BART ponders data release

Effort is part of bid for more transparency, a push to build trust

With lack of transparency and trust in BART’s management emerging as a recurring theme in this November’s election, the agency is proposing to open its data to the public.

BART’s governing board on Thursday gave its input on a proposal to create a web portal where web and app developers, transportation wonks and anyone else could access the transit agency’s ridership, financial, crime, contracts, salary and other data free of charge. Some data that has security or privacy implications would not be shared, said Tim Moore, BART’s web services manager.

BART already collects reams of data mostly for internal use, though almost all of it is available to the public upon request, Moore said.

That data often come in the form of cumbersome PDF documents, which are readable to human eyes but are not necessarily easy to use for developers who want to turn that data into an app or for others who want to visualize the numbers with charts or graphs.

The goal, said BART Director Nicholas Josefowitz, is to have “one of the most progressive and most transparent open data policies in the country.”

“It will be something where there really is a deep commitment within the agency to make the data accessible to the public,” he said, “but also make it much more accessible internally so we can be making better data-driven decisions.”

Moore said staff over the next six to eight months would be con- ducting an audit of all the data collected by BART’s various departments to determine what data could be shared easily and what will take more time to convert into readable formats.

Ultimately, staff will develop a plan for which data sets will be available and propose a budget for the program, which is expected to cost $250,000 in its first year, $200,000 in the second and $150,000 per year thereafter.

Learn more about the plan and provide comments at bart.gov/open.

Contact Erin Baldassari at 510-208-6428.