June 6th will be a busy day for civic hackers in the Bay Area. It’s the National Day of Civic Hacking, a day set aside by Code for America “to improve our communities and the governments that serve them.” Around a half dozen events will make it possible for people in the Bay Area to give back to their communities and start building solutions to local issues.
In San Jose, the VTA is hosting Hack My Ride 2.0, a follow-up to their successful Hack My Ride event last year on October 25th and 26th. Transportation continues to be a problem in the Bay Area, and the VTA is working to improve transit options to make them more appealing to commuters and help take cars off the road. At Hack My Ride 2.0, they are challenging attendees to go beyond transit planning 
apps, a project that often comes to mind when people think of transit technologies. They are especially interested in getting projects focused around things like beacons and wearables, and attendees will be among the first to get access to new technologies VTA is currently testing. Of course, the VTA isn’t expecting an amazing project to be completed in just one day. The event on June 6th is being used as a starting point for a three-month online app challenge open to anyone in the world.
Improving transportation in the Bay Area is a big challenge, so as an added incentive, Microsoft Silicon Valley and the Knight Foundation are offering $30,000 in prizes in eight prize categories. If you have an idea for a project around transportation, maybe a game or augmented reality solution, or if you feel you have something you can contribute, or just need the inspiration of working together with a team you meet at the event, head on over to the Hack My Ride 2.0 site and get signed up.
You can get started now by following the VTA on Twitter at @VTA and checking out the VTA Datasets available at https://data.vta.org and http://www.vta.org/getting-around/gtfs-info/gtfs-information
