Streetsblog New York City

At a conference at Google's Chelsea office last night, MTA Chair Walder said all the right things about working collaboratively with software developers, confirming the agency's dramatic turnaround on open transit data.

After a longstanding policy of keeping a tight lid on route and schedule information, the MTA reversed course earlier this year and began opening data to developers. The new policy promises to improve the rider experience by putting better information at their fingertips. A closer working relationship between the MTA and developers should bring New Yorkers closer to the day when they can, for instance, find out when the next bus or train is coming by checking their phones.

Last night was a chance for both parties to get to know each other, although Walder was the one with something to prove, reassuring developers that the MTA's new position is for real. "If we can harness the power in this room, we’ll be a heck of a lot better than if we’re doing this ourselves," he said. "Getting information to people in a way that no longer treats our transit system as a black hole will be transformative."

One of the more interesting exchanges came when Nick Grossman of OpenPlans (Streetsblog's parent company) asked Walder about the MTA's wishlist from the developer community. Here's a rundown of the three most important ways Walder believes developers can help the MTA and improve the rider experience.

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In January, the MTA took the long-awaited step of opening up its data to software developers, clearing the way for third parties to devise new and innovative ways to put current information in the hands of transit customers. Since then, the agency has received some 1,100 requests for data, reports AMNY. New apps provide everything from the location of the nearest subway stations, like acrossair, demonstrated above, to history trivia along bus routes.

So what's next? On Wednesday Google will host the MTA Unconference, where developers will hear from Jay Walder, Bernhard Seefeld of Google Maps, and Nick Grossman of OpenPlans -- the new moniker of Streetsblog's parent organization (formerly The Open Planning Project). New data sets will be released, and there will be discussions on the present and future of transit data development.

The sign-up deadline for the event has come and gone, but we're curious about what you'd like to see generated by this new relationship between the MTA and transit app providers. What transit apps would you be interested in?

Even when there's no breaking news at the RPA's regional assembly, the annual get-together at the Waldorf Astoria is a good time to gauge the collective mood of the people who run the region's transportation systems and think about planning for New York City's future. How often do you get the heads of the MTA, NYCDOT, and the Port Authority all in the same room?

At the last three regional assemblies, funding our transit system with congestion pricing or bridge tolls seemed within reach, to varying degrees. (After the State Assembly killed congestion pricing in 2008, the zeitgeist was still kind of optimistic, because the insiders knew that road pricing would be revived soon.)

This year, the impending transit cuts in New York and New Jersey cast a bit of a pall on the proceedings. At times, the atmosphere felt tinged with foreboding, like when Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch told the crowd, "It's hard to imagine what life will be like if we don’t make the investments in infrastructure that we have historically made."

The official theme of the event was "innovation," often encapsulated as "doing more with less" by speakers coping with shrinking budgets.

One of the more notable exchanges came at a panel on technology and transportation, when New York City Transit chief Tom Prendergast noted that the financial battering his agency has absorbed is "forcing us to do things we've never done before." One example: the MTA's new open data policy.

Prendergast didn't share much in the way of specifics, but he did hint that the MTA hopes to make transit arrival info accessible to riders before adding countdown clocks at every station and bus stop. "We're looking at simple and innovative ways of getting that information up to people on the street," he said.

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NYCDOT released the second Sustainable Streets Index this week, its annual scorecard on green transportation and street safety. This year's edition has a few new features, including case studies of 12 projects across the city and some nifty GPS data from taxis. Taken all together, the data in the report tell the tale of how DOT's recent projects have made streets function better for pedestrians, cyclists, and bus riders.

Last year's index showed how transit had absorbed all the growth in travel as the NYC economy expanded from 2003 to 2007, with driving remaining essentially flat. The new index reveals how that pattern continued in 2008, with the largest decline in traffic in at least 15 years. Not all the numbers for 2009 are in yet, but it looks like the recession caused declines in both transit ridership and driving, not a shift toward automobiles. You've got to wonder whether transit ridership will hold its own in 2010, after the package of sweeping MTA service cuts takes effect.

Most of this year's report is devoted to case studies of street redesigns and bus improvements across the city. Lately we've heard DOT cite safety stats from projects like the new Broadway and the Ninth Avenue bike lane when making the case for pedestrian and bicycle improvements, like those slated for First and Second Avenues. The new index catalogs several other interventions, often showing that re-orienting streets to serve sustainable modes hasn't caused dreaded traffic tie-ups:

The MTA took an important step toward improving the rider experience today, announcing that the agency will open its route and schedule data to third party software developers. The policy change -- a major turnaround -- promises to take some of the guesswork out of riding MTA buses, subways, and commuter trains.

The agency's new policy does away with time-consuming data-sharing procedures and burdensome licensing requirements. As of today, schedule, route and fare information are available directly from the MTA website in a standard format, and the data will be updated whenever service changes. Similar set-ups have allowed developers to create scores of transit applications for cell phones and web browsers in other cities, giving riders convenient access to up-to-date information.

"We need to get out of our own way and instead get out in front of the data sharing revolution," MTA Chair Jay Walder said in a statement (the agency also unveiled a revamped website this afternoon). "By making access to our data directly from our website, we are encouraging the developer community to do the work we can’t to create apps that benefit our customers at no cost to the MTA."

Advocates for open data are optimistic that the changes will create an environment where the development of transit applications can flourish, and transit riders will reap the benefits.

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New on the transit tech front, from the creators of Walk Score, is City-Go-Round, a site where you can find and download mobile apps that help out transit riders:

Our mission is to help make public transit more convenient. For example, an app that lets you know when your bus will arrive is way better than standing outside waiting for 20 minutes.

If we can make public transit more convenient, more people will ride public transit. More people riding public transit equals less driving. Less driving equals a healthier planet.

What transit app developers need to do their work, of course, is open data from transit authorities. And one of City-Go-Round's great services, in the short term, is showing just which agencies provide open data and which don't. As we've noted before, the MTA is keeping a tight hold on its information so far. In fact, five of the top ten large agencies that are holding out are in the tristate area: Three branches of the MTA (NYC Transit, the Long Island Railroad and Metro North); New Jersey Transit; and PATH.

Since the site launched five days ago, Chicago Transit Authority, which was number four on the list of agencies that refused to release data, went ahead and opened the information tap (the CTA has also installed "bus tracker" flat-screen displays in some local businesses).

Any bets on when the MTA and the others will follow suit?

In the meantime, developers are working with what they have. Check out ExitStrategy NYC, by Jonathan and Ashley Wegener, which reveals the arcane secrets of pre-walking to anyone with a smartphone.