[Talk-transit] towards values (was: NAPTAN database)

[Peter J Stoner]

In message <20090222125156.GA2715 at whoosh.cosgrove.lan>
          Simon Ward <simon at bleah.co.uk> wrote:

> On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 08:00:53PM +0000, Thomas Wood wrote:
>> [Roger wrote:]
>>>                  .... and in some locations I can think of, the concept
>>> of "towards" would be totally confusing because stops are used by services
>>> which are heading to quite different destinations

> Then either ”towards• is not suitable for these locations, or should
> allow for multiple values.

> I did come across at least one sign in Bradford listing multiple
> destinations[1].

> [1]: http://bleah.co.uk/~simon/photos/osm/white-abbey-road-stop.jpg

>>>                                        (and the same destination
>>> can be served from stops which are opposite each other).  In the case
>>> referred to it may be that all three listed services do go to Levenshulme -
>>> but that is often not the case

> In Manchester, the ”towards• information given is a single destination
> that is often not the final destination, and not always the destination
> of all buses that stop at that stop (the road continues towards
> Levenshulme in the case I referred to, but the 53 service actually
> takes the next right and goes towards Longsight).

>>> (and if you are to include this information,
>>> how are you going to handle service-specific "towards"?

>> I have not considered this yet, I'll let the mailing list handle the
>> discussion of that.

> I would consider ”towards• advisory information at best, and not try to
> handle service?specific towards at all.  Handle the aforementioned cases
> where the information is indicated on the sign, but once you start
> having to look at timetables to get the information you‘re probably
> going too far into service information territory.  Leave that to the
> service information providers.

> 

Simon

I am also new to the group but have been dipping into the group 
archives for some time and am also a keen OSM mapper.

The examples being quoted in West Midlands and Greater Manchester are 
interesting but they are two areas of the UK that are working to bring 
their systems more in line with the UK NaPTAN standards.  Therefore it 
is best not to deduce too much about UK wide practice from them, 
although of course it is necessary to be aware of the range of current 
practice out there.

"Towards ..." is permitted content in the indicator field in NaPTAN 
but I doubt that in any of the examples quoted you will find it in 
that field in NaPTAN.

In my own contributions to the map I add the Route=Bus tags which I 
can see will be very useful downstream.  I have not added any service 
numbers or names from the bus stop flags but if anyone is prepared to 
do that, the comparison with NaPTAN and sources of service information  
could be useful in identifying differences.   We hope one day that 
what is on the flag will exactly match what is in NaPTAN,... and what 
is on the ticket, and in the real time system  etc.

Best wishes


-- 
Peter J Stoner
UK Regional Coordinator
Traveline                       www.travelinedata.org.uk

a trading name of
Intelligent Travel Solutions Ltd  company number 3826797
Drury House, 34-43 Russell Street, LONDON WC2B 5HA