0 but unfortunately they cannot be used for using Bluetooth 4.0 beacons. A mobile phone does not open a connection to a beacon, but only listens to the message packets beacons transmit. On Windows Phone, an application cannot listen to these packets directly, and therefor there is no way for a Windows Phone application to use the beacons. 

Hopefully this clears things up.

Best regards,

Mikko

[Danny Hertz]

I keep getting "Access Denied" trying to fetch any of the real time endpoints with my api key. How are we supposed to send you a direct message?

On Friday, November 14, 2014 2:35:57 PM UTC-5, John Larsen wrote:

[Aaron Donovan]

Danny, send an email to me at adonovan (at) mtahq (dot) com and Mark Heavey at mheavey at the same domain.  

[deepak bhatia]

Hi Danny,

I have tried sending emails on the address mentioned to get access to LIRR & Metro-North Real time data. It bounces back from mtahq-com (dot) bounceio (dot) net.

Saying trouble sending to adonovan (at) mtahq (dot) com.

Regards,

Deepak

[Jeremy Baron]

On Dec 31, 2014 11:17 AM, "deepak bhatia" <deepakbh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have tried sending emails on the address mentioned to get access to LIRR & Metro-North Real time data. It bounces back from mtahq-com (dot) bounceio (dot) net.
>
> Saying trouble sending to adonovan (at) mtahq (dot) com.

try .org for mtahq instead of .com

-Jeremy

[John L]

Send an email to my GMAIL address and I  will get you squared away

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[Andrew Natoli]

Hi, 

I registered for an API key a few days ago but am still getting an "access denied" message when attempting to access the LIRR's real-time feeds with my key. I simply put the key into the URL where it's specified. Is anyone else having this issue?

On Wednesday, November 12, 2014 1:02:24 PM UTC-5, Aaron Donovan wrote:

[Anthony DeFreitas]

I am having the same problem with Metro-North feeds.  

I have an API key also.  

[Mike Zou]

Hello,

I have the same issue. Is there a place that we can test API validity? Thanks.

[John L]

In one of the later posts, I had asked that If you wanted access to the Metro-North Railroad or Long Island Rail Road feeds that you would have to send me your key in a private message or to my gmail address.

I can get that set up today if you get it to me.

[Aaron Franco]

How can I gain access to Metro-North and LIRR data sets for App Quest? 

[Aaron Donovan]

Aaron do you still need help?  See John Larsen's email above.  

[Aaron Franco]

all good, thanks Aaron! 

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[Patrick O'Hara]

Hi,

I am currently trying to look at the LIRR's GTFS RT feed (the XML version), and I am getting an error message when I point my browser to the URL indicated above. [I don't think the image stuck with my original message, but the screenshot of the error message I got is here: http://i.imgur.com/IoBWurW.png]

I have previously registered my API key with Mr. Larsen and this is the first time I've gotten an error message to this effect.  Is there a mixup on the railroad's end, or is there something I should be doing differently?

Thanks!
...patrick...


On Friday, November 14, 2014 at 2:32:15 PM UTC-5, John Larsen wrote:

Long Island Rail Road GTFS RT feed information

Endpoints

There are three endpoints provided

1.       The Protocol Buffer feed is at

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/LIRR/gtfsrt/realtime/[PutAPIKeyHere]/proto

2.       The JSON data feed is at

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/LIRR/gtfsrt/realtime/[PutAPIKeyHere]/json

3.       The XML data feed

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/LIRR/gtfsrt/realtime/[PutAPIKeyHere]/xml

Dataset

All of the datasets conform to the GTFS RT specification located at

https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs-realtime/

This feed implements Trip Update.

Use the TripUpdate.TripDescriptor.Id to match the GTFS schedule Trip.trip_id to join to the schedule information.

[John L]

Hi Patrick, Can you post the error message?

I checked your profile and the key is valid and the profile is active.

On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 11:25 PM, Patrick O'Hara <c3po...@outlook.com> wrote:

Hi,

I am currently trying to look at the LIRR's GTFS RT feed (the XML version), and I am getting an error message when I point my browser to the URL indicated above:

I have previously registered my API key with Mr. Larsen and this is the first time I've gotten an error message to this effect.  Is there a mixup on the railroad's end, or is there something I should be doing differently?

Thanks!
...patrick...

On Friday, November 14, 2014 at 2:32:15 PM UTC-5, John Larsen wrote:

Long Island Rail Road GTFS RT feed information

Endpoints

There are three endpoints provided

1.       The Protocol Buffer feed is at

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/LIRR/gtfsrt/realtime/[PutAPIKeyHere]/proto

2.       The JSON data feed is at

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/LIRR/gtfsrt/realtime/[PutAPIKeyHere]/json

3.       The XML data feed

https://mnorth.prod.acquia-sites.com/wse/LIRR/gtfsrt/realtime/[PutAPIKeyHere]/xml

Dataset

All of the datasets conform to the GTFS RT specification located at

https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs-realtime/

This feed implements Trip Update.

Use the TripUpdate.TripDescriptor.Id to match the GTFS schedule Trip.trip_id to join to the schedule information.

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[John L]

Please ignore that last one. Just got the image.

--

[John L]

I just brought up the XML and JSON endpoints in Chrome. IE did not want to display the XML but there is some buried setting to get it to show.

I used your key to display so try a different browser to view the endpoint.

Again, the protobuf endpoint is the one that should be used, the others are there for us humans :P

On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 11:28 PM, Patrick O'Hara <c3po...@outlook.com> wrote:

--

[Patrick O'Hara]

It's working for me now, thanks.  I was using Firefox at first, I should've tried it in another browser.  I mainly just use the XML one to see the performance of individual trains.

Thanks for your help!
...patrick...

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[Thomas Nolan]

Hi John, I may need you to do this for me as well?  I also signed up, got an API key, and when I try to use it I get access denied.

Thanks,

Tom

On Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 12:19:57 AM UTC-5, John Larsen wrote:

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[Jessica J Joseph]

When will App Quest 4.0 be open?

[Aaron Donovan]

Hi Jessica,   At this point it is unclear.   We haven't announced firm plans to move forward with another App Quest at this point.    -Aaron

[Jack Gruber]

Hey John I am still getting access denied even though I have my API key. Can I send you a direct message so you can add it to the whitelist?

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