Re: Bugs w/ GTFS Frequencies Demo Transit Agency, and Schedule Viewer

[Transit001]

Hello,

Following up on the response to my previous thread I am noticing that
the Demo Transit Agency demo feed displayed in Beatty, Nevada has been
changed to reflect that the "Service runs every 30 mins" (as well as
showing a new warning that it's a demo). I don't know if just the
feed data itself was changed or if the Google Transit backend was
changed -- but there still seems to be some issues with this. Now,
the calculation of a route there using "Public Transit" seems to be
"agnostic" to departure/arrival time -- it doesn't generate any
meaningful departure/arrival times from the information in the
Frequencies table, and as before it still displays the same
information no matter what desired departure/arrival time is entered.
The trip details don't show specific times, unless keeping it general
to "every 30 minutes" is the intention -- but what is really
noticeably a problem is that under "Alternate routes - Suggested
trips", it shows a trip as existing at the desired time even if it's
outside the range specified in the Frequencies table.

For example, try entering "North Ave at N A Ave Beatty, NV" as the
source and "W Cottonwood Dr at A Ave S Beatty, NV" as the destination,
with a desired departure/arrival time at 2:00 a.m. (which is outside
of the time ranges in the Frequencies table) -- it shows the bus trip
with the duration, in an almost misleading way, because it's not even
calculating the next valid departure time (some time after 6 a.m. of
the same day).

Furthermore, I tried downloading and running the current feed data for
this feed in Schedule Viewer, and it still has the same problem as
before -- that it only looks at the absolute times around 6 a.m. and
ignores what's in the Frequencies table. Whatever was changed for the
live feed is not reflected when running it locally. I re-downloaded
the tools just to make sure. This probably indicates it was in the
back-end.

So what is really the status of how the Frequencies table is
interpreted? This is a bug, right? Can a fix be made for the
Schedule Viewer as well?

Thanks

[T Brown]

On Feb 22, 11:18 pm, Transit001 <abcdz...@gmail.com> wrote:

Transit001, are you building a feed on behalf of an agency or an
interested 3rd party? Care to share which agency?

> Hello,
>
> Following up on the response to my previous thread I am noticing that
> the Demo Transit Agency demo feed displayed in Beatty, Nevada has been
> changed to reflect that the "Service runs every 30 mins" (as well as
> showing a new warning that it's a demo).  I don't know if just the
> feed data itself was changed or if the Google Transit backend was
> changed

The feed was fixed.

> -- but there still seems to be some issues with this.  Now,
> the calculation of a route there using "Public Transit" seems to be
> "agnostic" to departure/arrival time -- it doesn't generate any
> meaningful departure/arrival times from the information in the
> Frequencies table, and as before it still displays the same
> information no matter what desired departure/arrival time is entered.
> The trip details don't show specific times, unless keeping it general
> to "every 30 minutes" is the intention -- but what is really
> noticeably a problem is that under "Alternate routes - Suggested
> trips", it shows a trip as existing at the desired time even if it's
> outside the range specified in the Frequencies table.
>
> For example, try entering "North Ave at N A Ave Beatty, NV" as the
> source and "W Cottonwood Dr at A Ave S Beatty, NV" as the destination,
> with a desired departure/arrival time at 2:00 a.m. (which is outside
> of the time ranges in the Frequencies table) -- it shows the bus trip
> with the duration, in an almost misleading way, because it's not even
> calculating the next valid departure time (some time after 6 a.m. of
> the same day).

Yes, we should change the UI to display the start time for these
routes. The easy way to avoid this, if you know the exact times for
each trip, is to list all trips with exact times.

> Furthermore, I tried downloading and running the current feed data for
> this feed in Schedule Viewer, and it still has the same problem as
> before -- that it only looks at the absolute times around 6 a.m. and
> ignores what's in the Frequencies table.  Whatever was changed for the
> live feed is not reflected when running it locally.  I re-downloaded
> the tools just to make sure.  This probably indicates it was in the
> back-end.
>
> So what is really the status of how the Frequencies table is
> interpreted?

Do you have specific questions about interpreting it after searching
this group and gtfs-changes for past discussions?

>  This is a bug, right?  Can a fix be made for the
> Schedule Viewer as well?

The schedule viewer is developed independently of the transit product
at maps.google.com. It is open source so anyone can file a bug or fix
it. It is a simple view of the GTFS data and does not attempt to
interpret the frequencies table but you are welcome to improve it. See
http://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed

[Transit001]

Thank you for this information. I am now seeing that the Demo Transit
Authority is (presumably temporarily) gone, as following the link to
the demo produces only a walking route, so I'm assuming this is
because it's in the process of being fixed again. Based on what you
said about the Schedule Viewer, it appears that I will indeed not be
able to use it to test any Frequencies data, so if I do need to test
Frequencies data as I am developing the feed, would it be possible to
register the feed into a live test before it is actually complete? (I
know that setting up a private test session on a feed is one of the
steps for an agency to participate in Google Transit, but in this case
I am wondering if the test session can be set up "prematurely" so
someone can test it in the live system as it is being built rather
than relying on the Schedule Viewer.)

Which brings me to the answer about the transit agency -- yes, I'm
trying to get a transit agency in, but this isn't the same e-mail
address I'm using for those communications; for now I'm using this
identity for the public discussions.

Thanks

> interpret the frequencies table but you are welcome to improve it. Seehttp://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Transit001]

OK, that was strange... the Demo Transit Agency just came back. But
the aforementioned issues with departure/arrival time are as of yet
still present.

> > interpret the frequencies table but you are welcome to improve it. Seehttp://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed-Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -