Transport for New South Wales has signed a waiver with the OpenStreetMap project, allowing the open data initiative to employ a number of the government’s geospatial data sets.
In January, Transport for NSW’s director for open data, apps and innovation, Micah Starkis, provided the project with explicit permission to employ data sets that are made available on the department’s Open Data Hub, which was launched in April 2016.
“This really demonstrates our commitment to open data and sharing with the community for the benefit of everyone,” a Transport for NSW spokesperson said.
“It could also enable a whole new era of innovative transport products for customers as developers can use mapping technology, with transport data, all for free.”
“This waiver will allow OpenStreetMap (which is crowdsourced) to take data from our Open Data Hub and put it into their maps,” the spokesperson said.
The Open Data Hub provides access to more than 100 datasets and comprises more than 300 resources including as APIs and files.
According to Transport for NSW, the site has more than 27,500 registered users, and has had more than 4.8 billion unique API hits since it launched. The site includes a forum for developers and is also home to Transport for NSW’s Trip Planner APIs.
An October 2019 Open Data Hub blog entry revealed that Transport for NSW had begun using OpenStreetMap for “various applications and projects”. A blog entry from earlier this year said that the government was examining the potential for integrating OpenStreetMap into Trip Planner.
Under the wavier, OpenStreetMap is given permission to incorporate data under a CC BY 4.0 licence, which merely requires Transport for NSW be credited as the source.
The data sets incorporated into the crowdsourced mapping project include a range of information about public transport timetables, stop locations and routes (available in the GTFS format from the department’s Open Data Hub). Other data includes information on cycleways and boat ramps.
Since 2015 OpenStreetMap has had permission from NSW Land and Property Information to incorporate its open data sets, and since 2017 data from the state’s Geographical Names Board.
OpenStreetMap is a free and open alternative to services such as Google Maps. The project is operated by the OpenStreetMap Foundation.