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One Bus Away is powered by Metro's GTFS feed.

King County Metro has posted a data file that defines all of its routing and scheduling information to its servers for anyone to access.

The data is in the GTFS format, which stands for Google Transit Feed Specification. This feed powers Google Maps’ transit directions and third-party services like One Bus Away. Transit agencies across the world are exporting their data to the de facto industry-standard format, so some applications based around GTFS that are built for Portland’s data, for example, could also work for Seattle depending on the context.

“King County is home to some of the best and brightest tech minds in the world, and we want to tap into their ingenuity,” said Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond. “Our customers love the apps that are already out there for their phones and computers, and we think there is a lot of potential to create more.”

Metro began opening up the feed late last year, but this is the first time that anyone can access the data without first contacting the bus agency. Developers can access the data file directly online, but must agree to King County’s terms of use. Notably, the terms do not prevent developers from profiting from their use of the data.

Most transit agencies do not post their feeds directly online, and Metro is taking a progressive step that should be applauded.

6 Replies to “Metro Puts Data for Developers Online”

  1. Notably, the terms do not prevent developers from profiting from their use of the data.

    But they do prevent you from profiting by distributing the data. For example, I can’t put a copy of the GTFS on my site and charge users a dollar to download it. But I can build an app that uses the data and charge users to buy the app.

    Most transit agencies do not post their feeds directly online, and Metro is taking a progressive step that should be applauded.

    Ditto that. The next thing we’re waiting for is for Metro to supply real time tracking/arrival data. Right now the only way to get it is from the defunct ITS project at UW. Metro is planning on having their OBS/CCS project done late this year or early next year and will probably have something done by then.

  2. Just as a shameless plug:

    OneBusAway has a public REST-based web service api that you can use to quickly write applications that use public transit data.

    http://code.google.com/p/onebusaway/wiki/OneBusAwayApiReference

    It has data for King County Metro, Pierce Transit, Sound Transit, and will continue to grow as we add more agencies. What’s more, it includes access to real-time arrival data for agencies that support it (KCM,PT). It’s free for non-commercial use and can save you a lot of work as opposed to working with the raw GTFS directly.

    1. I love this app on my Palm Pre. It is so incredibly useful. I just hope CT and ET find the funds and staff to export their data to the GTFS formart so I can use Bus Tracker in Snohomish County!

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