State hopes developers don't just build transit applications for the iPhone

By adamg - 11/14/09 - 3:25 pm

At a conference announcing a trial of real-time bus-location data today, state officials asked developers to build applications that can be used by more than people with the latest hip smartphone. Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) board member Liz Levin said not everybody can afford - or want to use - an iPhone or competing next-gen gizmos.

Chris Dempsey, a MassDOT developer, gave an example of a non-iPhone application: The Chamber of Commerce in Wicker Park, a Chicgao neighborhood, is installing flatscreen monitors in local businesses to display bus-arrival information. The screens help customers time their visits and cost a fraction of what it would cost a transit agency to install outdoor signs - because the signs don't have to be "sailor proofed" or protected against sailors whaling on it - he said.

And Levin said she hopes developers go beyond the bus-route information bus and train. She pointed to the T's expensive "paratransit" Ride system for handicapped riders. She asked: "How can you make the Ride more efficient and cost effective through scheduling" or, even better, transport people without the need for expensive vehicles? She also pointed to a Minnesota "zero-death initiative" that is using highway data to figure out where road fatalities are happening and then figure out how to reduce them.

Dempsey and MassDOT developer Josh Robin said today's release of real-time data for five bus routes is only year-long trial, but that the state wants to look at a more permanent solution - and for all of the MBTA's bus and rail lines. They explained the limited trial: There are legal and technical issues involved. When the T bought GPS units a few years ago, it didn't seek contracts that would let the data be used for public applications and the back-end software now in use can't be scaled to support requests for information on hundreds of buses and trains each day. Expanding the system to allow that would require a competitive bidding process for the hardware and software that would be required.

MassDOT Chairman Jeff Mullan, who attended the session, said he is looking forward to new applications. "The open data intitiave is really a metaphor for how we're trying to manage MassDOT," he said. He said the effort is part of a new emphasis on civic engagement - the state wants people who actually use transportation services to get involved in decision making, even though that is a different model from what "the bureaucrats at 10 Park Plaza" are used to.