Email

OC Transpo, in Ottawa, has promised to provide updated GPS tracking data to smartphone application developers, after receiving heat for pulling the current data from the city’s Apps4Ottawa contest. Alain Mercier, OC Transpo General Manager, assures concerned citizens that the data is being pulled temporarily and that plans are in the works for providing better data to application developers. He said, “It’s going to be in the public, yes absolutely. That’s the whole goal, to give it to the customers.”

Mercier reasons that the the GPS tracking data was pulled because it was not designed to be used to develop a smartphone application for public information. He said the current data and system used to track the buses didn’t provide accurate enough readings for public use.

He explained, “The technology was not geared for that, nor do we have the right systems to project that data out. . . that system is being eliminated later this year and will be replaced by the format of real-time technology that will give us accurate readings.”

Jonathan Rudenberg, Apps4Ottawa contestant, remains skeptical. He used the information to build a smartphone application called whereismybus.ca, which told users when the next bus would arrive at any given bus stop in the city. This combined with recent discoveries that OC Transpo is still using the pulled data in their monitors at stations, including Billings Bridge, left Rudenberg unconvinced. “It seems like they just used it as an excuse to shut down the feed for another reason,” said Rudenberg.

Despite all assurances by Alain Mercier, the final decision to open the data to programmers will be made by city council. City staff are looking into options to use the GPS tracking data to generate revenue. They stated in a recent memo that giving away the GPS information to third parties could be used to generate shared revenue from advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

Article Written by Marisa O’Connor