Indeed, using information technology to facilitate ridesharing and transit usage appears to be a growing business that can make these low-carbon travel modes more convenient and attractive. “We’ve see an evolution in the technology,” said Aaron Antrim, president of Trillium Transit Solutions (Portland, Ore.), a three-per- son IT consulting firm that specializes in helping small- and medium-sized transit districts migrate their routes and schedules to Google Transit, the trip planner integrated in Google Maps that currently includes data for over 120 U.S. transit agencies.

“At first the iPhone could only plan driving trips, now it plans driving, transit and walking trips,” said Antrim. “Google Maps now includes biking directions, although that hasn’t shown up on the iPhone yet…. I think in the future mobile devices are going to become more and more powerful and useful for finding and comparing travel options, including transit, carpooling, walking, car-share, taxi, all the options, and compare them by cost and even greenhouse gas impact,” said Antrim. “Multimodal trip planning is going to be a killer app on mobile devices.”

Firms like Avego (Kinsale, Ireland) and Goose Networks (Seattle) are marketing web-enabled ride-matching and commute management programs. Avego sells a system that incentivizes drivers to pick up passengers along their route because passengers pay a per-mile fee to defray costs. Goose Networks sells software and services to organizations that want to measure and report the impact of their members commute activities.

There are many regional ridesharing and car/vanpooling websites and ser- vices such as San Luis Obispo County’s iRideshare.org, Rideshare.com which sells monthly vanpool commuting packages ($139 a month for a 50-mile roundtrip) in the Northeast and Zimride.com which is focused on college students.  And many people use Facebook or Twitter to find and share rides.

“There are many many different websites and companies out there, but few are really working because they’re not getting a critical mass of users,” said Antrim. “What successful companies like Goose Networks and Zimride have found is that they have to target a group of people with similar travel behavior, corporate campuses or educational institutions being the most common. They also need an external incentive or promotional program to sell the idea.” Antrim said the ridesharing business also needs a common data specification to allow potential users to find and compare their options from multiple services. “There are so many different sites and options that the user base is being divided up,” he said. “In fixed route transit, we have the General Transit Feed Specification for schedules, routes and fares. That doesn’t exist yet for carpooling.”

A post from February 2010 on Human Transit by Jarrett Walker, one of the smartest blogs on public transportation out there, asks if, and how, public transportation ridership data should be presented online.

A contact at TriMet asks Jarrett,

There is an internal TriMet web site, accessible to all TriMet employees, including drivers and mechanics, that has a wealth of information, such as budgets, ridership, etc. While all of this could potentially be misinterpreted, it seems to me that it should all be available to the public in a section of the public web site. I shouldn’t have to feel sneaky when I provide you with extracts from this material.

Here, here.  Open schedule and arrival information benefits customers because it enables the development of new applications to navigate and use the system.  Opening ridership information would offer its own benefits:

• Better informed public participation in the transit planning process (Jarrett also points out one of the potential hurdles here — where a public insists on network designs that prioritize productivity strongly over transportation equity and meeting needs)
• Helping taxpayers assess and understand the value they are receiving from their transit investment
• Providing the raw data to fuel software innovation in the same way that open schedule and arrival data has enabled applications like Google Transit, PDXBus, iBART, WalkScore, and so many more.  Here’s an example of a visualization of transit systems by size.  If more data was available, it might be possible to zoom into these agencies to see a breakdown by routes, modes, etc.

For more discussion, see Jarrett’s post “Email of the week: Should ridership data be online?”

Screenshot of iNap.

From EngineerScotty comes an idea for do-it-yourself automated stop announcements (ASA).  As a passenger, I find automated stop announcements quite helpful, as they are most often clearer, louder, and more consistently called than operator announcements.  Bus and train operators also appreciate ASA.  It is understandably difficult for them to pay attention to driving, traffic, and passengers and remember to call out regular announcements.

Even when there are automated announcements, I often use my iPhone to follow along a planned route to see where I need to pull the cord and get off the bus if I am unfamiliar with a city or transit route.  iNap is one application that develops this functionality.  It allows the user to set an alarm to be notified when their stop is near.

Since not every vehicle has ASA, EngineerScott ponders a hypothetical mobile application to call out the names of stops.  Drivers would plug their mobile device into the vehicle’s audio system.  I doubt there’s a sufficient market for this, however.  It would certainly present an interesting situation for agencies, with operators taking technology implementation into their own hands.

Read the full post, “Things that should be automated,” on the Dead Horse Times.

Transit trip planning in the rural areas of Northern California has become easier for many user groups as a result of the pilot implementation.  From Sue’s post:

“Trinity County has many recreational destinations,” a representative explained.  “Northern California visitors are now able to plan trips across this portion of California using multiple transit providers with ease.  This type of travel planning was once difficult, but is now simplified with Google Maps/Transit.”

Google Transit doesn’t just benefit the transit customer.  Social service agencies, caregivers, and those providing aid to someone can now Google transit information for their clients.  For the elderly who can no longer drive, Google transit information for bus stops and locations helps make it possible to  maintain a sense of independence.

The Northern California Google Transit Feasibility Study and Pilot Project was a finalist for the 2010 California Transportation Foundation Tranny Awards.

Here are some examples of the longer intercity itineraries that can now be planned on Google Transit:

LAX to Big Bear, California, across L.A. Metro, Metrolink, and Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority (MARTA). MARTA is a Trillium client.

Corning, CA to Sunsanville, CA via Tehama Rural Area Express (TRAX) and Susanville Indian Rancheria Public Transportation Program. Both are Trillium clients.

Clatsop County, OR to Salem, OR via Sunset Empire Transportation District, Tillamook County Transportation District (TCTD), TriMet, and South Metro Area Regional Transit (SMART). TCTD and SMART are Trillium clients.

Crescent City, CA to Cottonwood CA via Redwood Coast Transit (RCT), Redwood Transit System (RTS), Trinity Transit, and Redding Area Bus Authority (RABA). All agencies are Trillium clients.

This will be tremendous for making biking infrastructure more visible.  Maps and online information are an important, and often overlooked component of the transportation system.

I’ve already received one phone call from a client asking how they can integrate their region’s bike lane data in Google Maps.  Google’s public announcements don’t offer a lot right now.  Near as I can read their answer is to say “stay tuned.”  Maybe a U.S. version of Map Maker will allow more data to be included down the line.

Here’s a screenshot of my bike route to work.

Around the web:

• Official Google Blog: Biking directions added to Google Maps
• Google LatLon: It’s time to bike
• Google Maps Bike There: Google Bike Directions are Now Live!

The paper summarizes many of the benefits of open data — time saved, agency image benefits, improved customer service, ridership increase, and free application development.

It misses some important points though.  One is that open data facilitates greater and more successful innovation because it provides opportunity for low-cost (or free) failure.  Think of it this way: more developers = more projects/experiments/innovation = competition between them = successes and failures.  This idea is further developed in Thoughts on ‘Here Comes Everybody: The Power of organizing without organizations’.

Also, I wish the paper provided a more thorough and direct discussion of what they offer as an often cited disadvantage of open data:

The only negative some agencies see in providing their data to the public is the elimination of potential revenue from selling the data to developers. However, because the data is generated by taxpayer-funded agencies, the general consensus is that agencies should not profit from this data. Agencies that kept their data closed in hopes of selling it, such as New York City’s MTA—who recently released their data—have experienced extensive backlash from both the developer community and transit passengers.

Are there agencies that profit from selling their data?  I think a few may generate revenue from advertising on their websites.  However, this revenue is usually insignificant, and should be weighed against the benefits of open data.  3rd party applications and information sources may lead a few eyeballs away from the agency website and compromise ad revenue, but they are likely to support ridership and fare revenue growth.

Oh, and I was pleased an interview I conducted with TriMet’s CTO and IT Manager for GIS and Location Based Services was cited in a few places in the paper.

They interview some key players who give a window into the evolving practice of opening transit data.  Check it out if you haven’t already.

Before this guide, printed schedule information and maps for each agency were available separately.  That made it more difficult for passengers to plan inter-agency trips.  It also meant that passengers weren’t always aware of all the services available.  Imagine, if you will, if you had to consult a different map or road atlas for roads maintained by each city, county, and the State DOT-maintained highways — in short, use a different information source according to the agency responsible for maintaining the roads you are driving on. Probably, if this was reality, driving would not be nearly as popular as it is today!  Or, imagine if you had to go to every individual airline’s website to search for available flights and their prices instead of using Travelocity.com or something similar.

The twenty-eight page guide includes timetables for five fixed-route transit services in the Humboldt Bay Area.  The overview map also shows connecting regional services, including the local transportation service in adjacent counties, and Greyhound and Amtrak service.  Multiple agenies’ services are shown in many of the detail maps that highlight particular cities.

In addition, the service guide responds to findings from the Humboldt County Coordinated Human Services Transportation — Public Transit Plan by showing flexible and on-demand human services transportation services in the same guide.  Below is an overview map.  It is accompanied by tables of transportation services that show eligibility requirements, service area and hours, accessibility features, contact, and other pertinent information for each service.

When finished, the multi-modal trip planner software will plan journeys by a combination of biking, walking, and transit in the areas where it has been implemented.  For regions that wish to implement the trip planner, they will need to use in-house resources or hire a firm to install, host, and manage the software.  Information on transit service, walking routes, and biking routes in the necessary formats will be one of the most important prerequisites for implementing the open-source multi-modal trip planner.

Check out the OpenTripPlanner site or join the developer discussion list to learn more and follow along with the effort.