01590592

Component

Over the last decade, many transportation agencies and operating companies have begun to openly release detailed data about the passenger transportation network. These datasets can be used in many ways, such as by third party software developers creating smartphone applications that provide passengers with information. For instance, this trend has taken place in New York City, where large datasets like real-time bus tracking information are now freely and publicly available. Major agencies and operators across multiple modes of urban transportation, such as transit and bike share programs, have adopted these ‘open data’ initiatives. However, most of these initiatives are occurring at the local level and there is consequently limited comparison between cities. Therefore, the objective of this research is begin to fill this gap in the literature by conducting a detailed comparison of major American cities using a case study methodology. To do this, data was collected and compared from agencies and operators in five different American cities: New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. The results of this research reveal that the barrier to open data is vanishing and a strong relationship is being developed between major transportation operators/agencies and the amount of data that is freely and openly available to external stakeholders.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AB000 Policy and Organization Group.

01584066

16-5159

English

17p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References; Tables

Case studies; Policy; Qualitative analysis; Transit operating agencies

Open data

Chicago (Illinois); New York (New York); Portland (Oregon); San Francisco (California); Seattle (Washington)

Data and Information Technology; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-5159

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 6:15PM