ODI Summit TransportAPI

How open data enabled a startup to challenge Britain’s transport monopolies

Jonathan Raperhttp://transportapi.com/

Turning transport into data

• RESTful API to 370K stop/stations with 50Gb live data• Every stop/station, service, journey, operator has a URL• Live data allows monitoring, performance indicators• All UK/IE tweets mentioning transport archived• B2B service supporting over 400 developers• Licence allows all re-use, absolute ownership downstream• BT Labs & Network Rail to CityMapper & plentific.com

• In 1913 Bradshaw, in 2013 TransportAPI

New value from open data• Transport data-as-a-service all down the long tail of use• Cost of data is for hosting, volume & guarantees not IPR• Data can be re-mixed, mined, sampled (1K free hits/day)

tube-radar.com

Transport for the REST of us

• Transport data is contested, guarded• Transport monopolies restrict use of their data eg NRE• Regulators struggle to assert traveller’s interests eg ORR• Operators mark their own homework eg PPMs• We can tell the truth to transport power from sensor data• Transport can become less supply-driven through data

Rethinking transport through open data• New partnerships: journeymapper.org with ELGIN• Market signals to monopoly operators: TransportBuzz

TransportAPI• All Britain’s public transport

with five people- we do this!• Rapidly growing angel-funded

data business• Massive opportunities to open

transport data globally• ODI has challenged and

supported us… THANKS!• @Madprof @TransportAPI