Presented by Eric Ziering, Director of Software, Cambridge Systematics, Inc. Google Transit and the widespread adoption of the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) has had a huge impact on the availability of Transit routing and scheduling services and information, both from Google and third parties such as HopStop.com. The effect has been to provide the public with high-quality information services (well beyond what was imaginable a decade ago) while lowering the cost to transit agencies. In his presentation, Mr. Ziering will tie together a number of transit-related information systems projects that are now in progress or have recently been completed by Cambridge Systematics that illustrate this theme of cost-effectiveness through the innovative use of information technology. Together, these projects showcase the potential to maximize the effectiveness of existing transit agency resources through innovative use of information systems.

1. Cost Cutting through Information Systems Transportation leadership you can trust. presented toNew York State Public Transit Association Spring Conference presented byEric ZieringCambridge Systematics, Inc. June 3, 2011 Using Google Transit as a Model

2. Presentation Overview Background: Google Transit and Related Services Project showcase: Transit Toolscs for improved Service Planning PROGGREScs for Asset Management/SOGR Atlanta Regional Transit Data Warehouse A brief sidebar on open source software Big Finish and Q&A 1

3. 2 Google Transit and Related Services

11. Why Successful A commitment to open architecture and community participation A mindset of focusing on flexible layers of infrastructure, rather than specific applications A willingness to allow (or even an intent to encourage) commercialization by third parties A very high level of skill and technical capability A virtually unlimited budget 10

12. Why Significant Valuable in its own right as a powerful (and very cost-effective) transit customer service application Emblematic of a new way of doing business: Openness – competitive market for application development and maintenance Industry momentum – improvements in the core application derive benefits that are highly leveraged A thriving open-source community delivers “free” enhancements Changing industry expectations and perceptions

13. 12 Transit Toolscs for improved Service Planning

14. Project Goals Provide an efficient means for evaluating route realignments and new services Identify areas with the greatest potential demand for service – ensure best use of resources Leverage behavioral models, rich census data, and – where available – market research and segmentation data Evaluate and demonstrate potential impacts of regional policy changes, and their interrelationship with service characteristics. 13

30. Project Impacts Transit Tools now in use in San Franciso (ongoing), Puget Sound, Chicago, Washington DC, San Mateo, Utah Web-based version deployed in 2011 Reduced development and deployment costs Enhanced capabilities Flexible deployment (software-as-a-service option) Tools support cost cutting and efficient use of resources 29

31. PROGGREScs for Asset Management/SOGR 30

32. Problem Goals Deliver predictable levels of funding to VA transit agencies Ensure that funds are awarded based on verifiable need Obtain maximum leverage from Federal funding sources Implement a particular SOGR policy: focus on ensuring that operators maintaining the health of rolling stock 31

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44. Project Impacts Now in third annual cycle of use; considered very successful Grant application workflow adapted to leverage SOGR forecasts DRPT can justify expenditures and ensure “best use” of funds FTA grant application submitted to enhance and release as an open source application 43

45. Atlanta Regional Transit Data Warehouse 44

46. Project Goals Develop a regional view of transit – encourage collaboration and data sharing Leverage the GTFS specification to support regional route maps and (future) trip planning applications Provide data access to support a community of innovation around other Transit data sources Partnership between CS and OpenPlans, a non-profit specializing in open source solutions 45

47. Project Scope Data Warehouse for… Route & Schedule Data (GTFS) Capital Asset Inventory (like PROGGRES) Performance Data @ System & Route level (like NTD) Software Capabilities… Interactive Regional Route Map Administrative Interface for Data Editing (including route, stop, and schedule data; NTD data) Defined APIs to support third party applications Support a Regional Viewpoint 46

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53. Operators/Agencies U GA Transit System GRTA MARTA Buckhead Community Improvement District ARC Cherokee County Douglas County Rideshare Hall Area Transit CTRAN GCT Cobb County VPSI Inc. HC Transit 52

54. Expected Benefits – Regional and National Better sharing and integration of transit data – not just route/stop, but operations, assets, etc. Increased regional perspective Enhanced Open Source tools for transit data warehousing Platform that enables third party developers to create new applications 53

55. A Sidebar on Open Source Software 54

56. Open Source Software – Definition (Wikipedia) “Open source software is software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees. Open source code evolves through community cooperation.” 55

57. Open Source Licenses (Wikipedia) Grant to licensees the right to copy, modify and redistribute source code (or content). Licenses may impose obligations Modifications must be redistributed as open source Author attributions must be included Limitations on [or express permissions for] commercialization Assignment of copyrights for new submissions Common licenses include Apache, BSD, GNU GPL, GNU Lesser GPL, MIT, Eclipse, Mozilla… 56

58. Open Source is Not Necessarily… Public Domain Copyright Free Good Free

59. Big Finish Google Transit and the Changing Landscape of software generally, and for transit agencies in particular Wide variety of applications available for cost management and for ensuring the most effective of scarce resources: Service Planning, Asset Management/SOGR, Transit Data Warehousing of a variety of data types A small sidebar on Open Source 58

60. Cost Cutting through Information Systems Transportation leadership you can trust. presented toNew York State Public Transit Association Spring Conference presented byEric ZieringCambridge Systematics, Inc. June 3, 2011 Using Google Transit as a Model