[Talk-transit] maintenance is very time consuming on public transport routes

Paul Schulz paul at mawsonlakes.org
Tue Dec 3 23:00:37 UTC 2013


On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 9:40 AM, Arun Ganesh <arun.planemad at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 3:55 AM, Jo <winfixit at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> That sounds like a totally different ballpark, which will never fit in
>> the organised way it's done here. So the model as it is now doesn't fit and
>> what I'm proposing doesn't fit either. Are there even fixed positions where
>> the buses would stop? How do you know where the bus will take you? If it's
>> on demand, it's more like a (shared) taxi.
>>
>
> To be fair, the problem is not that it is unorganised, but regularly
> changing with routes being added, removed, renamed and merged due to
> varying demand, politics, fleet upgradations, road improvements and a bunch
> of other factors.
>
> Marked bus stops exist, but the public unofficially shifts it by standing
> a little ahead or before based on convenience if the stop is at a bad
> location blocking road traffic (bus bays don't existent).
>
> Big cities have a complex network of routes and service types that may
> number 200-500 total variations and since there is never any official
> online information portals, one cannot definitively say whats happening
> unless they are at the bus stop and find the latest from someone on the
> ground.
>
> Even creating and maintaining an accurate GTFS feed is a big burden. A
> schema that would just enable bus route road type mapping would atleast be
> an intermediate solution for many developing countries to have a basic
> level of useful details onto the map since the bus route road network is
> something that changes less frequently than the routes.
>
> --
>  Arun Ganesh
> (planemad) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Planemad>
>  <http://j.mp/ArunGanesh>
>

Saying this though, if OSM map data for the road network is used in the
planning software that is used by the Transport Authorities/Tranport
Companies (that eventually exports to GTFS) the output would better for
importing and updating route data in OSM.

There are a couple of business drivers here for using OSM for this purpose.
The commercially available rotatable map data is expensive, both initially
and with additional releases, and the data is never up to date for new
transport areas, which is not just an issue for developing countries.
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