5 messages in com.googlegroups.googletransitRe: Chicago CTA Please| From | Sent On | Attachments |
|---|---|---|
| Kyle | 31 Jul 2007 04:56 | |
| Matt...@gmail.com | 31 Jul 2007 06:12 | |
| cary | 31 Jul 2007 12:13 | |
| Matt K. | 31 Jul 2007 12:58 | |
| cary | 31 Jul 2007 15:06 |
| Subject: | Re: Chicago CTA Please |
|---|---|
| From: | cary (cary...@gmail.com) |
| Date: | 07/31/2007 12:13:47 PM |
| List: | com.googlegroups.googletransit |
I am the owner of Next Insight Transportation Software (http:// nextinsight.com). We have developed a trip planner as well as an extensive admin section so that agencies can manage all their data themselves. We are currently creating 'export' functionality for GTFS. I disagree with your statement about the hardest part being convincing the transit agency to make the data available. I have been contacted by my clients and they are all interested in what we can do to help them be a part of GTFS. There are a couple of obstacles...
1. To get the data into GTFS format, an interface is needed so that someone can easily manage the data... (this is something we have built) 2. Transit agencies are strapped for money and it requires time and resources for them to purchase a service, such as ours, to get the data in the necessary format.
We are more than prepared to give access to our service to any agency that would like to use it. Unfortunately, this requires the agency to find some money to pay for this. This is the hurdle that Google has encountered over the past year and half on the project. While our services are not free, they are not expensive, and are most likely the cheapest in the entire transit software industry. Some other companies are putting the service into a package product which costs at least 6 figures. Ours is nowhere near that. If you know of an agency interested in using our services, please forward along our site.
Thanks, Cary http://NextInsight.com
On Jul 31, 9:12 am, "Matt...@gmail.com" <Matt...@gmail.com> wrote:
So would we all!
The special thing about Google Transit is that the transit authorities (in your case CTA) needs to make the data available to Google first. Convincing the transit authority to make the data available is probably the hardest part of the project from our point of view. I suggest sending a letter/email, calling, or even stopping by to let your transit authority know that you're interested in seeing them added to GT.
Here's a sample email that I recently used, it's been copied [with permisson] from somewhere else on these boards and is a good starting point. If you really want to make some waves start a petition or grass-roots type campaign to get the CTA added.
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As an individual who has recently moved into the area, I am interested if your transit authority has any plans to make your service available on Google Transit. Google Transit allows users to make directions to and from anywhere, just like Google Maps, but the route is plotted entirely through transit services such as the ones you provide. Below are a few more reasons why you might like to consider making your route information available on Google Transit:
-Google Transit costs you nothing (except a little bit of time from your IT department configuring your route/schedule database to export to a Google Transit-readable format)
-Google Transit will drive more people to you, increasing your ridership, as they discover how easy a trip using public transit can be
-Even though you may already have a route finder/trip planner, you will get more potential riders by using Google Transit because it's popular, ubiquitous and easy to use
-Google Transit helps people find out how to transfer between different modes of transportation from different transit providers
-You can contact Google Transit at labs...@google.com
-You can visit Google Transit athttp://www.google.com/transit
-You can have your IT people see how to format your data for Google Transit athttp://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.htm