Hong Kong minibuses, observatory help lift city’s data openness score, but government efforts ‘inadequate’, advocacy group finds
- By the end of 2021, major public transport operators in Hong Kong had publicly released their real-time arrival times
- The importance of data as a key resource has never been recognised by the Hong Kong government, the advocacy group said
Hong Kong notched up an improvement in data availability in 2021, thanks to more open data policies from transport operators and the local weather forecaster, according to a non-profit group.
However, business registration, urban planning, justice and safety, housing and government operations have become less transparent in terms of making data available for the public, according to the Internet Society Hong Kong.
It is the second year the advocacy group has tracked the city’s data openness through the Hong Kong Open Data Index. The overall index score ticked up 2.5 points from 2020 to 72.4 in 2021, the group said in a statement.
Transport recorded one of the most significant improvements among the 16 categories of datasets, as more businesses joined government initiatives like the green minibus real time arrival system, according to the report.
By the end of 2021, major public transport operators in Hong Kong including the MTR, KMB and green minibuses all released their real-time arrival times, seen as a benefit to the majority of residents who rely on public transport for their daily commute.
Climate and weather recorded a significant increase in the open data index, from 70 to 81.3, as the Hong Kong Observatory published more real-time datasets that included indicators like mean wind speed and “grass temperature”, which can vary significantly from air temperature.