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How Google and Portland’s TriMet Set the Standard for Open Transit Data
With national data transparency efforts like President Obama's Open Data Initiative and municipal projects like New York City's Big Apps or San Francisco's Data SF, government agencies across the country have been opening their raw data sets, some more reluctantly than others. With the debut of City-Go-Round and media coverage generated about transit data transparency, many transit operators have taken steps to release their schedule and route information to third party developers, who in turn use the data to develop an array of applications to improve rider experience.
January 5, 2010
Transit Fare Inflation Hitting Health Insurance-Like Levels?
That's the implication buried in a roundup
of dismal news from urban transit agencies that ran in Saturday's Wall
Street Journal. After noting the overall ridership decreases tallied by APTA and the specter of punitive service cuts in many cities, the newspaper noted:
January 5, 2010
Which Muni Lines Will be the Next to Go?
With California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger poised to raid transit funds yet again, and the MTA facing a mid-year budget in the tens of millions, it's looking increasingly likely that the December 2009 service changes will soon look relatively benign compared to what lies ahead.
January 4, 2010
Transit Agencies Upset by Governor Schwarzenegger’s Plan to Divert Funds
Despite California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's pledge to be a good steward of his state's environment, the governor is expected to release a budget proposal this week that would gut transit funding and contravene both a state Supreme Court ruling and numerous public referendums mandating secure transit funding, a slap in the face to a proven green transportation strategy, say transit operators.
January 4, 2010
Economic Downturn Hits Transit Ridership — But Not in These Cities
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) got the mainstream media's attention during the holiday season after reporting
that the dismal economy had helped push transit ridership down by 3.8
percent during the first three-quarters of 2009, when compared with the
previous year.
January 4, 2010
Transit Jobs Nearly Twice as Cheap to Create as Roads — By Congress’ Math
During the first stimulus debate, House Democrats and the White House famously sparred over how quickly infrastructure money could be spent -- with the data later proving that transit was just as "shovel-ready" as roads, if not more so.
December 17, 2009
Senate Climate Bill Invests Big in Transit, Reaps Big Deficit Reduction
As the Copenhagen climate talks reach a turning point,
congressional negotiations over emissions cuts are taking a back seat
to global debate. But some undeniably good news on the domestic front
came late yesterday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office
(CBO).
December 17, 2009
New Website Prompts Transit Agencies to Open Data to the Public
The software developers and open data advocates at Front Seat, known more familiarly for their Walk Score rankings of the most walkable U.S. cities, have turned their focus on transit agencies that have resisted opening transit data to third-party, open-source developers. Their new website, City-Go-Round, is an effort to encourage agencies to release their schedules in Google Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), the standard for programmers. With the data, Front Seat expects software developers will continually improve the interface between operators and their riders.
December 16, 2009
The Case Against the “Empty Bus” Argument
Jarrett Walker at Human Transit provides useful ammunition in the battle of reasonable people against knee-jerk transit-bashers.
December 15, 2009
‘Cash for Clunkers’ Backer Sutton Steps it Up for Ohio Transit
Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) was one of the prime movers behind the economically and environmentally misguided "cash for clunkers" program, but she is switching gears to help save transit in Lorain County, Ohio, where bus service could be canceled in 2010 after voters rejected a sales tax increase to raise operating funds.
December 11, 2009