‘Hackathon’ focuses software savvy on Oahu traffic, parking woes

Several dozen local residents put their software coding skills to work this past weekend, competing to design phone apps and other solutions aimed at tackling Oahu’s growing transportation challenges.

The winners at the "Reboot the Commute" event, held in Kakaako, came up with ideas to help drivers better cope with traffic and parking. They also proposed a concept to help manage bicycle traffic once the island’s bike-share network launches next year.

Honolulu drivers consistently face some of the worst traffic in the nation, studies show. Open parking spaces in town are a rare commodity. Many of the town’s roads aren’t bike-friendly. Hawaii has also been found to be the most dangerous state for senior pedestrians, per-capita, in the country.

The Reboot the Commute marathon session — or "hackathon," as such events are called — aimed to address some of those problems.

Eleven teams holed up overnight Friday and Saturday in a loft office, coding their apps and brainstorming other traffic solutions. Many of them used transportation data made available by the city.

"We wanted to harness and focus our homegrown talent of developers and idea-makers," said Jonas Vibell, a staffer for Energy Excelerator, a Honolulu-based firm that looks to develop innovative companies. It hosted the weekend’s hackathon. "Most of them stayed up the whole night. They had 24 hours to crystallize something out of their ideas."

Judges chose three winning teams, each focusing on a different category: data in transportation, efficiency (parking) and alternate modes of trans- portation. The winning teams each received $1,000 — and they’ll get the chance to present their ideas to investors in the near future, Vibell said.

"Real-Time Traffic Signs" won the data-in-transportation category. It proposes installing road and highway signs that show drivers live traffic conditions in a format similar to Google Maps. By putting those details on an overhead sign, the team said, it would keep drivers from checking their phones for traffic data while they’re behind the wheel.

The "Park Carma" team won the efficiency category. It designed a phone app that could tap live data from the city’s new electronic parking meters to help users find open stalls and stalls that are about to become available.

The "BikeShare implementation" team won for the alternate-modes-of-travel category. It proposed a system to help balance bicycle use around town under Ho- nolulu’s future bike-share program. Businesses along the route and near the bike drop-off stations would offer discounts to help attract bike traffic near them under the system.

Hackathon judges also praised a ride-sharing app by 15-year-old Liam Clive, who was given special permission as a minor to participate. Clive’s app, "Trippy," aims to create a carpool exchange, where users in need of a ride can hail drivers heading in their direction who are also using the app.

Vibell said Energy Excelerator is considering future hackathons that could address other Hawaii challenges, such as energy and agriculture.