Write a bike app, win prizes

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) offers a chance to win prizes to local (to Boston) software developers who create applications that tie Boston Hubway Bikeshare with regional options.

MBTA Boston Bikes Developers Challenge calls on developers to create innovative applications and visualizations that highlight connections brought together by the combination of MBTA and Boston’s Hubway Bike Share system.

The challenge has two components; each offering prizes including both a one year MBTA CharlieCard LinkPass, a one year Hubway Membership, and passes to area food truck festivals. The prize for the Bikes, Lunch & T challenge will be a free pass to area food truck festivals.

  • Applications Challenge calls on developers to create applications using MBTA data such as real-time and schedules bus, subway, and commuter rail data, together with New Balance Hubway Live Station Inventory Data to create an app, website, or other software application that provides an innovative way to access MBTA and New Balance Hubway information in real-time. You can look at current apps making use of MTBA data here.
  • Visualization Challenge calls on developers to create a visualization of “A day in the life of the MBTA and New Balance Hubway” using both MBTA and New Balance Hubway data such as historical vehicle location for the MBTA and Hubway origin-destination data. Entries in previous incarnations of this visualization challenge have included YouTube videos of subway movements, an interactive website, a Windows application, static images, a Java applet, and a Silverlight application. I don’t have a vote, but my favorite is probably this Flash animation.

There’s also a bonus challenge: Bikes, Lunch, & T Challenge invites you to create innovative applications that help hungry residents learn about, locate and get to Boston′s food trucks. This app, for web or mobile, ideally includes locations of the trucks, menus, and routing information on how to get to them by walking, T or Hubway. The winner of this bonus challenge gets a free pass to Boston food truck festivals. How cool is that?

The deadline for these challenges is February 24, so get cracking. You can learn how to get at MTBA live data and more at the Developer Challenge web page.

Via Transportation Nation blog.

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