“Where’s my bus?”

That’s a question that tens of thousands of us in Hampton Roads ask each and every day. What if we could answer than question in real time via our phones? We can do that and I’m going to tell you how.

You may have heard that Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) installed GPS trackers on buses. I heard about it and on Dec 7, 2011 I tweeted to HRT CEO Philip Shucet that the data should be made open to the public. He agreed, and so we set out to discuss the matter. I’m am pleased to report that we did discuss it and that HRT is on board to publish real time bus data for everyone via an application programming interface, or API.

Naturally, you’re wondering what the heck an API is and probably why it’s important for HRT to publish real time bus data. You might even be wondering what it’s going to cost. I’ll address these in order.

Open architecture allows for many possibilities. (Image | civiccommons.org)

HRT has GPS units on every bus. These GPS units blip out the positions of buses as they drive down the road. Here’s a live look at buses in New York City. An API makes it possible to broadcast bus positions on the internet. This means that web developers can consume this data and do useful things with it. One example is YAKB.us, “a real time bus arrival notification system using Voice and SMS.” Anyone with a text phone can message the service with a route number and find out where the bus is located. The service is available in Charlottesville, VA, Arlington, VA and Santa Clarita, CA. What’s amazing about YAKB.us is that is was created by one person, Ryan Resella, for a contest called Apps for Communities. Ryan won the top $30,000 prize for YAKB.us. That might sound like a lot of money, and it is. But it’s nothing when compared it to how government typically procures software. By publishing an API, government takes itself out of the app business and focuses squarely on the infrastructure business.

From Charlottesville. Text. Enter the route number. Voila. (Image | yakb.us)

As for real time and why it matters: there is a clear public good to be served at negligible cost. I could argue that HRT paid to put GPS on buses and that the data are public therefore we should have an API. I think it’s more important to highlight the public good. A real time API that publishes HRT bus locations serves many. A real time API serves riders who depend on knowing how the bus schedule affects their schedule. An API serves HRT administrators who want to make data-driven decisions. An API serves our government representatives and each of us in the same way. An API can also lead to economic development by encouraging businesses to maintain and use public data. Instead of the government issuing a request for proposals to build one software application, government publishes an API with existing resources so anyone can build any number of applications. One app might deliver public transit notifications to your phone. Another app might deliver arrival times through a scrolling marquee located in a retail shop near the transit station.

So what will it cost to produce a real time bus location API for HRT? Nothing. No funds will be allocated to this effort. HRT already processes this data in real time. Our task is to create a public feed of said data. Technical staff at HRT are ready to work with civic-minded developers to accomplish this task. Civic-minded developers are rallying to answer this call to action. We’re rallying via a civic hack-a-thon. A civic hack-a-thon is a one or two day event that organizes software developers and graphic designers around the objective of delivering a “minimum viable product” (MVP) by the end of the event. The MVP becomes the foundation for maintaining a sustainable capability.

If you are interested in helping us build the API and/or build apps from the API then please join us for our hack-a-thon, on Saturday, February 4th [UPDATE: New Date(s) - Friday March 2nd - Sunday March 4] at We Are Titans. RSVP here. Our challenge is to develop one or more MVPs for the Hampton Roads Transit real time bus location API. The ideal solution will not only work by the end of the hack-a-thon but will also provide a model for sustainability. Facilitators and mentors will be on hand to assist.

For more of Kevin Curry:

Op-ed: Restoring the Beauty of the Chesapeake Watershed

Building Smarter Cities in HRVA