Transit Open Data to launch mid-2014

[Joey Coleman]

Open Hamilton Issued the Following Statement today:

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Open Hamilton Applauds City of Hamilton's Announcement of mid-2014 Launch for Transit Open Data

Open Hamilton applauds the announcement by the City of Hamilton that real-time transit data will be available in mid-2014 both on the Hamilton Street Railway website and as open data for the community to use.

Open Hamilton looks forward to using the data to build applications for all platforms that will improve our community and encourage more use of public transportation.

We thank City Manager Chris Murray, his staff, and Hamilton's Public Works staff for their work to achieve today's announcement.

HSR announcement

The HSR will launch transit real-time open data "in approximately 6 months" with budget approval, Hamilton's Director of Transit Don Hull told City Council today.

Hull's comments came following Open Hamilton's annual presentation to the City's budget process requesting City Council fund open data implementation.

Open Hamilton is advocating for transit open data to be the top -not only- priority for the City's open data project.

 

Steps to Transit Open Data

Public Works staff have been working for the past few months to implement open data, following Council's approval of an Open Hamilton endorse open data policy this summer.

Hull said the delay in releasing real-time open data was due to the HSR having one of the most advance IT systems in transit. Among numerous features, it integrates the GPS units on buses with the payroll system as drivers are paid by the minute under their collective agreement.

Hull stated work is nearly complete to ensure the security of the HSR's internal IT systems, allowing for the release of Open Data.

 

Transit Open Data Timeline

• MacNab Terminal Real-time Displays
• "Real Time data at the MacNab terminal will be available within a month"
• Real-time Data on HSR website
• "Real-time data on the Trip planner web site and on the Buscheck telephone system will be available in approximately 4 months"
• Transit Open Data
• Open Data will be available in approximately 6 months with the approval of the project budget

 

Transit to Provide Detailed Roll-out Plan in January

HSR staff will return to Council in January with a detailed implementation roll-out

 

Open Hamilton to Meet with Transit Staff

Open Hamilton, with the assistance of the City Manager's Office, is arranging a meeting with Transit staff to help create a successful community program as part of the open data plan.

Good Progress in 2013

Hamilton made a lot of progress this year on open data.

Open Data Policy

Council approved one of the best open data policies in Canada. A policy that includes a open data license that is fully based upon the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL).

GIS Datasets

The City released 34 GIS datasets as part of it's first wave of open data. Included in the initial data were some high value GIS datasets such as ward boundaries (Hamilton's escarpment makes creating these boundaries manually very difficult), shoreline data, and roads data that includes centre lines.

More Data Coming Soon

We're working with the City to get more data in the near future. Productive meetings are underway with the City Manager's Office, including a City-supported hackathon.

Watch the blog for details and join the discussion on our Google Group.