Mass. plans to give public transportation data to software developers for iPhone applications

Mass. giving transit data to software developers

BOSTON — Massachusetts is planning to “democratize the data” behind its public transportation network.

It’s providing software developers with all the coding and background data they will need to develop iPhone applications and other high-tech aids incorporating MBTA subway, bus, train and regional transit information.

A restaurant owner, for example, could easily add official government data about the location and details of transit stops or bus schedules into a Web site about his business.

It builds off an earlier initiative helping Google Maps incorporate the same information into driving and walking directions requested by its users.

“With the help of thoughtful technical developers, making this data public will spawn many possible applications to help transit users use their cell phones or laptops to find and use the right bus or train in the right place at the right time for them,” Transportation Secretary James Aloisi, who also heads the T’s board of directors, said Monday in a statement.

The MBTA becomes the third-largest transit agency in the country to make such data public in a format converted to the industry-standard Google Transit Feed Specification. Similar efforts have been undertaken in Washington, San Francisco, and Portland, Ore.

Spokesman Colin Durrant said the office is “democratizing this data.”

He said: “Obviously, this is a lot cheaper than us doing it ourselves through a consultant, and probably more effective because the user is creating the tools using data we provide.”

It’s welcome news to Bryant University student Luke Bornheimer, who earlier this year launched a Facebook page urging the T to make the data available to Google.

“A lot of times the data is there; it just needs to be put out in a format for people to use,” the 21-year-old said.

He talked about similar projects allowing developers to overlay crime statistics with a mapping program.

That way, out-of-towners could get walking routes that avoid high-crime areas.

“A lot of great things could come out of it because a lot of good things have already come from it,” Bornheimer said.

The data will be located on a developer’s page within the Web site for the Executive Office of Transportation.

Organizers consider it a clearinghouse for useful transportation data across the state.

The page will now include nine sets of GTFS data from transit authorities, including full schedules and geographic information for all MBTA bus, rail and ferry routes, along with data from several regional transit authorities.

Participants include the MBTA, Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, Lexpress, Lowell Regional Transit Authority, Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority, Metrowest Regional Transit Authority, Pioneer Valley Transit Authority, Vineyard Transit and ferry services.