Join designers, programmers, engineers, data scientists, transportation experts, and committed citizens to tackle one of several challenges facing the city as part of the L-train shutdown scheduled for April 2019.

The Open Data L-Train Innovation Challenge will open up the problem to the public and facilitate collaborative teams to solve a number of challenges posed by the shutdown through a sustainability lens. The shutdown will repair the tunnels damaged by Hurricane Sandy connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn and will last 15-18 months.

Roughly 400,000 people ride the L-train with 225,000 of them riding between Brooklyn and Manhattan daily.

Participants will hear the social, economic, and environmental challenges currently facing the city and pertaining to the L-train shutdown. These challenges also link mobility to second-order impacts.

Participants will then select a challenge, form teams, and review relevant data sets. Data sets will be provided by the MTA, Taxi and Limousine Commission, NYNJ Port Authority, Waze, and MoDA. Expert mentors will support teams as they develop their solutions.

By the end of the day, participants will have created a solution – a product, service, visualization, or a business – that addresses one of the challenges.

A panel of judges will select the best ideas. We will then share next steps on moving the best ideas forward to bring together open data, a sustainability lens and citizen-led innovation for a new way of approaching some of the challenges facing the city in the face of the L-train shutdown.

Agenda

The all-day event is part of NYC Open Data Week and is made possible through partnerships with Grand Central Tech Hub, Dell, the Department of Transportation, and the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA) and many more contributors.