OpenTripPlanner Team Navigates Away from OpenPlans

Update I didn’t know today was going to be blog about Transit App for iOS 6 day but AllThingsD has some more info on the situation.

One Kickstarter project I backed was Transit App for iOS 6 from the OpenPlans team.

Basically Apple punted Transit directions for reasons I can’t understand. Getting transit feeds for a company like Apple wouldn’t be hard at all. But that’s all water under the bridge I guess. When using Apple’s Maps application and you want transit directions, you get the following screen:

Apple Transit OptionsApple Transit Options

Basically if I click the route button on those top two apps and you get transit navigation. It’s an extra step nobody wants, but at least it works. OpenTripPlanner was supposed to be an option for iOS users wanting transit. But then something happened:

Despite the successes so far, we’re stopping work on Joyride, and refunding you. Here’s why: the trip planning in Joyride depends on up to date, accurate transit data, which we assemble from open data feeds provided by hundreds of individual transit operators. In the new year, the OpenTripPlanner team is spinning out from OpenPlans. With their departure, we won’t have the capacity here to keep the app up to date, and we’re not prepared to launch without being certain we can offer a viable ongoing service that people can depend on for their daily travel needs.

Not sure what happened, the code is available on Github so I guess that’s something. OpenPlans suggests The Transit App but it proves that open data feeds aren’t a cure all (screw you ValleyMetro).

OpenTransit es no BuenoOpenTransit es no Bueno


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Date
December 13, 2012