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“King County, Wash.’s Open Data Turned Into Real-Time Bus Tracking App”

UW CSE Ph.D. student Brian Ferris saw the need for better public transit information. So in his spare time, he wrote code that’s now used for OneBusAway — an open source application that aggregates bus data in real time. King County officials hope others will also take advantage of their raw data to build useful apps, like Ferris did, and plan to make hundreds of additional data sources available. Ferris is now studying how his app has changed transportation behavior… Read more →
July 16, 2010

OneBusAway wins WTIA Industry Achievement Award!

OneBusAway, a suite of tools to make using public transit easier for King County riders, has won the Washington Technology Industry Association’s 2010 Industry Achievement Award in the category “Best Use of Technology in the Government, Non-Profit, or Education Sector.” OneBusAway is the passion of UW CSE graduate student Brian Ferris. Congratulations to Brian and the OneBusAway team!  Try it!… Read more →
March 4, 2010

OneBusAway is WTIA Industry Achievement Award finalist

OneBusAway, designed by UW CSE graduate student Brian Ferris with the goal of making public transit more usable, has been named one of three finalists in the “Government, Non-profit or Educational Sector” category of the 2010 Washington Technology Industry Association Industry Achievement Awards.  The winner will be announced at the WTIA IAA awards event on March 4.… Read more →
January 11, 2010

OneBusAway makes Seattle Magazine’s “Best of 2009”

“12:42 a.m. Having had one too many margaritas to drive, you open OneBusAway, created by UW students Brian Ferris and Kari Watkins, to find the closest bus route, nearby stops and exactly what time it will arrive to whisk you safely home.” (Why else would you take the bus?) Read the article here.… Read more →
December 4, 2009

Making Seattle transit connections on time with OneBusAway.org

TechFlash contributor Roni Ayalla reports on recent developments with UW CSE graduate student Brian FerrisOneBusAway project. The open-source project now has a home at Google Code, is seeking grant funding, and has attracted faculty sponsorship from UW CSE’s Alan Borning, one of the principal investigators on the cross-disciplinary Urbansim Project. Ferris is quoted We’re working on building a complete open-source transit traveler information system that would combine route maps/timetables, trip-planning, real-time tracking, and real-time service… Read more →
March 3, 2009

Bus cuts and tracking your next ride

Metro bus service could be cut by as much as 20 percent.  With this prospect looming, Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW‘s program The Conversation recently spoke with  CSE grad student Brian Ferris about his bus-tracking tool, OneBusAway.  The segment appears around minute 40. Earlier coverage on OneBusAway may be viewed here.… Read more →
February 27, 2009

Where’s that bus?!? Sweat no more

KOMO News reports on One Bus Away in this February 12 broadcast television story, Where’s that bus?!? Sweat no more. One Bus Away is a web site and a collection of bus-locating services created and run by UW CSE grad student Brian Ferris. It allows transit users in King County to track the buses they are interested in five different ways, most available from a cellphone (voice, text, or web). You can view the broadcast video segment on… Read more →
February 15, 2009

Use your cell phone to track down your bus

“It’s a question heard at countless bus stops:  ‘Have you seen the number 48 go by?'” After spending countless rainy nights waiting for his bus to go by, Brian Ferris, a UW CSE grad student, decided to do something about it.  Over the past year, he created a tool, OneBusAway, that allows King County bus riders to use a cell phone, iPhone, or computer to keep tabs on their bus.  OneBusAway’s website averages 1,000 hits a day, and… Read more →
February 5, 2009

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