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And some of the worst housing affordability. People who move out of the city can't justify to drive and park in Seattle. It would be near impossible to navigat

And some of the worst housing affordability. People who move out of the city can't justify to drive and park in Seattle. It would be near impossible to navigate Metro, SoundTransit, and surrounding transit agencies without OneBusAway or Google Maps. Idk, SoundTranist also tried a massive money grab on car tabs on inflated valuations. They are doing just as much to undermine support for transit as anyone.

aaronbrethorst 9y ago
Thanks, I appreciate the kind words about the utility of OneBusAway for you. You may not know this, but the people who make OneBusAway for iOS and Android are unpaid volunteers. n.b. I'm the maintainer of OneBusAway for iOS.
- CaptSpify 9y ago
  I did not know that, and I appreciate your efforts. It's one of the few apps that I know fairly consistently works, even though it's an inherently chaotic system that deals with estimation. Is the data behind that available anywhere as an api or anything? I was trying to find a way to parse out some stuff for a project at home, and access to the times in say, json, would be helpful. Thanks!
  - icebraining 9y ago
    https://transitfeeds.com/ https://transitfeeds.com/
    - aaronbrethorst 9y ago
      I haven't seen this before. Thanks for sharing!
  - techsupporter 9y ago
    You can get an API key for OneBusAway here: http://pugetsound.onebusaway.org/p/DeveloperResources.action http://pugetsound.onebusaway.org/p/DeveloperResources.action
  - aaronbrethorst 9y ago
    API docs are here: http://developer.onebusaway.org/modules/onebusaway-application-modules/1.1.14/api/where/index.html http://developer.onebusaway.org/modules/onebusaway-applicati... And all of our products, both server and mobile, are here: https://github.com/OneBusAway/ https://github.com/OneBusAway/ I don't know what language you prefer working with, but you might find this rather thin Rails site I built last year to support a few features helpful: https://github.com/oneBusAway/onebusaway-deep-links https://github.com/oneBusAway/onebusaway-deep-links
- loeg 9y ago
  Thank you for your volunteer work! It is appreciated. I've relied upon the various forms of One Bus service from 2008-present and it is immensely useful.
  - aaronbrethorst 9y ago
    Thanks, I did too, which led me to volunteering on the iOS app a few years back. One thing led to another, and I now maintain it. I can always use more help, and I'm happy to help people who are just getting their feet wet on iOS learn more: https://github.com/OneBusAway/onebusaway-iphone#picking-an-appropriate-first-time-issue https://github.com/OneBusAway/onebusaway-iphone#picking-an-a...
    - loeg 9y ago
      I don't have a Mac, so I'm afraid I'm useless for iOS development. (It requires Xcode, right?)
- hsitz 9y ago
  Thanks a lot for your great work! I'm surprised the linked article didn't mention OneBusAway, which greatly changes the experience of using a bus for me. Like many in Seattle, I live a couple blocks from a stop, use OneBusAway to time things so I don't have to wait more than a couple minutes, and -- just as importantly -- I don't ever sit there wondering whether there's any bus coming at all. I notice on onebusaway.org that the system is now used by other cities, including NYC, Washingon D.C., and Tampa Bay. Do other large cities generally use some kind of competing, comparable proprietary system, or do bus riders in most cities have no way of getting real-time bus data online?
  - aaronbrethorst 9y ago
    I believe that most major cities' transit agencies are now creating GTFS feeds[1], which can be consumed by a variety of apps and services, like Transit and Citymapper. These apps are available in hundreds of cities around the world. They also have the advantage of having millions of dollars in venture funding behind them, which I'm sure helps expansion :) [1] https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/ https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/
techsupporter 9y ago
> Idk, SoundTranist also tried a massive money grab on car tabs on inflated valuations. Sound Transit didn't "try" anything. They're running the MVET the way that the legislature told them to do it and that the voters approved. (Full disclosure: I voted yes on Sound Transit 3, knowing full well what my vehicle registration would cost after the vote.)
- keepkalm 9y ago
  Sound Transit inflated car valuations https://goo.gl/bhGuFC https://goo.gl/bhGuFC It was dishonest at best, at worst it's a fraud.
  - jlmorton 9y ago
    Really quite a stretch to call it fraudulent, given that the formula is derived from the State Legislature. In any event, I have very little sympathy, since the current car tab is at least an order of magnitude too small. The car tax rate in Singapore is at least 100x higher than the Sound Transit tax. The tax is equal to 100% of the sale price of the vehicle for the first $15,000 USD, 140% between $15,000 and $35,000, and then 180% on any value above that. That seems a bit too high given the way American cities have been built up, but 1.1% is just absurdly and catastrophically lower than it should be.
    - keepkalm 9y ago
      >the current car tab is at least an order of magnitude too small. Your opinion may be clouding your judgment. It's not right to inflate the value because you can't pass a higher rate with legislation. This is why a lot of people don't support transit, because the people advocating it can't be honest. This is also why Washington State voters keep passing a cap on the car tab fee. Like it or not, the voters of the state still get to decide on the rules that govern them. They agreed to a rate increase on the fair-market value of their vehicle, not for Sound Transit to charge whatever they want because they lost some grant money.
      - 9y ago

aaronbrethorst 9y ago

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words about the utility of OneBusAway for you. You may not know this, but the people who make OneBusAway for iOS and Android are unpaid volunteers. n.b. I'm the maintainer of OneBusAway for iOS.

CaptSpify 9y ago
I did not know that, and I appreciate your efforts. It's one of the few apps that I know fairly consistently works, even though it's an inherently chaotic system that deals with estimation. Is the data behind that available anywhere as an api or anything? I was trying to find a way to parse out some stuff for a project at home, and access to the times in say, json, would be helpful. Thanks!
- icebraining 9y ago
  https://transitfeeds.com/ https://transitfeeds.com/
  - aaronbrethorst 9y ago
    I haven't seen this before. Thanks for sharing!
- techsupporter 9y ago
  You can get an API key for OneBusAway here: http://pugetsound.onebusaway.org/p/DeveloperResources.action http://pugetsound.onebusaway.org/p/DeveloperResources.action
- aaronbrethorst 9y ago
  API docs are here: http://developer.onebusaway.org/modules/onebusaway-application-modules/1.1.14/api/where/index.html http://developer.onebusaway.org/modules/onebusaway-applicati... And all of our products, both server and mobile, are here: https://github.com/OneBusAway/ https://github.com/OneBusAway/ I don't know what language you prefer working with, but you might find this rather thin Rails site I built last year to support a few features helpful: https://github.com/oneBusAway/onebusaway-deep-links https://github.com/oneBusAway/onebusaway-deep-links
loeg 9y ago
Thank you for your volunteer work! It is appreciated. I've relied upon the various forms of One Bus service from 2008-present and it is immensely useful.
- aaronbrethorst 9y ago
  Thanks, I did too, which led me to volunteering on the iOS app a few years back. One thing led to another, and I now maintain it. I can always use more help, and I'm happy to help people who are just getting their feet wet on iOS learn more: https://github.com/OneBusAway/onebusaway-iphone#picking-an-appropriate-first-time-issue https://github.com/OneBusAway/onebusaway-iphone#picking-an-a...
  - loeg 9y ago
    I don't have a Mac, so I'm afraid I'm useless for iOS development. (It requires Xcode, right?)
hsitz 9y ago
Thanks a lot for your great work! I'm surprised the linked article didn't mention OneBusAway, which greatly changes the experience of using a bus for me. Like many in Seattle, I live a couple blocks from a stop, use OneBusAway to time things so I don't have to wait more than a couple minutes, and -- just as importantly -- I don't ever sit there wondering whether there's any bus coming at all. I notice on onebusaway.org that the system is now used by other cities, including NYC, Washingon D.C., and Tampa Bay. Do other large cities generally use some kind of competing, comparable proprietary system, or do bus riders in most cities have no way of getting real-time bus data online?
- aaronbrethorst 9y ago
  I believe that most major cities' transit agencies are now creating GTFS feeds[1], which can be consumed by a variety of apps and services, like Transit and Citymapper. These apps are available in hundreds of cities around the world. They also have the advantage of having millions of dollars in venture funding behind them, which I'm sure helps expansion :) [1] https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/ https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/

techsupporter 9y ago

> Idk, SoundTranist also tried a massive money grab on car tabs on inflated valuations. Sound Transit didn't "try" anything. They're running the MVET the way that the legislature told them to do it and that the voters approved. (Full disclosure: I voted yes on Sound Transit 3, knowing full well what my vehicle registration would cost after the vote.)

keepkalm 9y ago
Sound Transit inflated car valuations https://goo.gl/bhGuFC https://goo.gl/bhGuFC It was dishonest at best, at worst it's a fraud.
- jlmorton 9y ago
  Really quite a stretch to call it fraudulent, given that the formula is derived from the State Legislature. In any event, I have very little sympathy, since the current car tab is at least an order of magnitude too small. The car tax rate in Singapore is at least 100x higher than the Sound Transit tax. The tax is equal to 100% of the sale price of the vehicle for the first $15,000 USD, 140% between $15,000 and $35,000, and then 180% on any value above that. That seems a bit too high given the way American cities have been built up, but 1.1% is just absurdly and catastrophically lower than it should be.
  - keepkalm 9y ago
    >the current car tab is at least an order of magnitude too small. Your opinion may be clouding your judgment. It's not right to inflate the value because you can't pass a higher rate with legislation. This is why a lot of people don't support transit, because the people advocating it can't be honest. This is also why Washington State voters keep passing a cap on the car tab fee. Like it or not, the voters of the state still get to decide on the rules that govern them. They agreed to a rate increase on the fair-market value of their vehicle, not for Sound Transit to charge whatever they want because they lost some grant money.
    - 9y ago