The November issue of Seattle Magazine contains its annual list of “Seattle’s Most Influential People” – a list that was particularly kind to UW CSE friends and family this year. Among those recognized:
“Nurturing Knowledge” – Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft
“Game Changer” – Ana Mari Cauce, President of the University of Washington
“Leading the Causes” – Paul G. Allen, Benefactor
“Package Deal” – Amazon
“The Trailblazer” – David Brewster, Civic Activist
“Sick Leave” – Chris… Read more →
Seattle Times explores the data-driven commute, with a little help from UW CSE
The Seattle Times published an article yesterday examining how developers are using data to tame traffic and aid commuters in the region. One of the featured apps, OneBusAway, originated as a UW CSE research project to help public transit users plan their trip by providing real-time system information. Another, Access Map, was developed by a team of students advised by UW CSE professor Alan Borning and Anat Caspi, executive director of UW CSE’s Taskar Center for Accessible … Read more →
UW CSE’s Brian Ferris brings real-time transit data to Google Maps
UW CSE Ph.D. alum Brian Ferris is the patron saint of transit riders. Not only did he create the wildly popular app OneBusAway while a Ph.D. student here, but now he has gone one better: he and his team at Google have added enhanced real-time transit data to Google Maps for a handful of cities, including Seattle. The new feature will enable transit riders to make judgments about which mode or route to use based on actual traffic conditions and… Read more →
OneBusAway developers past and present take Metro and Sound Transit to task for their transit data quality
UW CSE Ph.D. alum Brian Ferris and Ph.D. student Caitlin Bonnar take two of the region’s transit agencies to task in an op-ed in the Seattle Transit Blog for ongoing issues with the quality of the data they provide to OneBusAway, the Transit App, Google, and other transit information sources. (Brian wrote all the original code for OneBusAway, and Caitlin currently coordinates maintenance and development of the iPhone app.) Read it here, along with numerous comments from other riders.… Read more →
StopInfo for UW CSE’s OneBusAway app makes buses more usable for blind riders
UW News writes:
“It’s a daily routine for many transit riders in the Seattle area: Pull out your smartphone, check the OneBusAway app, then decide whether you need to sprint to the bus stop or can afford that last sip of coffee. The application, developed at the University of Washington, uses real-time data to track when your bus is actually going to arrive.
“But for many blind and low-vision riders, knowing when the bus will arrive isn’t always enough. Crucial… Read more →
StopInfo launched for OneBusAway
The OneBusAway research team in CSE has just launched a new service, called StopInfo, that provides very detailed information about bus stops in Puget Sound, aimed initially at increasing the accessibility of bus stops for people who are blind or visually impaired. Knowing detailed information ahead of time about a bus stop, such as which side of the intersection it is on and what type of bus sign it has, can reduce the time and hassle it takes to find… Read more →
US Representative Suzan DelBene discusses UW CSE’s OneBusAway on floor of House
Rep. Suzan DelBene attacks patent trolls on the floor of the US House of Representatives, using as her example Arrival Star’s lawsuit against King County Metro and a number of other transit agencies alleging infringement of an overly-broad and unpracticed patent by public transit apps including UW CSE’s widely-used and widely-emulated OneBusAway.
Watch the video here.… Read more →
UW CSE’s OneBusAway continues to expand
UW CSE’s OneBusAway continues to expand. A transit rider in any of the OneBusAway regions (currently Atlanta, Puget Sound, and Tampa – and growing) can download the OneBusAway app for iPhone, Android, or Windows Mobile, which will then automatically detect which region it’s in, connect to the server for that region, and seamlessly start serving transit data. Read the blog post here.… Read more →
Tampa rolls out UW CSE’s OneBusAway transit app!
UW CSE’s OneBusAway transit app goes national! Tampa (and several other cities) are rolling it out with great fanfare and commitment!
Here’s a news story from Tampa’s WTSP Channel 10, which credits UW.… Read more →
OneBusAway transitions to Metro
OneBusAway began as a student project at the University of Washington. It became so widely used by transit commuters that after the students graduated, three area agencies (King County Metro, Sound Transit, and Pierce Transit) contracted with the University of Washington to continue running the service. There are now over 100,000 users per week in Puget Sound. At the same time, instances of OneBusAway have been brought up in other regions, including Atlanta, Detroit, and Tampa; the OneBusAway Enterprise system… Read more →