Microsoft Initiative and the Open Data project for Public Transit

Terry Bills is the Transportation Industry Manager for Esri, a privately owned company that develops GIS software applications and supplies them worldwide. As Terry stated in an interview with T-TRANS 2012, “most of the information that a public transport agency has is usually spacial and nature, so by using our technology they’re actually able to bring [it] together to integrate that information and use it to better plan their own routes, to monitor their own performance, and to ultimately give better public service to their customers.”

Introduction to the Open Data Project for Public Transit

Esri recently held a business partner conference in which Jack Dangermond had a discussion with Microsoft about the possibility of creating an open data portal for public transit information. The concept is to have an open and widely accessible portal for transit data – stops, routes, schedule information, real time data, as well any other data that transit agencies could supply or desire.

Purpose

The purpose of the open data initiative would be to make data available in an open portal to all developers to build public facing applications that support public transit and other multimodal options.This initiative at Esri is derived from the concept that public transit and other transportation options are an integral part of building Smarter Cities, thereby building a future that Esri hopes to play a big role in.

Esri has demonstrated early success with this program. They note that this initiative is in line with their open data program, where they are willing to host agencies’ data if necessary to make that information widely available to the public and hence benefit the larger society.

RideAmigos and Esri share a mutual vision for a sustainable future by employing technology to advance more efficient transportation demand management strategies. Collaborations like RideAmigos’ Virtual TDM conference and Esri’s open data initiative lay the foundations for the optimal transportation system.

Click here for more information into how our platform might fit your transportation needs and click here to watch other exciting speakers from the TDM conference hosted by RideAmigos.