The software developer launched into a six-minute pitch, before a roomful of data wonks, software engineers and transit enthusiasts, based on a simple question: “When is it faster to take an indirect route to work?”
Using an algorithm that collected trip paths and estimated travel times, Joseph Haaga, 22, sought to answer that question through his own software application, which maps every possible route between two Metro stations — even the ones that take, say, 51 minutes for what is normally a 20-minute trip. One spectator said it was like Google’s “Waze” for transit.