The MBTA & Boston Bikes Developers Challenge

They Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics is supporting the MBTA & Boston Bikes Developers Challenge. This challenge seeks to encourage developers to build apps that help Boston residents navigate the city using mass transit and bike share, as well as enjoy some of culinary feats of our local food trucks. For more details on the challenge, visit http://t.co/AJ1emesG.

Key Data Sets & Information:

MBTA data sets: http://www.eot.state.ma.us/developers/

New Balance Hubway Station Data

New Balance Hubway Usage Data for October 9 -11

Boston Bike Racks

Updated Boston Bike Lanes

Food Truck Listings and Links: http://bostonmobilefood.com/

Food Truck Locations & Schedules in Boston: http://www.cityofboston.gov/business/mobile/schedule-tabs.asp

Location API & documentation: http://www.newurbanmechanics.org/food-truck/

Don’t See What You Are Looking For? Let us know.

If there is a data set that could help your app and it’s not here or not in the format you want, let us know; we’ll see if we can find it. Email us at developers@cityofboston.gov.

App Ideas from Boston’s Bike Czar & New Balance Hubway

We asked New Balance Hubway for thoughts on apps their members would like to see. Those thoughts include:

- push notifications on bike availability – or lack thereof – at “favorited” stations

- notes on local attractions near Hubway stations

- popular routes and bike infrastructure such as bikes lanes and racks

The City of Boston’s Bike Czar added:

- routing options that showed fastest, greenest and healthiest

- talking directions to the nearest T or New Balance Hubway station

App Ideas from Boston’s Food Czar and the Boston Area Food Truck Association

We asked Boston’s Food Czar and members of the Boston Area Food Truck Association (BAFTA) for some thoughts about apps that they would like to see. (BAFTA members are the folks who run all the food trucks in the City.) The Food Czar provided these thoughts: Food Truck App Challenge. BAFTA’s thoughts include:

Finding a truck by…

- A map / proximity

- Type of food

- A randomizer

Providing a way to inform people about….

- Food truck festivals

- Availability of trucks for catering

- Special deals

Allowing users to…

- Read reviews on food trucks

- Connect to food trucks via twitter and facebooks

- Find the optimal route to reach one