L.A. Metro site aims to spur app development, ridership

In an effort to enable greater public use of Los Angeles County transit planning information and spur transit ridership countywide, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) released transit route and schedule data on its new beta developer Website at www.metro.net/developer/

The agency's transit data includes route, schedule and stop information for all five Metro rail lines and nearly 200 Metro bus lines serving Los Angeles County as well as route and schedule information for Metro's regional transit partners.

The downloadable data sets will be provided in two formats: GTFS (Google Transit Feed Specification), and GIS data. Developers and other interested individuals will now be able to utilize this data for inclusion in new or existing Web-based transit planning computer applications, including popular mobile devices such as iPhone and Blackberry. In order to download the data, users must first agree to the terms and conditions detailed on the site.

Transit data for the region will be available as both Web services and downloadable data sets.