The City of Raleigh, Wake County, and lots of other local governments now have “open data portals” where you can dive into interesting pieces of information - if you’re lucky, sometimes before news outlets report on things!
This has been an interesting bit of subtext in several threads here (especially in the thread for city statistics), but I don’t think we’ve ever had a place to share data sources, research methods, or changes in how we learn about ourselves. So let’s change that here 
It’s not an official/government data source, but in the same vein there was a thread about Code for the Carolinas’ efforts with Open Sidewalks a while back: Open Sidewalks - a mapping project for the carolinas
Interesting! This could be really useful for getting better directions on Google Maps, the Transit app etc. in some situations.
Funny you should say that, then, since GoTriangle is asking for feedback on an update of their Regional Transit Technology Plan (see executive summary of recommendation here)!
| What currently sucks | What’s proposed to change things |
|---|---|
| Bus location tracking, service disruptions etc. are not always reported by every transit agency, tracking systems, or transit-related apps. This seems to be because not every agency has the tools, knowhow, or bandwidth to implement the technology for that consistently. | Enforce standards for how each transit agency digitally represents bus schedules, how real-time updates are reported. Make the schedule-building process less dependent on specific onboard hardware. |
| Transit agencies don’t plan routes, collect data, and measure performance in a standardized way, so they have a hard time sharing information across the Triangle in a timely way | Develop a central portal for data, upkeep for cybersecurity standards etc. for the entire Triangle - and leverage state contracts so that agencies can share the same tools for cheaper. |
| Different agencies collect data from different sources (onboard trackers, manually edited spreadsheets etc.) - and not all apps, backend platforms etc. can handle them | Set up a central custodian who keeps data up to date for the region (and also manages related regional transit-related cybersecurity vulnerabilities). |
| Some systems that let buses in the Triangle have traffic signal priority in some intersections use proprietary systems, and inconsistent standards mean it’s hard to deploy it in more places and still make things work. | Adopt a specific, emerging national standard and do inter-agency tests to make sure it works across multiple agencies as well as with BRT. |
| Different agencies use different fare collection technologies and policies - and they tend to be disconnected from microtransit. | Integrate payment systems across the region, ensure that fare information is a part of transit-tracking data, and ensure that off-board validation and open payment solutions for BRT are supported. |
Note: The table below does not include any personnel changes. It’s likely that the costs will get more expensive if agencies need to hire their own specialists for any of these recommendations - though I’m not sure how likely that would be.
TL/DR: It turns out we don’t have a lot of inter-agency/government collaboration or standardization for transit data, but they’re looking into ways to change that (and that could work really well with what Mitch posted)!
Having a central place for transit data, standardized across the region, would be great. I’ve worked on a couple of projects that require transit spatial data and the availability and format of GTFS data is a little inconsistent across agencies.
These open data sites have been around for a bit but from my perspective aren’t publicized that much and I’m skeptical of how often they are maintained. I have used them for various blog posts, including the following:
I love the topic of municipal open data and miss the hackathons on it that took place pre-pandemic. Or maybe it’s happening and I’m missing out? Let me know if you know of any groups getting together and working with stuff like this.
If you’re talking about the Civic Camp events that used to be held by the Raleigh-based arm of Code for America, I’m struggling to find any signs of them doing anything past 2020…
I found generally student-focused events, university-based hackathons, and a hackathon specifically for NC State’s Plant Science Initiative, but it doesn’t seem like the Triangle has any events like that anymore. Plus, Code for America itself seems to be focused on much more targeted events - like the one linked below - instead of sponsoring tons of local events, these days.
Exactly. The Civic Camp events were fantastic. I was actually on the planning team so I’m biased but that was the sweet spot. They had a specific niche of focusing on municipal open data and how it could be used to help communities. I feel it could come back where each working group has access to AI that can expedite the POC process.
I’d love to see this return but I’m unsure if we have the appetite for this. With hybrid work being a thing in tech, can you really ask people to come do volunteer hacking on the weekends?