Introduction
Bloomington’s Experiences with
Google Transit
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City Government
Community
University
Google Transit
A
My Agency
B
Google Transit Partner Program
agency.txt
G oogle
T ransit
F eed
agency_name
agency_url
agency_timezone
…
shapes.txt
shape_id
shape_lat
shape_lon
sequence
calendar_date.txt
service_id
date
exception_type
S pecification
routes.txt
route_id
route_short_name
route_long_name
route_type
…
trips.txt
route_id
service_id
trip_id
…
stops.txt
stop_id
stop_name
stop_lat
stop_lon
…
stop_times.txt
trip_id
arrivial_time
departure_time
stop_id
stop_sequence
…
calendar.txt
service_id
monday
tuesday
wedesday
…
start_date
end_date
frequencies.txt
transfers.txt
fare_attributes.txt
feed_info.txt
fare_rules.txt
Google Documentation
Where is the data?
Word
This
busFiles, Spreadsheets, PDFs
stops at
all 548
stops!
Stop
Order
stop_times.txt
Published Schedule
trip_id,arrival_time,departure_time,stop_id,stop_seque
nce,stop_headsign
BT1N_1,6:30:00,6:30:00,668,1,BHS North
BT1N_1,6:35:00,6:35:00,500,2,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,501,3,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,207,4,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,503,5,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,504,6,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,647,7,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,646,8,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,505,9,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,507,10,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,206,11,Downtown
BT1N_1,6:41:00,6:41:00,210,12,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,211,13,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,98,14,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,213,15,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,204,16,Downtown
BT1N_1,6:46:00,6:46:00,214,17,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,215,18,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,216,19,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,217,20,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,218,21,Downtown
BT1N_1,6:51:00,6:51:00,219,22,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,200,23,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,184,24,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,185,25,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,186,26,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,187,27,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,225,28,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,188,29,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,226,30,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,227,31,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,228,32,Downtown
BT1N_1,,,229,33,Downtown
BT1N_1,7:02:00,7:10:00,230,34,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,489,35,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,509,36,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,194,37,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,510,38,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,112,39,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,113,40,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,114,41,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,221,42,BHS North
BT1N_1,7:15:00,7:15:00,201,43,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,513,44,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,514,45,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,202,46,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,203,47,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,515,48,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,516,49,BHS North
BT1N_1,7:21:00,7:21:00,517,50,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,674,51,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,675,52,BHS North
BT1N_1,7:26:00,7:26:00,205,53,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,518,54,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,519,55,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,644,56,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,521,57,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,645,58,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,522,59,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,523,60,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,524,61,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,209,62,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,666,63,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,673,64,BHS North
BT1N_1,,,667,65,BHS North
BT1N_1,7:30:00,7:30:00,668,66,BHS North
BT1N_1,7:35:00,7:35:00,500,67,Downtown
Building the Shapes
Building the Feed
Building the Feed
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t280/Dsnesnintendo/BuildingEatingBus.jpg
Building the Feed
All Trips
Into Single
Worksheet
All Stop Times
Into Single Worksheet
Route Schedules
All Route Shapes
Into a Single
Worksheet
Individual Route
Shapes
Tools
http://www.myisco.com/images/catalog%20tools%20image.jpg
Feed Testing
• Feed Validator
Feed Testing
• Feed Validator
• Schedule Viewer
Feed Testing
• Feed Validator
• Schedule Viewer
• KML Writer
Feed Testing
• Feed Validator
• Schedule Viewer
• KML Writer
• Random Queries
Launch Process
Sign Up
Go Live!
Post Feed
Resolve QA
Issues
QA Process
Preview Period
Pre-launch Checklist
Trip planning
Organizing your data
Standardizing the feed
Project
Lessons
Are the right people part
of your project?
Robust QC as
close as possible
to data
collection.
Get your data
organized!
Help Is Out There
Google Transit Partner Support
googletransitdatafeed
Demo
Laura Haley – haleyl@bloomington.in.gov
Chuck Winkle – winklec@bloomington.in.gov
Extra: Presentation Zen
(http://vimeo.com/39505565)
X
(http://www.ted.com/tedx)
Bloomington’s Experience with Google Transit - Summary
Contact Information
Laura Haley – GIS Manager – haleyl@bloomington.in.gov
Chuck Winkle – GIS Specialist – winklec@bloomington.in.gov
City of Bloomington Information & Technology Services http://bloomington.in.gov/gis
Key Points
Google Transit provides directions using Public Transportation on Google Maps.
Google does not build it; Google gets data from Transit Agencies participating in
the Google Transit Partners Program (GTPP).
Agencies provide data based on Google Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)
GTFS consists of 13 comma delimited text files. Not all elements of the
specification are required. Google does a good job of providing documentation
and examples.
The basic element of the data model is a trip, which is “a sequence of two or
more stops that occur at a specific time.” Most traditional routes will have multiple
trips throughout the day, but all trips on the route may not be the same. Stops
must be identified in sequence per trip.
Bloomington Transit did not have a definite list of stops. Most of our effort went
to building stops and stop times files. Stop times are not required for all
stops. Google will estimate times for those missing. But, more stop times will
improve accuracy. There is a frequencies file that will greatly simplify your
feed if you have buses that depart from the starting point at the same time
each hour or a fixed number of minutes all day.
Mapping related parts of building a GT Feed are stop latitude longitude
coordinates (required) and route shapes (optional). Shapes help improve
time estimates between stops and provide accurate display of route on
Google Maps. You need a shape for each route trip. Shapes coordinates
must be in order of travel direction along the trip.
Transit agencies may have route management software or other software that
have the data you need to build a feed. The GTPP has downloadable tools
for extracting data from common transit management software into GTFS.
If building your own data set, keep your data organized. In order to review your
data you need to be able to view it in a meaningful way. Bloomington used a
series of spreadsheets for each GTFS file and further broke down stop
schedules and shapes by route. They also included other information such
as service schedule, stop types and time point flags to help visualize
relationships.
Google and the partner community provide a variety of tools to test and view
data through the googletransitdatafeed project web site. There are also
tools to manage data, extract feeds, publish schedules, and create shapes
from GIS here.
Whatever method you use to manage your data, be sure to document it. There
can be times that you do not touch your data for a long time once you have a
good feed.
Include QA/QC throughout your feed building project. Don’t wait until the end to
test. Bloomington has some complex schedules because of the university. It
may have been better for us to build, validate, and review the feed one route
at a time.
There is a private preview mode available so that designated accounts can
view and test your feed using Google Maps before it goes live to the public.
Bloomington’s experience is that trip recommendations contain excessive
walking. Including more stop times may improve this. Google Maps now has
an option to base trips on least walking as an alternative to best trip which is
solely based on time.
Bloomington Transit can now have a trip planning tool on their website and has
a single source for their route and stop data. Public GTFS data can be used
by third-party developers to build transit related apps including mobile apps.
Consider posting your feed on a web server and see what happens.
Make use of the Google Transit community to help you. GTPP includes several
user forums that discuss issues and ideas. googletransitdatafeed and the
GTFS Data Exchange contain lists of public feeds with links to their host
agencies. Check out their websites on how they use GT for trip planning
and GTFS for apps.
Feed Testing & Reviewing Tools
FeedValidaor
ScheduleViewer & Schedulator
KML Writer
Random Query Generator
* available from googletransitdatafeed
(http://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed)
References
Google Transit Partners Program http://maps.google.com/help/maps/transit/partners/
Google Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) http://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs
googletransitdatafeed - http://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed
Google Transit Data Exchange -http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com/
XLS Tools for Google Transit - https://sites.google.com/site/rheitzman/
Extras
Talking Tech: Presentation Zen For Everyone - Dave Bouwman and Bryan
Noyle (DTS) http://vimeo.com/39505565 (video) &
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/765191/DevSummit/Talking-Tech-Zen.pdf (summary
sheet)
TED (Technology Entertainment Design “Ideas Worth Spreading”) http://www.ted.com & TEDx (Independent Organized TED Events) http://www.ted.com/tedx