Transit Software Cooperative Funding #15

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opened 2026-04-26 13:15:16 +00:00 by maxtkc · 0 comments

maxtkc commented

2026-04-26 13:15:16 +00:00

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Transit agencies all do almost the same thing, yet they seem to all build different software for no particular reason.

Make a place where people and agencies can propose transit software, with a fairly detailed specification, and different agencies can bid on how much they would pay for the building of it. Sort of like Kickstarter, they might get some control of the software, depending on the policy. The important thing is that multiple agencies could pool money to build the same software.

This would require careful planning from a legal perspective to make sure that the developers are paid, etc. Somehow, you would have to verify that the software was built to the required specification to be paid.

Potentially a minimal version of this would be best, simply connecting developers with a group of agencies who are all interested in building the same software.

This allows multiple agencies to share software, likely encouraging open sourcing it, or at least making the software not agency specific.

Transit agencies all do almost the same thing, yet they seem to all build different software for no particular reason. Make a place where people and agencies can propose transit software, with a fairly detailed specification, and different agencies can bid on how much they would pay for the building of it. Sort of like Kickstarter, they might get some control of the software, depending on the policy. The important thing is that multiple agencies could pool money to build the same software. This would require careful planning from a legal perspective to make sure that the developers are paid, etc. Somehow, you would have to verify that the software was built to the required specification to be paid. Potentially a minimal version of this would be best, simply connecting developers with a group of agencies who are all interested in building the same software. This allows multiple agencies to share software, likely encouraging open sourcing it, or at least making the software not agency specific.