The past few weeks have been busy with several high-profile OpenTripPlanner launches. We begin in Portland, Oregon — the city where OTP was born three years ago — where on August 6th TriMet officially unveiled their new OTP-based version of ride.trimet.org, the transit agency’s official trip planner. Although a beta version of an OTP-based utility has been available since last October, this is the first time that TriMet’s primary public-facing trip planner has been backed by open source, multimodal technology (as well as open street data from OpenStreetMap).
From TriMet’s press release announcing the launch:
In the past year, riders have planned more than 5.5 million trips using TriMet’s trip planning tools. Now riders can combine transit with biking and walking using the newest version of the online trip planner. This open source trip planning tool is the first produced by a transit agency in the U.S. that allows users to combine multiple modes of transportation.
“We’ve heard from riders that they want more tools to help them get around by transit, bike and foot, which aligns with TriMet’s and our regional partners’ mission to encourage active transportation,” said Bibiana McHugh, TriMet IT Manager of GIS and Location-Based Service. “So last fall we launched a test version of this innovative new trip planner. Since then, hundreds of riders have helped us fine tune the tool.”
On the other side of the U.S., cyclists in the Washington, DC area have a new tool for planning two-wheeled trips around the capital with the the launch of BikePlanner.org. The site was developed by OpenPlans in collaboration with Mobility Lab, BikeArlington, and MapBox. It is the second recent deployment the showcases OTP’s recently added support for real-time bike share trip planning, following the launch of CiBi.me in New York earlier in the year. Both sites also offer a preview of a new Leaflet-based user interface that is optimized for use with both desktop and mobile displays.
Reception to BikePlanner.org has been enthusiastic, with coverage of the launch including two articles in the Washington Post as well as stories by Greater Greater Washington and local radio station WAMU. The site was also featured as part of a larger write-up of OTP at SmartPlanet, “OpenTripPlanner redefines public transit navigation.”
OTP continues to expand its reach globally as well. The project now has a presence in Africa with the launch of the fromA2B application serving Gauteng province in South Africa, covering a variety of bus and rail services in the Johannesburg and Pretoria areas. Back in the northern hemisphere, the OTP-backed Opti-Trans planner was launched in London this summer, just in time for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. For a complete list of live OTP deployments, visit the demos page.
