Public Parking Lots in Honolulu

Last week I went to a meetup sponsored by Code for America. They were unveiling the new data portal for the City & County of Honolulu, data.honolulu.gov that they developed as part of the Code for America program. It’s still very new and under construction, but there are several very useful data sets already published or linked from that site. For example, here is the most comprehensive map I’ve seen of all public parking lots on Oahu. It lists free parking lots like the big one in Ala Moana Park as well as the municipal metered lots in Chinatown. Even the little known municipal metered lot in the middle of Waikiki. Gotta keep that last one a secret, or else I’ll never find cheap parking when I go to the Genius Lounge.

Map of all public parking lots (both free and metered lots).
Map of all public parking lots (both free and metered lots).

Map of public parking lots on Oahu

The link above goes directly to the map hosted by ESRI. But there many more data sets on data.honolulu.gov. The site is mostly geared towards software developers at this point, but I can see how it will eventually supplement or replace other City web sites. Open data is an important policy for any government. For the most part, government administrators are very much in favor of distributing public information in the most accessible way possible. The problem is educating the public. Most people can’t imagine why accessing information is important. Those people need to see how open data applies to their lives before they see the value in it. I hope this post shows the possibilities that an open data policy promotes.