This past weekend (October 25th and 26th) the Valley Transportation Authority’s Hack My Ride: VTA Transportation Idea Jam took place at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. Over 60 programmers, developers, artists, technologists, and data analysts pooled their collective brainpower with the end goal of bettering public transportation throughout our Silicon Valley communities.
Teams spent the weekend collaborating to develop a range of civic tech software and mobile apps designed to solve transportation challenges and create cities of the future. Challenged to think more broadly about creating technology solutions that focus on pedestrians, cyclists, car sharing, paratransit, and vehicle congestion, participants spent hours fine-tuning their concepts before pitching their final solutions to a panel of judges.
I was lucky enough to serve as one of those judges and witness some incredible thinking from the group. Whether it was utilizing data in new ways, providing strong customer tools for seniors and Outreach customers, or pulling data to inform policy makers, participants were pushing the edge on new ways to improve transportation in Silicon Valley. We applaud the VTA for being solution-oriented and opening up their data for the cause.
Check out the final submissions here and don’t forget to vote for your favorite, voting ends on Halloween.
Transportation is one of the most pressing challenges our cities have—based on what I witnessed at this event, it’s clear that the ways technology can work to address these challenges are boundless.
