LOCAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS RELEASE A NEW APP SHOWING MEGAHOSPITAL DRIVE TIME

The app, called Megahospital Challenge, provides comparative drive time data for existing hospitals and the proposed new Megahospital on County Road 42. It’s available free online.

The app has been used more than 500 times since its initial release on Thursday, February 21.

Border City Data, an interest group of the local tech non-profit Hackforge, has launched a web app to add independently-source traffic data to the debate around the location of the proposed new hospital.

The app allows users to compare estimated travel times from any address in Windsor/Essex to the nearest of the existing hospital locations and to the proposed County Road 42 location.

Developers Doug Sartori, Jeff Szusz and Kylie Tiffin build the app using data sourced from TravelTime Platform, a third-party commercial supplier of drive time estimates. According to TravelTime’s website, data provided is calculated by applying specific driving speeds to individual roads, allowing time for parking, traffic lights and time-of-day congestion.

“It seems to me that the debate around access to health care in Windsor Essex should be built on data, not rhetoric. Jeff, Kylie and I had fun using our skills to bring more information to the discussion.” Doug Sartori, Parallel 42 Systems

Border City Data has been an interest group of Hackforge since 2017. Besides producing data sets and apps on topics of public interest, the group regularly delivers data-centric tech talks and hands-on practical tutorials.

Based on the positive reception to Megahospital Challenge, the group is planning to produce more apps and data visualizations in the future.

The TravelTime data used in this application shows that very few people in Windsor – Essex will save more than 10 minutes drive time if the proposed hospital is built on County Road 42.