GTFS Maintenance & More Maintaining, sharing, and leveraging General Transit Feed Spec data Sean Barbeau, Ph.D. Center for Urban Transportation Research University of South Florida Aaron Antrim Seth Churnside Trillium Solutions, Inc. January 27 & 29, 2016
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GTFS Maintenance & More
Maintaining, sharing, and leveraging General Transit Feed
Spec data
Sean Barbeau, Ph.D.Center for Urban Transportation ResearchUniversity of South Florida
Aaron AntrimSeth ChurnsideTrillium Solutions, Inc.
January 27 & 29, 2016
Contents
1. Overview / project recap
2. Why online information?
3. Maintaining & disseminating GTFS
a. Maintenance options & recommendations
b. Dissemination
4. GTFS Applications
a. Trip planning
b. Planning/analysis
c. AVL
5. Questions / Contact information
Project overview
Overview
FDOT-funded project to create GTFS data for 7 Florida transit agencies
Managed by CUTR
GTFS data prepared by Trillium
● Bay Town Trolley● Sunshine Bus● Citrus County Transit● Hernando Bus
FDOT identified 7 agencies without GTFS data for this project
Overview
What is GTFS?
GTFS is the General Transit Feed Specification, which has become the defacto standard for transit schedule, geospatial, and fare data.
1. More about GTFS at https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/reference?hl=en
2. GTFS data is used in Google Maps, and in many other 3rd party applications.
Why invest in an online trip planner?
Online trip planners offer many benefits:
• Online directions provide a familiar format for directions
• Most Americans on the web• Shows transit as an alternative to driving for
some searches• Trip planner interfaces are many different
languages• Available on mobile devices• Seamless interagency transit trip planning
Let’s take a trip…
step 2(my
house)
step 1(destination)
step 3(transfer
point)
step 7(originati
on)
step 4(destination timing point)
step 5(transfer timing point)
step 6(transfer
timing point)
There are lots of opportunities to get lost. Traditional transit schedules intimidate.
Almost half of participants were unable to correctly identify bus times using standard timetables and maps.Design Elements of Effective Transit Information Materials (2004), National Center for Transit Research at the University of South Florida(http://www.nctr.usf.edu/pdf/527-12.pdf)
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project,(http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Internet_and_Daily_Life.pdf)
The third most common internet activity for Americans is to “search for a map or driving directions,” (87%) behind only email and using search engines.
Online directions provide a familiar user interface
●Retain ownership of your data!!○ Make sure that you own any GTFS datasets that the vendor
produces
●Self service tool, or full service?○ If self-service, training on using tools should be provided○ If full service, what data format does the vendor expect you to
provide changes in?○ Monthly cost for hosting data (in addition to cost of tool)?
●Who is the primary contact for Google and others - agency or vendor?
●Ensure that data is reviewed (e.g., via Google) before service changes go into effect○ Allow at least 3 weeks lead time○ Who is responsible for quality assurance (QA) - agency or
vendor?○ May require a merge of two adjacent schedule periods to
provide uninterrupted service - vendor should provide this merged dataset
Working with GTFS data maintenance vendors (2)
● Ask for guarantees of conformance with GTFS best practices and fulfillment of requirements of 3rd party applications
● Validate your data using industry tools:○ Official GTFS validation tool -
●Trillium Solutions is currently hosting your GTFS data○ e.g., http://data.trilliumtransit.com/gtfs/suntran-fl-us/suntran-fl-us.zip ○ You can continue with them following the project, or work with another vendor
●We have registered the Trillium URLs with leading GTFS feed directories:
○ GTFS Data Exchange - http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com/ ○ Transitfeeds.com - http://transitfeeds.com/
●If you change vendors, simply contact the above sites and provide the new links
○ You’ll also need to let Google, Bing, and any other apps know about the new URL
●Future directories you should check out:○ Transitland - https://transit.land/feed-registry/○ Florida Transit Data Exchange (FTDE) - Contact Diane Quigley at
How to share vehicle positions and arrival estimates?
1.Include RFP language requesting GTFS-realtime[1] or SIRI[2] Application Programming Interface (API) when procuring an AVL system
○ Make sure you retain ownership of your data○ Require that your real-time IDs match your schedule GTFS data○ Require that your GTFS and GTFS-realtime data are updated in sync○ Request the timepoint field in stop_times.txt - it’s increasingly important for real-
time
2.Prior to accepting product, test API with at least one app○ e.g., Google Maps
Already have an AVL system, but not a realtime API?●A good read - “Legacy AVL system? It’s okay, join the club,”