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OC Transpo Open Data Initiative

OC Transpo is helping to make riders' journeys easier to navigate, by sharing transit data with the community of app developers.

Communication with its many riders is a key concern for OC Transpo, who provides public transportation services to the greater Ottawa area.  When looking to expand its channels for sharing service information, the transit organization turned to bv02 to plan and implement the release of an open data transit feed.

Data from OC Transpo’s GPS devices, installed on every bus in their fleet, feeds real-time bus arrival updates to their 560-560 texting service and iOS application, MyTransit. In order to make this information accessible to the public for use across other applications and platforms, OC Transpo worked with bv02 to set up an open, stable, and secure data stream, the Live Next Bus Arrival Data Feed API.

This API allows independent developers to access at no charge the complete, current data set and pull that dynamic information into their applications. Currently, the API powers over 15 independent applications on BlackBerry, Android, iOS, and web-based platforms. Developers access documentation and support through a developer portal on OC Transpo’s website.

With over 6 million hits per month, the Live Next Bus Arrival Data Feed is providing a wealth of information to OC Transpo’s riders, regardless of which platform or application they choose to use.

You can see the current gallery of applications built using OC Transpo’s open data transit feed on their website, octranspo.com.

Solutions Provided

www.octranspo1.com/developers