Mobile computing is starting to grow at astronomical rates throughout the world. The software that runs on these devices are often referred to as apps. Many individuals are familiar with apps for smartphones, but apps aren't limited to only these locations. Web apps are starting to appear with the use HTML5, and future apps operating only through browsers are starting to appear. Apps are profilerating everywhere.

Until the Summer of 2010, transportation apps have focused primarily on navigation systems, crowd sourcing for traffic congestion identification and looking up mass transit routes and schedules. These app types are causing previous technologies, such as proprietary hardware, navigation systems and traditional freeway management systems to be disrupted. Previous ways in which this information was used and gathered will never be the same. This disruption can now be applied to the more traditional data collection process for transportation and traffic engineering professionals.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of these apps will not be the way that transportation data is collected, but how it will be aggregated and shared among devices and servers to create a dynamic transportation data system. It is all just starting!