TCRP Project G-18 update and Doodle poll for upcoming TIDES Meeting

[john....@metrotransit.org]

tl;dr   We are planning a TIDES meeting for early March to hear the results of the TCRP G-18 project and discuss next steps for the TIDES effort.  Please respond to this Doodle poll if you are interested in taking part.

Hello TIDES Fans,

There is good news and new energy in our work to improve use of ITS data.

After almost two years of hard work, TCRP Project G-18 is nearing conclusion.  The final report is still being drafted, but there are already preliminary materials being made available by the project team. 

This project has developed a standard structure for historical fixed route ITS data, along with a set of supporting tool requirements, that will enable transit agencies, vendors, and researchers to share data structures, practices, and tools.

 

A key finding of the research team is the need to develop a governance structure and community of practice to support the adoption and ongoing development and maintenance of the proposed data formats and software tools. 

 

Fortunately, while we waited for the project to conclude, there have been a lot of important developments in the area of open data standards and open source software for transit data.  

 

MobilityData has made good progress in their efforts to accelerate the development and adoption of mobility specifications such as GTFS, GBFS, GOFS, and others.  Open Mobility Foundation has created  a governance structure around the Mobility Data Specification (MDS).  Open Transit Software Foundation has provided similar leadership for the OneBusAway application.  And other projects such as GTFS-ride, OpenTripPlanner, and TheTransitClock are alive and well.

 

And late last year, a  broad group of stakeholders release the Mobility Data Interoperability Principles aimed at achieving greater interoperability in the technologies that power the mobility industry. 

 

Together, these initiatives provide a great set of model and resources for establishing effective governance around the open data structures and tool specification that are coming out of the TCRP G-18 project.

 

So what's next?    The answer depends on all of us!   Realizing the promise of the TCRP G-18 project, and the vision of TIDES, will require us to chart a path forward.

 

Towards that end, we are planning for a TIDES Meeting in early March to review the results of the TCRP G-18 project in detail, explore possible structures for future collaborative development, and develop next steps in our shared work.  The goal will be to make this meeting both informative, so you can get a lot of information, and interactive, so you can provide feedback and input into our next steps.

 

If you are interested in taking part in the meeting, please respond to this Doodle poll  with your availability.

 

And if you are interested in helping to plan the meeting, please email me at john dot levin at metrotransit dot org.  I would LOVE the help.

 

 John