[Talk-transit] GTFS, tools and pt tags generally

[Stephen Sprunk]

Dear fellow mappers,

First, GO-Sync and various JOSM plugins for transit do not seem to be 
maintained anymore, with the last updates (other than minor API tweaks) 
being several years ago.  They also _all_ crash or malfunction when I 
attempt to import my local transit agency's GTFS feed, and most seem to 
be oriented toward bus stops/routes only, with poor or no support for 
other transit modes.

Is anyone interested in updating these tools?  I can provide lots of 
input and testing, but my Java skills aren't where they need to be to 
attempt this alone.  Also, I think it'd be good to combine the JOSM 
plugins so there's only one thing to maintain--and increase the odds 
that someone will actually do so going forward.  And that/they should be 
synchronized with GO-Sync, so using different tools in the same area 
doesn't cause problems.

Second, I've noticed there's disagreement on what tags to use, e.g. 
taginfo shows both gtfs_stop_id and gtfs:stop_id; the latter seems to 
better match other imported tagsets (e.g. tiger:).  The GTFS wiki page 
doesn't provide any hints on what should map where, and I'm happy to add 
my ideas on that, but that implies someone updating the tools to match.

Third, what's the Transport layer supposed to show, and what tags does 
it look for?  It seems to highlight and label only bus routes (using 
relations, which I read elsewhere Mapnik can't do!) and highlight bus 
stop areas; it doesn't seem to show anything related to rail, including 
within a stop area it's obviously already highlighting for bus stops, 
which seems rather odd.  Is this by design, and if so why?  If not, how 
do we get it fixed?

Finally, I've noticed that a lot of areas have inconsistent tagging, 
e.g. some stops/stations are tagged using the legacy scheme only, some 
with the Oxomoa scheme only, and some with both.  This would seem to 
make it very difficult for renderers to do their job right.  Is this the 
right list to discuss mass edits to add the missing tags, or would it be 
local lists for each area, or somewhere else?

S

-- 
Stephen Sprunk      "Those people who think they know everything
CCIE #3723         are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
K5SSS                                             --Isaac Asimov