lack of accurate shape records

[Bob Heitzman]

I assume shape records are used to draw the lines when Google
Transit(GT) displays a suggested route.

I also assume GT just connects the stop points and draws a line if the
shape records are absent.

Besides getting the route line to conform to the actual underlying
streets are the shape records used for anything else?

[Joe Hughes]

Hi Bob,

Google uses the shape information provided in GTFS feeds to draw
nicer-looking route lines on Google Maps and in Google Earth. Other
(non-Google) applications that use GTFS feeds may have other uses for
the shapes, but that part of the spec exists primarily to enable
transit applications to draw accurate paths for routes on maps.

Joe

[Aaron Antrim]

I would also appreciate more information about the way shapes.txt is
used by Google Transit. For example, when if the shape path doesn't
correspond exactly to stop locations (ie: the path is drawn in the
middle or other side of the street and the stop location is on the
side?)

[Devin Braun]

San Diego MTS recently added shapes to our feed. I've found that when a
stop isn't near the shape, GT falls back on "connecting the dots."

Devin Braun
San Diego MTS

[Bob Heitzman]

Maybe someone in the know could post the tolerance - how close to a
shape line does a stop need to be? There needs to be quite a bit of
slack because if you have two stops on opposite sides of a multi-lane
street the distance of each to a centerline could be quite large.