Transportation leadership you can trust.
presented to
New York State Public Transit Association Spring Conference
presented byEric ZieringCambridge Systematics, Inc.
June 3, 2011
Cost Cutting through Information SystemsUsing Google Transit as a Model
Presentation Overview
Background: Google Transit and Related Services
Project showcase:• Transit Toolscs for improved Service Planning• PROGGREScs for Asset Management/SOGR• Atlanta Regional Transit Data Warehouse
A brief sidebar on open source software
Big Finish and Q&A
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Google Transit and Related Services
Why Successful
A commitment to open architecture and community participation
A mindset of focusing on flexible layers of infrastructure, rather than specific applications
A willingness to allow (or even an intent to encourage) commercialization by third parties
A very high level of skill and technical capability
A virtually unlimited budget
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Why Significant
Valuable in its own right as a powerful (and very cost-effective) transit customer service application
Emblematic of a new way of doing business:• Openness – competitive market for application development
and maintenance• Industry momentum – improvements in the core application
derive benefits that are highly leveraged• A thriving open-source community delivers “free”
enhancements
Changing industry expectations and perceptions
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Transit Toolscs for improved Service Planning
Project Goals
Provide an efficient means for evaluating route realignments and new services
Identify areas with the greatest potential demand for service – ensure best use of resources
Leverage behavioral models, rich census data, and – where available – market research and segmentation data
Evaluate and demonstrate potential impacts of regional policy changes, and their interrelationship with service characteristics.
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Project Impacts
Transit Tools now in use in San Franciso (ongoing), Puget Sound, Chicago, Washington DC, San Mateo, Utah
Web-based version deployed in 2011• Reduced development and deployment costs• Enhanced capabilities• Flexible deployment (software-as-a-service option)
Tools support cost cutting and efficient use of resources
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PROGGREScs for Asset Management/SOGR
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Problem Goals
Deliver predictable levels of funding to VA transit agencies
Ensure that funds are awarded based on verifiable need
Obtain maximum leverage from Federal funding sources
Implement a particular SOGR policy: focus on ensuring that operators maintaining the health of rolling stock
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Project Impacts
Now in third annual cycle of use; considered very successful
Grant application workflow adapted to leverage SOGR forecasts
DRPT can justify expenditures and ensure “best use” of funds
FTA grant application submitted to enhance and release as an open source application
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Atlanta Regional Transit Data Warehouse
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Project Goals
Develop a regional view of transit – encourage collaboration and data sharing
Leverage the GTFS specification to support regional route maps and (future) trip planning applications
Provide data access to support a community of innovation around other Transit data sources
Partnership between CS and OpenPlans, a non-profit specializing in open source solutions
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Project Scope
Data Warehouse for…• Route & Schedule Data (GTFS)• Capital Asset Inventory (like PROGGRES)• Performance Data @ System & Route level (like NTD)
Software Capabilities…• Interactive Regional Route Map• Administrative Interface for Data Editing (including route,
stop, and schedule data; NTD data)• Defined APIs to support third party applications
Support a Regional Viewpoint
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Operators/Agencies
• U GA Transit System• GRTA• MARTA• Buckhead Community Improvement District• ARC• Cherokee County• Douglas County Rideshare• Hall Area Transit• CTRAN• GCT• Cobb County• VPSI Inc.• HC Transit
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Expected Benefits – Regional and National
Better sharing and integration of transit data – not just route/stop, but operations, assets, etc.
Increased regional perspective
Enhanced Open Source tools for transit data warehousing
Platform that enables third party developers to create new applications
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A Sidebar on Open Source Software
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Open Source Software – Definition (Wikipedia)
“Open source software is software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify
and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees.
Open source code evolves through community cooperation.”
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Open Source Licenses (Wikipedia)
Grant to licensees the right to copy, modify and redistribute source code (or content).
Licenses may impose obligations • Modifications must be redistributed as open source• Author attributions must be included• Limitations on [or express permissions for]
commercialization• Assignment of copyrights for new submissions
Common licenses include Apache, BSD, GNU GPL, GNU Lesser GPL, MIT, Eclipse, Mozilla…
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Open Source is Not Necessarily…
Public Domain
Copyright Free
Good
Free
Big Finish
Google Transit and the Changing Landscape of software generally, and for transit agencies in particular
Wide variety of applications available for cost management and for ensuring the most effective of scarce resources: Service Planning, Asset Management/SOGR, Transit Data Warehousing of a variety of data types
A small sidebar on Open Source
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Transportation leadership you can trust.
presented to
New York State Public Transit Association Spring Conference
presented byEric ZieringCambridge Systematics, Inc.
June 3, 2011
Cost Cutting through Information SystemsUsing Google Transit as a Model