[Talk-transit] GTFS and the like

[Barbeau, Sean]

As part of a research project<http://www.locationaware.usf.edu/ongoing-research/projects/open-transit-data/> in 2011, we developed GO-Sync an open-source tool to synchronize bus stop data between a GTFS dataset and OSM:
https://code.google.com/p/gtfs-osm-sync/

The main idea was to help the transit agency improve the accuracy of bus stop geocoding, and amenity catalog, by crowdsourcing this information.  So, the tool has the ability to diff a GTFS dataset and OSM, and produce a new GTFS dataset with the merged attributes.  Please feel free to try it out, and additional contributions would be welcome.

We determined that timetable information wasn't really well-suited for storage in OSM directly due to OSM's lack of relational data support.  Additionally, the information changes fairly frequently (usually at least quarterly), which means the data would need to be updated frequently.  If you also try attaching transit service to roads in OSM, this would mean programmatically updating OSM relations, which seemed far too error prone.

GTFS is a widely-accepted format for transit data at this point, and in our opinion relying directly on the GTFS dataset produced by the agency for timetable and other transit information is the best practice.  This also implies that any improvements to the information need to be fed back to the agency for integration into the GTFS dataset, hence the creation of the GO-Sync tool.

Sean

Sean J. Barbeau, Ph.D.
Principal Mobile Software Architect for R&D
Center for Urban Transportation Research
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, CUT100 | Tampa, FL 33620-5375
813.974.7208 | 813.974.5168 (fax) | barbeau at cutr.usf.edu<mailto:barbeau at cutr.usf.edu> | QR Code<http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=350x350&chld=L&choe=UTF-8&chl=MECARD%3AN%3ASean+J.+Barbeau+Ph.D.%3BORG%3AUniversity+of+South+Florida%3BTEL%3A8139747208%3BURL%3Ahttp%5C%3A%2F%2Fwww.locationaware.usf.edu%2F%3BEMAIL%3Abarbeau%40cutr.usf.edu%3BNOTE%3APrincipal+Mobile+Software+Architect+for+R%26D%3B%3B>
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