An article in Crain’s New York covers the debut of the MTA’s Bus Time system on Staten Island.
The Bus Time program, which lets people find out by text message exactly when their buses are running, will expand to all five boroughs by 2013. That means a lot less waiting in the cold, a lot less standing in the sun, and a lot less wasted time for busy New Yorkers. And it’s another big step forward in the way cities share information with citizens, something the article highlights at length:
The program’s technology and data will be made available to software developers and other transportation systems, which could lead to new apps and widespread deployment. “We were very much committed to not only distributing the data ourselves, but also to allowing the app developers to come up with new and creative ways to use the data as well,” said Charles Monheim, MTA’s director of strategic initiatives. The MTA worked with OpenPlans, a nonprofit that helps cities manage data in ways that allow the information to be shared. Also involved were Cambridge Systematics, which creates transportation software, and Mobile Commons, which developed a system through which riders will be able to receive live GPS data via text message. Each organization is based in New York, reflecting the city’s effort to nurture homegrown technology companies.Learn more about Bus Time here – or try it for yourself by texting a bus stop code or intersection to 511123.