We, think tank experts, open data experts and IT developers of both genders, call on local governments of cities to open and provide continuous real-time access to data on public transport locations.
Almost all public transport in Ukraine is equipped with GPS sensors, which are used to collect data on public transportation. For example, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Bila Tserkva, Brovary, Zaporizhzhia, Kamianets, Kamianske, Kramatorsk, Rivne, Khmelnitsky, Chernihiv, Odessa and other Ukrainian cities de facto have data on public transport locations, but they do not provide access to such data. Earlier, Kyiv, where 200,000 passengers with special permits use public transportation during the quarantine, also closed access to transport data, but these restrictions were lifted on Tuesday, March 31, after the complaints of activists.
Public transportation is one of the key points of contact for people. Due to the data on public transport location, passengers can see where a transport is on the route and estimate their time. If there are no online data, passengers (including doctors, female/male nurses) are forced to wait for transportation at a stop next to other passengers for an indefinite amount of time. Under quarantine, a large number of people at stops and in public transport poses a threat to health. In the current situation, open transport data are of vital importance, and it is unacceptable to hide them. It is critical to ensure transparency and access to public transport data for all citizens and free services during the quarantine.
We call on local governments to open the transport data in two steps.
Step 1 – publishing the real-time information on public transport locations as open data.
Where to publish such data? On the national portal of open data
How to publish such data? The Ministry of Digital Transformation has developed detailed recommendations
How will it benefit our citizens? This will allow them to see which routes are operating and plan their route and transfers in the best possible way without spending extra time waiting at stops. The male and female initiators of this statement are ready to help publish this information on Google, EasyWay and other resources online and for free to all users.
How is this regulated by law? The obligation to make this information public is defined by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 2015 No.835. Often these data are hidden or owned by monopolists. Some cities have published such data even before the quarantine, so public transportation there could be seen on online maps.
Step 2 – cities with more than 100,000 people should begin to collect data on the number of passengers in real-time and publish them.
This will allow citizens to choose the available routes, without wasting time waiting for crowded transport. According to our information, such data are already being collected in Lviv and Mariupol, so local authorities can already make this information public.
Hiding real-time data on public transport locations is a violation of the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 2015 No.835 in terms of open data. We call on Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov and Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy to pay attention to the current situation and take the necessary measures.
We call on male and female representatives of non-governmental organizations, mass media, trade unions and all citizens of Ukraine to join this statement on their own communication platforms (websites, blogs, pages in social networks).
The statement was supported by:
Organizations:
- Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) – an independent analytical center funded by international donors, including by the European Union under the FORBIZ project and within the framework of EU4Business Initiative.
- OpenUp Ukraine, which is a community of activists, developers and analysts who share the values of openness in Ukraine: data, code, researches and formats.
- EasyWay – a system for public transportation route search.
- A+C Ukraine – a transportation modeling company. They are the developers of transport models of Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Mariupol, Dnipro and others.
Individuals:
- Dmytro Bespalov, transport planning specialist
- Ivan Sherstyuk, CEO of EasyWay
- Ihor Samokhodsky, IT&Telecom Sector Head at the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO)
- Kyrylo Zakharov, co-founder and director of the Sud na Doloni project
- Nadiya Babynska, coordinator of OpenUp Ukraine initiatives, #nasudzadostup
- Renat Nasridinov, analyst at the Ukrainian Center for Social Data
- Yanina Basysta, co-founder of the NGO “Ecosmart”
- Yaroslav Garaguts, Clarity Project founder
- Vasyl Mykhalchuk, Delo.ua reviewer
- Oleksandr Go, founder and chief developer of CityScale.com.ua
This material is prepared by the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), and independent expert and analytical center, funded by the European Union under the FORBIZ project and within the framework of EU4Business Initiative.