Transit

[Gerry Tychon]

Many folks are interested in open data related to transit and this is
reflected in the applications being developed. The following link is
news for Toronto.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/11/nextbus-lets-ttc-riders-track-buses-by-gps/

... gerry tychon

[Nik Garkusha @OpenHalton]

I am confused whether the data used for real-time bus tracking is Open
Data.

The NextBus.com service is a commercial solution, seems the data is
not provided on the service site.

However, Toronto does seem to have some TTC real time arrival data:
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/open_data/open_data_item_details?vgnextoid=4427790e6f21d210VgnVCM1000003dd60f89RCRD&vgnextchannel=6e886aa8cc819210VgnVCM10000067d60f89RCRD

probably different systems, different transit services, but I wonder
if anyone knows for sure

Nik

On Jul 11, 11:20 am, Gerry Tychon <gg.tyc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Many folks are interested in open data related to transit and this is
> reflected in the applications being developed. The following link is
> news for Toronto.
>

> http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/11/nextbus-lets-ttc-riders-track...
>
> ... gerry tychon

[Herb Lainchbury]

I think Nik is right.  There doesn't appear to be anything open about the TTC data.

BC Transit currently has schedule data online but it's not open either.

Thankfully, neither of them seem to be calling their offering open data.

These approaches extend the government monopoly while providing some additional value to citizens.  Is it better than nothing?  I suppose.  But to run with my roads analogy ( http://goo.gl/p2Trd ) this is the equivalent to the government hiring someone to ride our bike for us because we can't use the road ourselves.

H

--
Herb Lainchbury
Dynamic Solutions Inc.
www.dynamic-solutions.com
http://twitter.com/herblainchbury

[James McKinney]

I think the analogy is more appropriately hiring someone to build our bike for us. The bike-builder, like the app-builder, takes advantage of a platform (road network/open data). Then, everyone who can ride a bike or use an app can benefit.

[Herb Lainchbury]

Hey James,   You're right.  That's more accurate.  Thanks.

H

[James McKinney]

Oops, I didn't mean to hit "Send" yet.

In that case, we go back to the question of whether government should be exclusively creating platforms (road network/open data) or also building products for those platforms (cars, bikes/apps, maps). In the case of the road network, the market works quite well; there's high demand, good competition, companies can take advantage of economies of scale, etc. No doubt in the case of many categories of open data, the market would work well, too, as we've seen with weather data. Transportation and housing data are probably among those categories. But I don't think all data can depend on the market; for example, I think there is value in having a government-funded department like Statcan performing analysis on socio-economic data to support public policy decisions. In the US, there are so many independent public policy think tanks, it's conceivable for the government to devolve some of this research to the public sector, but in Canada I think the government needs to keep building bikes to keep up with demand.

[Herb Lainchbury]

I totally agree.  We depend on governments to continue using and analyzing public data as well as creating it.  Government organizations are users of the platform too.

Too much reliance on "think tanks" and so called "experts" (especially in the US) is contributing to getting governments in trouble.  Incentives and motivations for outside parties influencing governments rarely align with citizen needs, and that's okay, that's why we have governments.

I would definitely oppose privatizing public data entirely... just as I would oppose privatizing roads.

And, I want to ride my bike too.

H

[Joseph]

Nik,

There is only one system for Real-time TTC vehicle data.

The TTC NVAS page (http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/open_data/
open_data_item_details?
vgnextoid=4427790e6f21d210VgnVCM1000003dd60f89RCRD) provides details
on how to access the Real-time TTC data from the Nextbus API.

The TTC also has their schedule posted in the GTFS format -
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/open_data/open_data_item_details?vgnextoid=96f236899e02b210VgnVCM1000003dd60f89RCRD


- Joseph

On Jul 11, 11:32 pm, "Nik Garkusha @OpenHalton" <openhal...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I am confused whether the data used for real-time bus tracking is Open
> Data.
>
> The NextBus.com service is a commercial solution, seems the data is
> not provided on the service site.
>

> However, Toronto does seem to have some TTC real time arrival data:http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/open_data/open_data_item_details?vg...