[Talk-ca] Bus route idle thoughts

[john whelan]

There has been a certain amount of traffic about the desirability to
render bus routes on a map in the transit section of osm but there are
unfortunately some drawbacks so I'm looking for ideas on how to get
round them.

First GTFS data files are available with bus stop and routing
information in them and there are some tools to allow bus stops to be
imported into OSM.

The first issue is licensing, but I suspect this can be overcome in time.

Second more importantly the bus stop locations aren't as precise as we
would like.  Some agencies are as bad as 200 meters between the
physical location and the reported location.  If I use the GTFS term
if bus stops have stop_codes on them then the local mapper can correct
the position on the map.

Third big agencies change the bus routes frequently.  However if we
can identify the stop_codes and link them to the stop_ids then we can
build the route by linking the bus stops on a particular route.  I've
been playing and have developed a method to edit an OSM file on the
local machine using Visual Basic, which means it is fairly simple to
find all the bus stops and change the route numbers programatically
when the new schedule comes out given a list of bus stops on the
route.  You can also join them in a "way" so they can be rendered as a
visible route on a map.  The big problem here is getting a copy of the
osm file for a city.  There are limits to the size of file that JOSM
will download.  Any suggestions?

Fourth - Rendering
http://www.gravitystorm.co.uk/shine/archives/2008/05/29/look-ma-no-hands/
the last map on the page.  The challenge is to get more options on the
rendering side.  Perhaps a downloadable city .osm file that can be
rendered locally with Maperitive or something similar?  My local
transit system has a map for normal routes, one for express routes,
faster but more expensive, one for the early morning 4-6 am service
which a lot of bus drivers use to get to work, one for peak hour
normal fare routes, and one for school trips etc.  Routes that do not
run seven days a week are rendered differently than ones that do.
Some routes have cycle racks on the front of the buses so there are
some possibilities here for adding value with additional information.

So the problem that stands out is getting the raw osm file down to the
PC probably in a zip format rather than a rendered tile which may not
contain the information we need.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Cheerio John