The 511 Transit page at www.transit.511.org has been cited by Government Computer News as one of 10 great government Web sites nationwide for 2009.
Published: September, 2009
The 511 Transit page at www.transit.511.org has been cited by Government Computer News as one of 10 great government Web sites nationwide for 2009. The magazine hailed the popular site as “a heroic act of interagency coordination.” 511 Transit, which originally was launched in 2003 and periodically has been expanded and upgraded, is a one-stop source for transit information, offering online trip planning as well as route, fare and schedule data for dozens of different transit operators throughout the Bay Area. A total redesign of 511 Transit was completed in summer 2008 and further revisions are now underway.
The 511 Transit page registered nearly 1.7 million individual user sessions in July 2009, a 47 percent increase over the monthly average in 2008. And the online trip planner at the 511 Transit page generated more than 1.5 million itineraries that month, compared to a monthly average of about 1.1 million in 2008.
The success of 511 Transit reflects good working partnerships between the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the various transit agencies. According to Tom Spiekerman, transit.511.org project manager for MTC, “The operators maintain their schedules and route data in a lot of different formats. This creates a challenge combining the data so the online trip planner can deliver useful itineraries. But it turned out to be as much an opportunity as it was an obstacle. It allowed us to create a flexible and uniform interface that riders can use to explore and simplify their transit options.”
