The CTA Bus Tracker gives us the real-time location of ... a bus. Right now, it's only job is to track the #20 Madison bus. Starting April 7, over a dozen routes will be added.

When Huberman and Brown talk about the future of this program, they would be wise to provide an open API for the live GPS data. By providing access to that real-time data, you enable open source software developers to combine that data with existing open programming interfaces, such as Google Maps.

Think of the possibilities. You could have real-time bus and train data on your phone. Using the GPS in your phone (or by cellular tower triangulation), an application could show you,on a map where you are and where the closest bus is to your current location.

Given the propensity of Google to occasionally and quietly release new features, I would guess they are already looking to develop this feature themselves. Consider that when zoomed in to an appropriate level, Google Maps already shows bus stops and El stops. When clicked, a stop shows you the next *scheduled* time of arrival and can also provide the last stop time. Google Maps has also teamed up with taxi companies to show live taxi data.

I dream of one step beyond having open live GPS transit data to play with. In my dreams, there are big, sexy LCD screens on El platforms with the time, weather, news and live transit data. Those LCD screens are driven using thin linux clients that are simply pointed at a browser.