NYC Council Member Gale A. Brewer Calls for MTA Data Transparency

[Sam Wong]

Good evening,

In recent weeks, technology entrepreneurs and the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (MTA) have disagreed over the creation of
innovative applications with the potential to make the New York metro
region more navigable. The MTA’s own licensing policies and
insufficient data are delaying this development. A summary of the
situation was described in AMNY on August 24, 2009: http://bit.ly/mtadata

Attached, please find a letter from Council Member Gale A. Brewer
calling on the MTA to publish up-to-date schedules and standardize
their public data to software developers.

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September 9, 2009

Helena E. Williams
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)
Interim Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer
President, MTA Long Island Railroad
347 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10017-3739


Dear Ms. Williams:

Mobile technology has become a significant part of New Yorkers'
lives. An expectation for immediate information has changed the way
individuals interact with each other, with businesses, and even
government. In light of this, Metropolitan Transportation Authority
(MTA) timetables and public transit data should be made available for
software developers to create innovative applications for mobile
devices. I have met with local open government advocates, software
developers, and transit groups to discuss data transparency at the
MTA. The potential is huge, but insufficient public data and concerns
over licensing have delayed the development of innovative programs
utilizing MTA data.

Currently, the MTA website displays schedule information for subway
and bus lines that is dated Winter 2009. Furthermore, these
timetables are available only for certain stations and in PDF format.
More data needs to be made available online for research, analysis,
and mobile development, especially in programmable and computer-
readable formats such as XML or GTFS. Operational data should be
wholly in the public domain. Other urban transportation agencies, in
San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Boston, are opening up their data
for program development, and soon New York will once more be behind
the curve in innovation.

The MTA’s five-year capital plan to upgrade signals and communications
will make the system more efficient. These gains can be converted
into real-time advantages for users by enabling application developers
to make the system more navigable and transparent for straphangers
with up-to-date schedules and transit advisories.

I urge you to review the MTA’s licensing policies and to collaborate
with the mobile technology developer community. Opening up the
transit data would require almost no capital investment by the MTA,
while the application developers would return innovative tools of
immense everyday value to the public at minimal expense. According to
MTA’s own Chief of Marketing & Advertising Mark Heavey, “the challenge
in providing updated data is administrative, not technical. Not
providing (an) online feed is also not a technical issue, but policy.”

The MTA should capitalize on the mobile technology revolution to
improve service as well as public relations and to increase the safety
of its operations. Increased transparency of MTA data is the key to
these advances as well as an enhanced role for the MTA in furthering
personal and business development in the New York metro region.

Thank you for your consideration of these initiatives. I look forward
to hearing from you. Please contact Kunal Malhotra or Samuel Wong at
(212) 788-6975 with any questions.


Sincerely,

Gale A. Brewer