10 Reasons Why Los Angeles Should Make Taxi GPS Data Public

  1. Taxi GPS data proved that new bike lanes and added pedestrian spaces improved traffic flow in Manhattan.
  2. In Boston, taxi GPS data revealed that people were underutilizing the Silver Line train to Logan Airport.
  3. Beijing learned the best routes through the city according to the experience-based knowledge of taxi drivers —and important info about gas consumption and pollution patterns in a very polluted city.
  4. This awesome taxicab visualization.
  5. This other awesome taxicab visualization.
  6. This super awesome taxicab visualization. (Best of the lot!)
  7. Making taxi GPS data public revealed $8 million in taximeter fraud in New York City.
  8. The Cabsense app, which tells people the best places to hail a cab, is based on public taxi GPS data.
  9. HubCab, an MIT project, uses public taxi GPS data from 170 million taxi rides to argue for true taxi-based ridesharing.
  10. Public taxi GPS data has the potential to improve many other aspects of city transportation networks, such as nighttime bus routes and land use patterns.