it's busness time - open transit data for the act

It's Busness Time!

Alexander Sadleira.sadleir@lambdacomplex.org

Sadface website

"Haven't needed a #Canberra bus in so long I'd forgotten how much ACTION's web site is stuck in 1997." http://twitter.com/projectgus/status/35472831991123968

"Dear Action.act.gov.au. You fail. You fail at everything. You fail as a website, as a bus service... as everything." http://twitter.com/emslibbles/status/37468000114184192

"LOL was looking at Action bus site today as car booked for service tomoz. What a state of #1996 Abyssmal in fact." http://twitter.com/zuzu/status/37443590363807744

Better mobile information access

Website is hard to use on a mobile device and very data heavy.

My Mobile App Platform

10 months of development: would be alot less with a data import... but now have intimate knowledge of the intricacies of network! 

Built own database by drawing on sources like NearMap and OpenStreetMap as well as visiting bus stops and stations

Open Data means Open Help!

GTFS usage is based around iterative improvements. Why not give it to the community to make suggestions?

My Mobile App Platform

- 120 routes (Suburban and Intertown Express/"Rapid" services, not School services though)

- 263 route variants (weekend/saturday/sunday timetable, different directions)

- 220 timing points (landmarks, intersections, shopping centers, schools/universities)

- 49 spelling mistakes/duplications fixed- 1659 possible stop locations- 102 suburbs, 578 streets- 834 point-to-point routes

Data cleansing and management workflow- Correct spelling mistakes- Locate/fix/merge timing points- Add/remove/move stops- Reverse geocode stop locations into streets and suburbs- String together stops into routes

Timetable access/generation platform- Turns the text files into objects which can then be accessed by a website “What routes service this stop? What stops are near this point?”

Based on the Google provided python library and example webapp

Route planner platformBasically: Calculates the shortest path between two points

Mobile Interface - Provides access to backend services.- Cross-platform- Does let you access it from desktop PCs too!

Mobile Interface - Context aware- Adaptive degeneration- Goes from modern Webkit smartphones to ancient html proxying devices 

Mobile Interface 

Geolocation and Time Taking advantage of as much information as possible

Access route planner

Mobile Interface - Different perspectives/dimensions to the existing data - Quickly filters the overwhelming amount of information to that which is relevant to mobile users

Interested?Check it out at http:/bus.lambdacomplex.org , test out the Google Transit feed, look through the git repos

maxious@lambdacomplex.org@maxious