Open-Sourcing Beeline, Singapore’s first crowd-sourced transportation platform
blog.data.gov.sg
blog.data.gov.sg
"This initiative is developed by the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech), in collaboration with the Land Transport Authority, to engender a culture of crowd-sourcing among citizens and empower them to play a part in optimising transport route planning. At the same time, it also helps private sector players harness data analytics to improve productivity and provide better services to their passengers."
More info: https://www.tech.gov.sg/-/media/GovTech/Media-Room/Media-Rel...
Back in 2004 I wrote my Masters thesis about a public transportation system based on text massaging which used classic bus routes but would only operate in case you ordered the bus. Kinda think of a pre-Uber app. My prototype used PHP, MySQL, JavaScript for the dispatch system. Pre existing SMS templates (specifically on Nokia phones) allowed the driver to communicate with the dispatcher. Every "bus stop" had a number (just like NYC's MTA is using barcodes today) and customers texted this number, pick up time and pax to a phone number. The text msg was automatically added to a queue to be validated by the dispatcher. The responsible bus driver was informed by the system via text msg as well and so on. My system was intended to replace an outdated, cumbersome system where every customer had to call the operator to place the order for the bus. After I graduated I found out that Singapore had already a very similar system to my prototype (but they used cabs to replace the busses).