Help new riders discover transit for events
People are busy. We can’t expect them to consider every option, including transit, each time they make a trip. If you’re someone who is accustomed to driving, then you’ll probably just hop in the car and go.
But, when we put new options in front of people, this can widen the range of considerations, and maybe change behavior. The idea put simply: Put the transit option in front of people when they’re planning to make a trip, and make it as easy as possible to figure out how to ride.
On May 28, my local news and events weekly, the North Coast Journal announced and launched their new website and events calendar. At the launch, they offered convenient driving instructions to venues in the calendar. That made me think, “Why not transit?”
Open source and open data make for transit innovation
If you ever have the pleasure of visiting Portland, Oregon, one of the things you will notice make the city great is their transit system called TriMet. One of the best parts of riding TriMet, for me, is how available and easy-to-use their information is.
A few examples: When you arrive at the airport, next arrival information for the MAX train is displayed on the baggage carousel screens. And their trip planner shows beautiful maps to help you plan your journey by transit — and even shows street views of where stops are. And there here are many third part applications that you can use to look up transit data on mobile devices.
Much of this, and more, has happened because of TriMet’s efforts to make their schedule and arrival data available to anyone who can do something useful with it, and because of their embrace of open source software.
In order to learn about some of the online strategies that have contributed to TriMet’s successes, I caught up with Tim McHugh, TriMet’s Chief Technology Officer and Bibiana McHugh, IT Manager of GIS and Location-Based Services. Many thanks to Bibiana & Tim for their time and their inspiring work.
Below is the text of the interview. You can also download the PDF version (with pictures) of the interview as it appeared in More Riders Magazine.
