An API standard for ride hailing services

OHAIL YES, STANDARDS FOR RIDE HAILING
What if cities had a way to publish ride hailing updates in the same way they publish transit data for buses and subways? That's what technologist Philip Ashlock and urbanist Chris Whong are testing with the launch of oHail, an application programming interface (API) standard for civic ride hailing apps. With cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., investigating how to bridge divides between taxis and Uber, oHail is an attempt to establish a data standard that lets tech companies and civic hackers put real-time ride hailing data into their apps. If something like this became ubiquitous, transit agencies could publish their data and developers could construct apps that were fed from cities across the nation.

"It's time we look at creating an open standard so that hailing a taxi, private car, paratransit or rideshare can be part of common infrastructure where apps can be used across cities and service providers," the duo states on oHail's site.

GovTech Magazine