You know I'm a fan of alternative transit, I'll bike or bus given the opportunity. But lets face it, riding the bus, or waiting for the bus to be more specific isn't the greatest experience in the world. First off you don't want to miss the bus so you show up ten minutes early. Then on the odd day, usually when its below freezing, the bus is 10-20 minutes late. The worst part of the whole ordeal is you don't know how long the wait is. I could deal with a late bus if I knew.
Cincinnati Metro released the API for their database in late January opening the door for developers to use the information how ever they wanted.
The first App I've seen is Bus Detective, I'm so excited about it I contacted the developer and got a short interview to find out more about them and it.
1) Can you tell me a little about Gaslight and yourself
Gaslight is a small software design and development shop. We're passionate about open source, and we specialize in delivering awesome software. Our projects span everything from educational software to automating the SUBWAY spending and gift card program to working locally with Enjoy the Arts to bring their ticketing process online. You can check out our work at Gaslight.
I've been a developer with Gaslight for 3 years now. I moved here from Wisconsin so my wife could attend grad school at UC. We live in Hyde Park and use Metro every day. You can read my official bio here: Kevin Rockwood
2) I thought it was awesome when Metro opened up their API to developers, what made you decide to create Bus Detective?
We moved our office downtown in February, and most of are taking the bus. There are a few transit apps out there, but we found that they're either spammy or don't work well for everyday riders. We found the realtime API stuff on Nate Wessel's blog and spent an afternoon hacking an app together.
It started out pretty simple. I just wanted to know if my bus was ahead or behind schedule. Then everyone in the office started using it and we put some more design and development time into it. I started showing it to people at my bus stop, and they would get really excited. So we decided it polish it more and share it with the whole city. Now you can use it online (busdetective.com) or download the app for iPhone or Android.
3) Metro started experimenting with real time info late last year and have a beta Info line to call. I've been using that but it has many downsides, Gaslight's app is light years better. But there is always room for improvement, any plans to develop Bus Detective farther?
We use the app everyday, and there are a ton of features we want to add. We're really excited that people are using it and we plan to continue adding adding new features as quick as we can.
There's a lot of excitement around what we've built and that's cool to see. We recently partnered with Metro Now, a People's Liberty grant winner who's going to provide tablets to local businesses with realtime departure data. We also have a meeting planned with Metro's ridership and PR folks to talk about the best way to promote the app.
4) Anything else you want to add?
We're really passionate about open source software, so we're making Bus Detective as open as possible. All the code is available on Github, and we've made our development Trello board public as well. We'd really like to get the community involved in the process.
This was a big team effort in the Gaslight office. A bunch of us have worked on the code, user interface design and even the super cute Bus Detective logo.We're having stickers printed right now!
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